The Top five songs I grew up with

Back to school means back to all those good habits I told you about the other day.

That is why I was just grazing a few favourite blogs in the staffroom when I came across Kate’s new listography, one that had my name all over it, songs we grew up with.

I have absolutely no problem finding five such songs, as everyone who knows me knows I listen to the same songs all the time, adding a couple of new ones every year at the most.

The problem will be choosing only five among them, but rules are rules.

Number one will have to be ...

I remember it from Swing into Shape, where I went with mum and her friends, all in bright and various colours of leotards, leggings and leg warmers, enough to give a migraine to any but the hardiest.

It was also the final song at the disco we had on the last night of our primary school trip to the Isle of Wight for a week. I was wearing my best outfit – grey and pink striped batwing top, matching grey and pink rara skirt, pink tights and leggings. I looked amazing; to this day I can’t understand why Adrian Cook didn’t declare his undying (and non-existing) love for me on the spot.

Number two must be something by Stevie Wonder, or something by Randi Crawford, or the Beatles.

Not that this was my generation I insist, however whenever my dad was decorating a room, (and it seemed to be a Seven bridge size project) I would sleep on a mattress in the middle of pots of paint, wallpaper and glue.

As he would work in the evening I got to stay awake later than usual, reading Swallows & Amazons and listening to dad’s choice of the day on an old tape recorder, flecked with a bluer shade of pale or something similar.

Number three is ...

Already a big fan of the Material girl since I had seen ‘Desperately Seeking Susan’, I would hum along to this at the school disco on Friday nights as my heart broke watching Francis Ktenedis snogging someone else.

Number four would have to be...

Not because it is a particular anthem of my life but because I still remember it being number one on the chart show that Sunday evening after receiving a fab tape player for my birthday. I sat there for an hour, hunched over the machine of my dreams, turning the tape with split second accuracy.

When you listen back to this tape you can hear my bother flush the loo during Bonnie Tyler, and mum yelling me down for dinner while the Phils debated the difficulty of their shared girlfriend.

Last, but not least is my hands down winner.

I was lucky enough to realize at the time that the summer I was 19 would be one of the best moments of my life. My BFF and I ended up au pairs in the same family ( the kids were so tough, our cleaning and cooking skills so crap it took two of us…)

The summer was spent swimming in the sun all day and partying with sexy French boyfriends all night.

The fact that I’m still with my sexy French boyfriend (and friends with BFF) over twenty years later makes this song extra special, in fact when the local school kids sang it at their end of year show I promptly burst into tears, of happiness I hasten to add.

If you want to check out which songs were in the charts at special moments in your life then hop over to Mine of useless information to find out.

Comments

Of course I knew the Alphaville song, but I had never seen the original video. What a trip! It looks like a recruitment video for some kind of sect!

Posted by: BT | 09/12/2012 at 04:27 PM

Absolutely love Madonna, and cannot believe I forgot to include her in my list, I was mad about her when I was growing up! Had all her early albums, from True Blue, Like A Virgin, You Can Dance....
Now really wanting to go back to my list and stick another one on the end.... I need to get Spotlight put on there, love that song the most, and love the lyrics... :-)

Posted by: wendy | 09/06/2012 at 10:46 PM