# Most dated song **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 20, 2013, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-dated-song/656181 "2013-04-20T01:42:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ce7236/32.png) [@Mona\_Lisa\_Simpson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mona_Lisa_Simpson)\ **Post date:** [April 23, 2013, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-dated-song/656181/41 "2013-04-23T18:36:53Z")
Bandaid’s “Do they know it’s Christmas”? The USA for Africa’s “We are the World” and Canada’s Northern Lights “Tears are Not enough” are slices of the exact time they were recorded. A year later or earlier they wouldn’t have had the same ensemble casts. Very much a product of their time. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-dated-song/656181/42 "2013-04-24T01:27:56Z")
Not that datedness is even measurable, but even so, it seems there are several categories of it: Songs about contemporary fads such as Hula Hoops, Kung-fu, CB radios, or whatnot Songs mentioning celebrities popular at the time of recording Songs devoted to commemorating particular historical events Songs evincing attitudes now considered unenlightened or old-fashioned Songs recorded in a fleetingly popular musical style Whatever I haven’t thought of So it seems the question needs to be broken up into the different sections to avoid the apples, oranges, onions kind of comparison. My contribution is when the girls ask “Mr. Sandman” to bring them a dream with “lots of wavy hair like Lib-er-a-ce.” That he was ever considered a sex symbol by women makes the song sound like a real museum piece! ---
**Author:** ![Oly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/oly/32/8255_2.png) [@Oly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oly)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-dated-song/656181/43 "2013-04-24T04:04:55Z")
Cars by Gary Numan is solid 79/80. Creep by Radiohead = no when but 1992. ---
**Author:** ![SandyHook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dec6dc/32.png) [@SandyHook](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SandyHook)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-dated-song/656181/44 "2013-04-24T04:27:31Z")
> [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > [And the colored girls go/‘Doot, doo doot, doo doot, doo doot doo doot/Doot, doo doot, doo doot, doo doot doo doot.’"](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwIj0AtUa1Q) I really liked the hand action on the microphone. Sort of went well with the song. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-dated-song/656181/45 "2013-04-24T15:06:28Z")
[Put Another Nickel In . . . ."](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gUNZAmFfKA) (Nickelodeons were little movie machines popular in the early 20th century.) ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-dated-song/656181/46 "2013-04-24T15:15:37Z")
_Santa Baby_, as performed by Eartha Kitt. Gots ta be late 1953. No way is she going to be asking for a convertible from the year-end model clearance (even a light blue one). ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-dated-song/656181/47 "2013-04-24T15:24:33Z")
[In My Merry Oldsmobile](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFruHQJeaRg). ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-dated-song/656181/48 "2013-04-24T15:40:04Z")
Village People _[Ready for the 80s](http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2brbf_village-peple-ready-for-the-80-s_music#.UXf8K7-la4w)_ ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-dated-song/656181/49 "2013-04-24T15:53:18Z")
Melanie’s _(I Got a Brand New Pair of Rollerskates, You Got a) Brand New Key_. I don’t even know what a rollerskate key does. Supposedly there’s some other meanings to the song too… ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-dated-song/656181/50 "2013-04-24T16:06:17Z")
> [@JohnGalt](#): > > Melanie’s _(I Got a Brand New Pair of Rollerskates, You Got a) Brand New Key_. I don’t even know what a rollerskate key does. Supposedly there’s some other meanings to the song too… If that’s a serious question, a skate key is essentially a small wrench used to tighten old fashioned strap-on skates. (And loosen them to take them off.) I don’t know if you can even get new skates like that anymore, although you can find vintage ones on eBay. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-dated-song/656181/51 "2013-04-24T16:07:49Z")
A rollerskate key is basically a very simple socket wrench, used to tighten the adjustable parts of a rollerskate so they don’t expand and release your shoe as you go hurtling down a concrete sidewalk at speeds approaching six miles per hour. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-dated-song/656181/52 "2013-04-24T16:13:46Z")
Missed the edit window: The story making the rounds at my junior college was that [this device](http://pad1.whstatic.com/images/thumb/8/82/Roll-a-Cigarette-With-a-Cigarette-Roller-Step-5.jpg/550px-Roll-a-Cigarette-With-a-Cigarette-Roller-Step-5.jpg) was nicknamed a “rollerskate” by people who used them to roll joints, and that a “key” referred to a kilogram (or “key”) of marijuana. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-dated-song/656181/53 "2013-04-24T16:21:37Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > A rollerskate key is basically a very simple socket wrench, used to tighten the adjustable parts of a rollerskate so they don’t expand and release your shoe as you go hurtling down a concrete sidewalk at speeds approaching six miles per hour. You must have had the high quality ones. We had to take them off and carry them to go that fast. ---
