Soundtracks Of Your Life

Certain pieces of music provide a backdrop to your life in that particular moment of time.
Meat Loaf 's BAT OUT OF HELL takes me back to 1982' times of youthful exuberance. Cher's I BELIEVE 1990s Sheffield  and Audrey Hepburn's MOON RIVER will always make me think of courting The Prof, in a time he had hair and I had a waist!
Julia Fordham's HAPPY EVER AFTER conjures up happy days with my best friend Nu and Mario Lanza's DRINKING SONG transports me to a mad cap car journey home with my sisters.

Music, like certain smells, flash memories through your mind.

This morning I heard this song FROM 2007 on the radio. Snow Patrol's CHASING CARS saturated the airways when I drove to and fro from home to the vets and the animal hospital in Cheshire. It was a time of great distress as my first dog Finlay was undergoing various tests for a sudden neurological deterioration and every car journey including the one that necessitated me returning his body home for burial was punctuated by this melancholy song played quietly on the radio.
The song can still, after nine years, reduce me to tears.


What is the first soundtrack of your life that leaps to your mind.
Why do you remember it?
I'd be interested to know.

88 comments:

  1. Most of the old Doo Wop music. As to the smells? I can still walk into my elementary school after more than 60 years and that smell is the same...takes me back.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Well that makes sense .......

      Delete
  2. Slide by the Goo-Goo Dolls always makes me think of the Hubby and Babylon by David Gray can calm me down faster than a glass of wine. Rocking out to Man in the Box by Alice in Chains on my way to work always makes people look. A 54 yo handbanger is a sight to see. :) Crank it up!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tami
      https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yP4qdefD2To

      Delete
  3. 1960 - I was 6 years old, and the song "theme from a summer place" was the top seller. I remember my grandmother humming along to that song on the radio daily.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rt7SPm7N6D8

      This used to be a theme for a BBC radio show but I cannot remember which

      Delete
  4. My mother used to sing 'The Mockingbird Song' as she went about her daily business. It still makes me stop in my tracks if I hear the song now.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sorry, not The Mockingbird Song, but 'Mocking bird Hill'. Quite different.

      Delete
    2. See this cro
      https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8J3YEgxntoQ

      Delete
    3. Yup, that's the one. I think it must have been in a show she was in. She used to sing it all the time. Pure happiness.

      Delete
    4. Oh my goodness! I remember that particularly as I loved it as a little girl. My father had the radio station play it for me on my birthday in 1955. Les Paul and Mary Ford...

      Delete
  5. The song A Sewing machine and Buttons and Bows and I am a little girl again. Three Steps to Heaven and I am 12. Anything by The Beatles and I am a young teenager. Baby Love and I am expecting my first child; Lady Madonna and I am having my second; The Air that I Breathe and I am having my third. Monday Monday and I am a young mum singing along while I clean. Lots of songs and smells and I am transported back. Cannot hear Everyone Hurts without lashes of tears. Interesting subject. Love Andie xxx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Just for you
      https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2rDdTjaDGeg

      Delete
  6. The song "Bloody Well Right" takes me right back to my high school cafeteria. The sights, the smells everything! High school was lots of fun so I crank this song up when I hear it on the radio.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2rDdTjaDGeg

      Delete
  7. Diamonds are Forever by Shirley Bassey takes me instantly back to when I was 12 and watching the Bond film of the same name in the cinema where my dad worked. Being given popcorn, sweets and choc ices by the usherette and being suspicious, without knowing why, about her overfriendliness and generosity. I soon found out why - dad left us shortly after and moved in with her!

    ReplyDelete
  8. It's amazing how effectively music can conjure up memories. My earliest memories of songs include Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline" and "American Pie" by Don McLean -- I was in kindergarten!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's almost as though a picture is being painted

      Delete
  9. Trying to remember the earliest is a challenge, there are so many over the decades. My family lived in Phoenix Arizona the winter I was in the first grade, my oldest brother received a transistor radio as a Christmas gift, probably something like "California Girls" by the Beach Boys would be the earliest memory that takes me back to the place and time.

    ReplyDelete
  10. my brother's "Best of 1986" was the soundtrack to a road trip across Australia Sydney- Perth and back. Think "French Kissing in the USA"

    Genesis for my final year of high school

    John Lennon for a road trip in the early 2000s because we left all the cassettes at home but that one was in the car.

    Chasing Cars reminds me of a young girl I worked with at that time, she loved it

    ReplyDelete
  11. 'Hunter' by Dido is the song that takes me straight back to my decision to leave my first husband. The whole album 'No Angel' is the soundtrack to my breaking out and becoming ME.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32FEUaiEeck

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am enjoying finding and getting these links thanks sue

      Delete
  12. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itjf4gCTvwM

    ReplyDelete
  13. Not the first but just a song I love more than any other I think....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Now you must say why?

      Delete
    2. It's the greatest song they ever wrote - my personal all time Abba favourite - and it excites me whenever I listen to it. I love the lyric too, dark and dangerous. It just makes me want to spring to my feet and dance.

