My Life as a Playlist (The Early Years-Junior High)

Music is a huge part of who I am. It is totally just as necessary to my well-being as food to eat and air to breathe. I am physically and emotionally affected by it. If Earth, Wind & Fire is playing, my friends and family will tell you, my body is NOT still. Upon hearing an old favorite unexpectedly while driving, I have been known to pull over, beat on the steering wheel and sing at the top of my lungs. Old boyfriends may tell that I would get smoke-coming-out-of-the-ears mad if they turned down the radio to say something if an awesome song was on...

"Compliment what she does. Send her roses, just because. If it's violins she loves, let them play. Dedicate her favorite song and hold her closer, all night long. Love her today. Find one hundred ways."

Ohhh, James (Ingram), you had it going on. Whatever that poor boyfriend had to say was NOT as important as what Mr. James Ingram was trying to tell him. Shut up and listen! It may come in handy.

Anyway, music is a religious experience for me. Picture hands in the air with my head going back and forth....eyes closed...tears streaming down depending on the song. I LOVE music! When I hear a song from my past, a video plays in my mind of a specific memory complete with what I was wearing, whom I was with, where we were and what we were doing. The images are vivid and colorful. From the memory I usually can figure out the year the song was out. Dateline NBC had an ongoing clip they used as a filler for the program where they played a song and the viewers were supposed to guess the year it was popular. My husband was amazed at how I guessed correctly every time.

Song lyrics are no different. I may forget the milk on my grocery list of three items, but I won't forget any words to "Double Dutch Bus" even the gibberish at the end. Only true lovers of this song will know what I'm talking about. Enough about that...

I've always wanted to write a book about my life, a memoir, I guess, using a playlist as the format. I would use the music to tell stories from my past and present...little snippets...not too long and not too short. The only problem is editing the list of music because it goes on and on. For this blog, I thought I would narrow down the choices to 25 songs per playlist and combine the years of my life into sections. I hope you enjoy!


1. Listen to What the Man Said                                           Paul McCartney/Wings
2. I Got You Babe                                                                   Sonny and Cher
3. Afternoon Delight                                                             Starland Vocal Band
4. If                                                                                            Bread
5. Knock Three Times                                                          Tony Orlando and Dawn
6. Escape (Pina Colada Song)                                            Rupert Holmes
7. Shine a Little Love                                                           Electric Light Orchestra
8. Dream Weaver                                                                   Gary Wright
9. Don't Go Breaking My Heart                                        Elton John/Kiki Dee
10.Magic                                                                                 Pilot
11.Biggest Part of Me                                                          Ambrosia
12.Same Old Lang Syne                                                     Dan Fogelberg
13.The Hustle                                                                      Van McCoy
14.Mr. Jaws                                                                           Dick Goodman
15.Ain't Gonna Bump No More No Big Fat Woman        Joe Tex
16.You Should Be Dancing                                                 Bee Gees
17.Funkytown                                                                      Lipps, Inc.
18.Y.M.C.A.                                                                         Village People
19.If I Can't Have You                                                       Yvonne Elliman
20.More Than a Woman                                                    Tavares
21.Shake Your Booty                                                         K.C. and the Sunshine Band
22.Walk Away                                                                     Donna Summer
23.'65 Love Affair                                                               Paul Davis
24.Xanadu                                                                            Olivia Newton-John
25.Another One Bites the Dust                                        Queen

1.Listen to What the Man Says- My mom, my sister and I are in the car with the windows rolled down. (yes, I said rolled because that's what you had to do.) It is the middle of summer and we're driving to my grandparent's lake house in the next town over to spend a glorious week. We are loaded down with provisions...baloney, Wonderbread, hoop cheese (sliced), peanut butter, grape jelly, hot dogs, hot dog buns, Coke in glass bottles, Coppertone Suntan Lotion and a bar of Ivory soap (because it floats and we bathed in the lake).

2. I Got You Babe- One of my favorite television shows to watch on one of the four channels we could get was The Sonny and Cher Show.. Sonny at the piano and Cher in a low-cut halter gown by his side! I dreamed of having her long hair and dragon-lady fingernails. My hair was chopped off in a Dorothy Hamil cut, layer after layer of one inch sections. I vowed to never let my mother talk me into a short haircut again! And to show how serious I was, I watched The Sonny and Cher show every week with a towel on my head to represent my future long, flowing locks and Scotch tape on my bitten fingernails.

3.Afternoon Delight- This song was playing when we drove our brand new, orange Volkswagon Bug through the showroom sliding doors and out into the world! I was in the "hole" behind the backseat where I gazed out the window in awe. In my mind at six years old, we had to be rich!

4.If- My awesome dance teacher, being the true hippie she was, played this song during our summer ballet lessons. Doing our barre work to Bread made these exercises seem more important and dramatic. I'm sure I shed a few tears.

5.Knock Three Times- Do any of you remember The Tony Orlando and Dawn Show? My dream was to sing backup with Dawn (two women) in a chiffon dress with big hair.

6.Escape (The Pina Colada Song)- For Christmas I received the K-Tel album featuring all the Number 1's from that year. I would snuggle down in my orange beanbag, don my massive headphones and listen to this song on my stereo, all the while thinking about "making love at midnight on the dunes of the Cape." Scandalous!

