Songs! A Song From Your Preteen Years
We haven’t done one of these for a long time, but here goes:
This week’s prompt is “A song from your preteen years”.
This one was everywhere when it first came out. It was their second single and second #1 hit, and made it clear that these guys were for real (even if nothing about them was). And it remains bright and fun and charming to this day. Also, Neil Diamond is one hell of a songwriter.
I'm a Believer - The Monkees
We had a very cute black Lab at the time, and I use to sing to her:
Then I saw her face
She’s a retriever
Once again, in your responses use a URL like:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KXctarOxRz8
Youtube’s suggested sharing format
https://youtu.be/KXctarOxRz8
doesn’t appear to work in comments. Also, put the URL on a line by itself.
We had an old 45 of Neil Sedaka’s “Laughter in the Rain”.
I was about 6 or 7 and I thought the funniest thing in the world was to play that song at 33 RPM instead of 45 RPM. Sometimes switching gears between the two.
Well, my sister went and told on me because I was listening to the song wrong and mom came down and told me to quit it and put it on the right speed and listen to the song like a normal person. It was during the instrumental around 1:50 and I put it on 33 RPM. “There! Isn’t that better?” mom said and we listened to a slowed down sax solo and my sister stood there smugly as I waited, tensely, for the moment at 2:08. A slowed down “I feel the warmth of her haaaaaaaaand in mine!”
And I cracked up. This was one of the greatest comedic moments of my life to that point and I was there for it.
My sister yelled at my mom, my mom yelled at me, and I was not allowed to use the stereo for the rest of the week.
But it was worth it.Report
I guess if I was about 6 or 7, it wasn’t yet an “old” one.Report
When I was little, I used to play 33 records at 78. The normal melody becomes high-pitched gibberish, but sometimes the sped-up, pitch-raised bass line becomes an unexpected new melody. Also, I’d make an off-center hole for the record to spin around. The alternating speed-up and slow-down that results is also hilarious.Report
While there were a few records in the house, moms jazz, some Beatles, John Denver (dad is tone deaf, so he had things like the Battle of Midway…) it was my grandfather playing Blondies Parallel Lines that did me in. While I think he liked it for the cover mostly (it was bought for him by his sister, who loved rock and roll even thought she was a generation older) we loved it! 20 years later and I made the pilgrimage to CBGB’s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGU_4-5RaxUReport
totally this one!Report
Some of my earliest musical memories of pop songs were on the AM radio stations, where they played soft, sunshine pop songs like “Up, Up and Away” by the Fifth Dimension, which came out before I was born. Somewhere along the line I remember getting some 45s from the K-Mart, like this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cB5VQAAOYkReport
YES!Report
The only song ever inspired by team tennis.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIxOkJQ2J7EReport
I was going to post “Free to be you and Me” which I remember playing all the time as a (checks liner notes), hmmn, 5–6 year old(?)
But then I listened to it and am now seeking professional help.Report
1968, on our way to a family reunion in Minnesota, I and a couple of my brothers were picked up at the airport by my older cousin.
As a native of Southern California, it was my first experience with Midwest weather, specifically thunderstorms. I remember how bizarre it was to have suffocating humidity and heat, then minutes later cool rain, which turned into gale force winds.
We piled into her battered old VW Beetle and drove into the teeth of the storm with winds so powerful that with the pedal floored, the tiny little car shook and made maybe 15 miles per hour.
I still remember this was playing on the radio through its tinny AM radio:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCKXxJRgVgcReport
This song has been played within an inch of its life but was the first song I really remember WANTING to own for myself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9jhDwxt22YReport
I remember my (older) brother getting some pre-teen type magazine around the time he was in maybe 6th grade, and along with the pictures of van conversions (shagtastic!) was a blurb about Joan Jet going solo, or something along those lines. That mixed with X and Blondie, sent me down a path.Report
My earliest memory of a recorded song is hearing this played on a tableside jukebox in a diner in New Jersey, some time around 1960. It probably never happened.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIDX18Xl16s
Report