      Delete
  14. When my daughter aged 4 was battling leukaemia and I went to the funeral of another child . I will always love you was played , it reduces me to tears every time

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes funeral music is. Now suddenly important the less people want or ( more importantly need) hymns to comfort them .
      Often funeral music is more important than their service itself

      Delete
  15. So many. When I was in the deepest despair as a child and then a teenager in my house of sorrows and secrets, it was the music that saved me. The music of that time which was wonderful and dangerous and spoke of love and the opening of minds. The Beatles, for sure. The Rolling Stones. The Beach Boys. Motown. I feel myself incredibly lucky for growing up when all of that was happening. Not sure I'd be here if not for all of them. And then Joni Mitchell and Crosby, Stills, and Nash. Neil Young. Of course, Bob Dylan. Of course. So many. So much.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Music seemed to be a healer for you as films were for me

      Delete
    2. Yes. We probably were both able to realize that there was a whole other world out there and we could be part of it. Books, too, for me.

      Delete
  16. I was so very lucky to have been sent to San Francisco by my parents in the 60s .. then on my own I moved to Los Angeles ... then I decided to visit someone in NYC ...
    So we have The Doors, heavy metal, Beatles etc ... then I met my husband who was friends with a jazz musician from San Francisco so we got to see him when he came to NYC.
    and you can imagine the people I met and listened to in those days in NYC .. Miles Davis etc
    Lovely memories. My life soundtrack will be a 3 CD Set :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think you should write a few chapters of this exciting life on your blog!

      Delete
  17. Sound track from South Pacific when I was 3 or 4 is the first music I remember - I am happy asI hear my sisters singing along. Rocket Man for the summer I left home at 17 - I can feel the air con and smell the glazed donuts at the cafeteria when I hear that song. Anything Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Joni Mitchell, Carly Simon, or Carol King and I am back at university. Lionel Ritchie and the Commodores and I am dancing with my first husband - my only happy memory of him. Dire Straits sees me through graduate school with help from Stevie Ray Vaughn in the early days of my career. I think Ms. Moon and I are of an age because her picks are mine too.

    Interesting to see your readers' responses!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Smells and perfumes. Evening in Paris, my mother; Pagan and Phul Nana school and work; Spicy by Avon wild, wild sex; Johnsons baby talc, obviously babies (had to come after the wild sex!) and now Angel which is my perfume. Love Andie xxx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Was wild sex a perfume or a memory?

      Delete
  19. When I was a little girl, maybe 7 or 8 years old, I loved The Police and had a huge crush on Sting. Message in a Bottle, King of Pain, Don't Stand So Close to Me, Walking on the Moon.....I remember spending Saturday nights at my grandparents' house and staying up late so I could watch music videos on their huge old tv with the sound turned down low. The early 80's were the heyday of music videos and music from that era is the soundtrack of my childhood.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sting was the cute one for sure...that was before he went all weird

      Delete
  20. The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face by Roberta Flack. That's when I met my now husband for the first time and I knew he was the one.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Anything by Tina Turner in the eighties - my mother was a huge fan of hers, and she played her songs constantly. We were living as ex pats in Saudi Arabia at the time, so it takes me to a time of bare feet on cool floors on sweltering days, with Tina rocking in the background.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Funny what you remember eh? Feet on cold floors?

      Delete
    2. The ex pat housing was always beautiful, with cool tile floors in the halls and kitchen. Walking bare foot was a good trick to keep cool.

      Delete
    3. Winnie lowers her nipples on cold concrete to cool off x

      Delete
  22. Joe Jackson-Different for girls. For the memories of my first year at secondary school.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Certain songs do conjure up different memories...Afternoon Delight reminds me of my older brother washing his Volkswagen Beetle with that blaring on the radio... The Beach Boys remind me of riding with my brother in his beetle.... My mom would often play Crystal Gayle.. Never promised you a rose garden...and The Candy Man Can, and Knock Three times on the ceiling.....I know every word of Kenny Rogers The Gambler... Number One Bites the Dust reminds me of rollerskating at the roller rink...Thanks for that trip down memory lane John... Hugs! deb

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have not heard this for an age and loved this version
      https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2NUkhMq_iRo

      Delete
  24. Oh meat loaf bat out f hell!. 4 of us kids 16 driving around Airlie estate in a beat up mini, private land so ok!.owners ogilvy familyere fab to local kids!. We had just swam in their salmon pond, rode on their horses, got fed by their chef!. Was normal for us!. Wow when I think back!. No elf n safety, but we had a fad childhood!.😀


    ReplyDelete
  25. Replies
    1. You took the words right out of my mouth was another fav of mine

      Delete
  26. The standard old favorites bring back memories, although none are special to me, except at the time. I have a memory like a sieve.

