Friday, November 04, 2011

High school tunes

Fall often makes us nostalgic, so this week ROUTE 1 readers take a look back by answering the following FRIDAY QUESTION:
"Is there a song that always makes you think of high school and why?"
MARY N.-P. -- Any songs from "The Fugs" a crazy hippie anarchist group from NYC (some say the first underground band) who sang - :Slum Goddess, Nothing, Boobs a Lot, I couldn't get high, Carpe Diem, etc. My girlfriend and I would hide out in her bedroom at night and listen to them quietly so no one could hear us (or their words!). Quite a change from our days spent in the classrooms of Mount St. Gertrude Academy, a Catholic all-girls, prep school in Boulder, Colo.
JIM S. -- Ah, yes, probably a hundred (likewise for college, my first job, when my first son was born, etc.) Anyway, for high school, here is a sampling:
Freshman year - "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey," by Paul McCartney & Wings. (All the girls sang along to it on the freshmen bus ride to an out of town varsity football game.)
Sophomore year - "You Are the Sunshine of My Life," by Stevie Wonder. (It was popular when I got my driver's license.)
Junior year - "The Most Beautiful Girl," by Charlie Rich. (I had a crush on a sophomore girl but never had the courage to ask her out.)
Senior year - "Philadelphia Freedom," by Elton John. (We were eager to graduate and this was popular during the spring high school baseball season.)
RICK T. -- The song "See You In September" was a hit in my high school years. Loved that song, I think by "The Happenings". If you had a crush on a girl at school, you always had to wait until September to see her again.
KERI M. -- No rain by Blind Melon. It was constantly played at our high school.
BRIAN M. -- These days it's usually something from the era that isn't played on radio much these days, like "Say It Isn't So" by Hall and Oates, or "Goin' Down" by Greg Guidry or "Overkill" by Men at Work... songs that are kind of trapped in amber of the period from 1980 to 1984.
JOHN S. -- People are People by Depeche Mode. It was the theme for Hempstead's Spring Wind 1990.
ROSEANNE H. -- All the Fats Domino songs...like Blueberry Hill.
SASKIA M. -- Queen: Bohemian Rhapsody - every single recess we would sing along with our "cassette players" over and over and over again... I also recall similar situations as portrayed in Wayne's World, with school mates in the car singing along and headbanging to the song.
MIKE D. -- Songs from AC/DC's "Back in Black" and REO Speedwagon's "Hi Infidelity" albums. Also, Billy Joel, Steely Dan, Pat Benatar, The Cars, The Knack, ... and even Steve Martin ("King Tut"). Aaahh, the late '70s/early '80s!
ERIK H. -- When I hear Billy Squier's "Lonely is the Night" and close my eyes, my mind conjures images of palm trees, the canal and the massive auditorium -- I am transported back to Central High School, Phoenix, Ariz. It never fails.

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