7.Shine a Little Love- My piano teacher had an entire bookshelf in her house dedicated to her eight track tape collection. I would stand in front of this shelf before and after my lesson drooling. I thought I was hallucinating the day she said, "You can borrow any of those you want. Just bring them back next week." The clouds parted, the angels wept...was she serious? Bring the smelling salts! With a shaking hand, I selected All Over the World  by Electric Light Orchestra. The picture on the front was a U.F.O. looking-spherical object with jukebox details. I ran to my house before she could change her mind. That tape never left my yellow player for a week.

8.Dream Weaver- Back in the 70's we rarely turned on our air-conditioner. Every window in the house was up and the wooden doors wide open. Being in the buggy South, we had screened doors and windows. Our favorite thing to do on a summer night as a family was go out on our side porch and swing. Our porch swing could easily fit the entire clan. We would sit in the darkness with the stereo playing. I remember when this song was played for the first time on the radio because I was looking at the stars and listening to the cool, outer space sound effects in the song. It made me wonder about aliens on another planet doing the same thing as I was doing.

9.Don't Go Breaking My Heart- Who can forget the TV show "One Day at a Time" starring MacKenzie Phillips and Valerie Bertinelli? Barbara and Julie, their characters on the show, lipsynced this song complete with feather boa, white piano and jeweled sunglasses. I knew I would never be the same.

10. Magic- During our yearly family trip to Myrtle Beach, a night at the amusement park was in order. "Do you wanna go faster?" blared over the loud speaker as the Himalaya rattled around the track at speeds of 100 miles per hour. The good-looking teenage boys working the ride would jump on and off the individual cars as we, my cousins and I, screamed with delight.

11.Biggest Part of Me- I see my mother painting a pair of my denim bellbottoms and a t-shirt to match. The stereo, of course, was playing in the background. She asked what I wanted on them besides flowers. I said, "red mushrooms with white polka-dots." And that's just what I got!

12.Same Old Lang Syne- I wanted to marry Dan Fogelberg. His hair made perfect wings on each side of his middle part. I shed a tear for his old lover in the grocery store, but I was secretly happy because without her, he could be mine.

13.The Hustle- My parents took disco lessons. Yes, you read it right. I have to say they rocked it, too. For my birthday slumber party, my parents entertained my crew of best friends. The light-up disco ball was spinning and the music was pumping as my mom and dad twirled around the den. The "oohs" and "aahs" of my friends filled my heart with pride. After their glowing number, they taught us the Hustle and we all joined in.

14.Mr. Jaws- I got this 45 record in my Easter basket. We recorded it on my tape player by playing the record and taping it live. All people and pets were threatened with a horrible death if  they uttered a sound while recording. This made our favorite song of the moment portable. Mr. Jaws inspired my cousins and I to make our own mixes of song clips and interview questions.

15.Ain't Gonna Bump No More No Big Fat Woman- I literally had black and blue bruises on both my hip bones from doing the bump. Unlike now, I was skin and bones. To make matters worse, many of my dance partners (cousins, mom, sister, friends) were also skinny as rails. When our hip would collide during this epic dance move, the end result was injured body parts. No pain, no gain!

16.You Should Be Dancing- John Travolta...white leisure suit...need I say more? I wasn't allowed to see the movie, but you can bet your sweet booty, I had the album. By the end of the Saturday Night Fever craze, it was scratched and the cover was in shreds.

17.Funkytown-This was on another K-Tel album I owned. Everyone in the pool at my cousin's house would vote for the best dance moves down the diving board to this song. Of course, each contestant had to choreograph a cool dive to go with their dance.

18.Y.M.C.A.- We all wanted the Village People to be our boyfriends. My friends and I would fight over them. The construction worker or the Indian...who would it be? But, alas, they didn't want us girls. In fact, they didn't want ANY girls.

19.If I Can't Have You- Yvonne Elliman and I would have been best friends forever if we had ever met. She was the ultimate in cool. When she appeared on my favorite Saturday afternoon show, Soul Train, my face was plastered to the screen.

20.More Than a Woman- After a ballet performance my ballet guild had, the owner of our dance studio gave a champagne reception for the dancers, their families and sponors at the studio. We were disco dancing, mingling, eating and drinking when the prettiest teenage girl from our company walked in. It was one of those moments where all time stands still and the evil green monster called jealousy rears its ugly head. She dropped her white rabbit fur coat to unveil THE most perfect outfit on the planet. She wore a chocolate brown satin jumpsuit and bear trap wedges with brown straps. As she stood there sipping daintily on her cold duck, I felt sick with envy. I've disliked her ever since.

21.Shake Your Booty- KC was another love of mine. Sweaty with his shirt open to his navel...what's not to love?

22.Walk Away- I found out what sex appeal was as this song played. Leave it to Donna Summer. The teenaged boy pulling the curtains at my yearly dance recital was no match for my junior high-rump shaking-hip swaying-head shaking moves in my red sequined costume with a red feather in my long (to my butt) hair. Even though he was a freshman and I was a rising 7th grader, we fell in love and continued to talk over the next 10 years. But more importantly, I discovered my inner diva!

23.'65 Love Affair- I brought my new 45 record to dance class. My teacher not only played my record but she let me lead the warmup exercises in front of the class.

24.Xanadu- Olivia, Darling, only you can make junior high girls dream of silver and gold lame' headbands, spandex pants and roller skates.

25.Another One Bites the Dust- Those were the days of high school age bus drivers. Mine was a heartthrob. He sent chills down my spine. He brought his boombox with him set to the favorite radio station of the day and this song played early one morning when I thought I caught his attention in my new outfit. I strutted my sixth grade self  down that paper strewn aisle in my new gaucho pants and knee boots. He was too old for me, but I didn't care. He checked me out and that was enough.