    ReplyDelete
  27. You're a bit late with this as I did a Tracks of my Years post a couple of weeks back, still I suppose you didn't want to copy straight away!!! :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know, I'm a shameful blog stealer Xxxx

      Delete
  28. I remember Bill Bailey who wouldn't go home.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Todd Rundgren, "I Saw The Light In Your Eyes." Eighth grade 1st crush.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ben Jackson brother of my girlfriend 1980 first crush

      Delete
  30. "You Are My Sunshine" which my dad used to sing when I was very little. I've heard it used in a couple of TV commercials and always get teary. As for smells, my mom's fragrance was Nina Ricci. My dad gave her a bottle of it every year for her birthday. They used to call it, jokingly, "Nina Ricci's titties."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I remember my grandfather singing that to my sister

      Delete
  31. When I was 22 I worked on a Kibbutz in Israel. I went with a group for a ten week stay. I had an amazing time. In the bomb shelter bar we played tapes people had recorded.... one had the Clash - Should I stay or should I go - I felt I wanted to stay longer and did. I stayed six months and a year later returned for another six months. Happy days x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The Clash in a bomb shelter ! Well that almost takes the buiscuit!

      Delete
    2. Yep it was pretty surreal !

      Delete
  32. The first music I can remember was big band music on the radio and my Mom humming along as she did her housework.

    ReplyDelete
  33. Driving from Gatwick Airport for trip to the UK the song Dumb, by The Beautiful South was playing all the time. I came to see son at Cambridge.
    I can hear that song and see the countryside and all the places I visited with him.

    cheers, parsnip

    ReplyDelete
  34. Beach Boys, almost any song [retro, not 60s] , taking the kids to the ice cream stand, driving my old Jeep, hot summer nights at the beach...single mom suddenly. More hot summer nights, Springsteen Born to Run.

    lizzy

    ReplyDelete
  35. 'Midnight Train To Georgia' by Gladys Knight and the Pips.....1973. Brings me back to the steamy summer of that year after leaving home and on my own.....in a tiny town in Nova Scotia. Met my husband there. The rest is history

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tell us about your first meeting jimbo

      Delete
    2. If you insist......

      I had noticed this guy at the university pool and then realized it was the same guy that worked at the post office across the street from my apartment.
      Having 'just come out' (back in those days it was a very quiet 'coming out' to close friends.....my family would have to wait for a few years) and not being familiar with the protocols of gay dating, I settled for just looking and admiring this young guy.
      A few weeks later I was at the movie theatre (Cabaret was playing) with my best girl friend (she still is). We were seated and she asked me to get some popcorn and drinks. So off I went.
      Being a small theatre there was a big crowd in the lobby, so I took my place in line and waited.
      Finally I got to the counter, made my order....2 drinks and two popcorn....held them firmly and close to my body as best I could.
      I turned around....and who was there face to face with me but this gorgeous guy I had been noticing!!!
      I froze!
      We looked at each other. I felt flushed and thought I would faint!!
      Everything in my arms hit the floor!!
      I did remain upright and quietly turned and headed back into the theatre and told my friend that it was too packed out there.
      That was our 'first meeting', John. It wasn't for another few weeks that we actually spoke to one another. We are still talking to each other.

      Delete
    3. I knew it would be a nice story! Thanks jimbo

      Delete
  36. "Say something I'm giving up on you"
    by Great Big World

    My husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer's
    about a year ago. He hardly knows me now..
    That song plays in my head all the time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A beautiful song and another sad memory.....so sorry dearheart x

      Delete
  37. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Pueblo Nuevo - Buena Vista Social Club....can't help but shake it.

    Chasing Cars serenaded my youngest and I as we drove the hour each way to see her father in rehab. (it didn't take)

    Dino's Hit the Road to Dreamland reminds me of a special Christmas.

    Finally, Angel From Montgomery...will cry every time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vhe3vb0z7mY

      Lovely

      Delete
  39. Without a doubt Beethoven's Missa Solemnis. I heard it in its entirety first on a week's stay at Bath University many years ago. (Doing an OU degree with a week's residential course in those days). It still raises the hairs on the back of my neck.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Beautiful
      https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4pA5Nuj2NOY

      Delete
  40. Sorry didn't see your "tell us more until later in the day. I met my husband at the home of my best friend Bianca. She was having a house party and I was dating her brother Bruce at the time. Their brother Carl was my husband's childhood school friend and he brought Robert (my husband) to meet his sister Bianca. Well, we clicked right away, he took me home, Held the car door open for me, walked me to my door and said good night. I ran up the stairs and told my Mom I just met the man I'm going to marry. And here we are 36 years later. Needless to say Bianca nor Bruce has ever spoken to either one of us again.

    ReplyDelete
  41. "Come Up and See Me (Make Me Smile)" by Cockney Rebel always takes me back to my university days up in Scotland when it always seemed to be playing in the the student union pub - "The Allangrange".

    ReplyDelete
  42. The Bee Gees, The Eagles, The Doobie Brothers, Supertramp - soundtrack to my university years! And before that, it would be Rod Stewart's Maggie May - my older brother was listening to it a lot and therefore so was I.

    ReplyDelete
  43. It was the sound track to the death of my narcissistic mother too.

    ReplyDelete
  44. I'll wait for the rotten tomatoes being thrown when I say the Theme for Titanic. But when you listen to the words not Celine's singing it makes my son's death bearable. And for all the ones who do hate it, don't come to my funeral because I'm having it played at the fullest volume, revenge is sweet.

    ReplyDelete

I love all comments Except abusive ones from arseholes