**Author:** ![SirRay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@SirRay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SirRay)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-dated-song/656181/54 "2013-04-24T18:34:55Z")
> [@Doug\_K](#): > > Village People _[Ready for the 80s](http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2brbf_village-peple-ready-for-the-80-s_music#.UXf8K7-la4w)_ Heck, there’s a whole bunch of these songs, for example “Eighties” - Killing Joke (Living in the '80s) “Goodbye '70s” - Yaz “End of the Century”- Ramones (it’s the end, the end of the '70s) Even “Heat of the Moment” - Asia (And Now you find yourself in '82) I guess we can reuse them in around 70 years, but that won’t work for…of course…“1999” - Prince (2000-0-0 Party Over, oops, out of time) ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [April 24, 2013, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-dated-song/656181/55 "2013-04-24T20:04:35Z")
> [@SirRay](#): > > Even “Heat of the Moment” - Asia (And Now you find yourself in '82) Ha! I’m not sure what I thought they were saying (“And now you find yourself an empty tomb”?) but it wasn’t that! ETA: _And now you find yourself an empty tomb The disco hot spots on the job for you_ D’oh! ---
**Author:** ![Noel\_Prosequi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b19c9b/32.png) [@Noel\_Prosequi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noel_Prosequi)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-dated-song/656181/56 "2013-04-25T13:16:47Z")
I was going to say _Little Egypt_ by Elvis. For anyone born in “Phoenix Arizona 1949” to be suitably nubile as to be worth writing a song about, she has to be late teens, early 20s, which fits with the Elvis TV special of 1968. But then I discovered that he did the song in _Roustabout_ in 1964, when LE would have been 15. And the song was first a hit in 1961 for The Coasters, when she would have been 12. Maybe that version had her born in 1939. Another candidate, this time for thematic datedness, is Signs, by the Five Man Electrical Band. Could only be written in the late 60s. ---
**Author:** ![Doug\_K](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b5ac83/32.png) [@Doug\_K](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doug_K)\ **Post date:** [April 25, 2013, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-dated-song/656181/57 "2013-04-25T13:28:32Z")
> [@Noel\_Prosequi](#): > > I was going to say _Little Egypt_ by Elvis. For anyone born in “Phoenix Arizona 1949” to be suitably nubile as to be worth writing a song about, she has to be late teens, early 20s, which fits with the Elvis TV special of 1968. > > But then I discovered that he did the song in _Roustabout_ in 1964, when LE would have been 15. And the song was first a hit in 1961 for The Coasters, when she would have been 12. Maybe that version had her born in 1939. She wasn’t born in 1949, she got the tattoo of a cowboy in 1949. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-dated-song/656181/58 "2013-04-26T00:11:54Z")
It’s an iconic name, referring to a real dancer who was twelve years gone in 1949!: > **[Little Egypt (dancer)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Egypt_%28dancer%29)** > > Little Egypt was the stage name for at least three popular belly dancers from the late 1800s through the early 1900s. With countless imitators, the name became synonymous with belly dancers. > Fahreda Mazar Spyropoulos, (c. 1871 – April 5, 1937), also performing under the stage name Fatima, had her start at the Bird Cage Theatre in Tombstone, Arizona in 1881. In the reopened saloon's lobby hangs a larger-than-life sized painting she donated entitled "Fatima". It bears six patched bullet holes; o... ---
**Author:** ![Noel\_Prosequi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b19c9b/32.png) [@Noel\_Prosequi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noel_Prosequi)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2013, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-dated-song/656181/59 "2013-04-27T00:17:01Z")
> [@Doug\_K](#): > > She wasn’t born in 1949, she got the tattoo of a cowboy in 1949. Thought about that, but the arithmetic still doesnt work. She would have had to have been 18 in 1949, which would make her 30 in 1961, a little too old to fit the context of the song. Ingenue types of the era couldn’t be that old. And Wikipedia points to three women who were the “original” Little Egypt, until the title became a generic one for “belly dancers”. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2014, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-dated-song/656181/60 "2014-02-15T03:04:51Z")
It’s probably not worth resurrecting this thread, but yesterday I thought of another song full of dated references: [Dolly Parton’s Tits](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YNzNyNpAsM) by MacLean MacLean For such a short song, it’s got: - Evel Knievel - Rex Humbard and Maude Aimee - Pierre (Trudeau) French-kissing Rene (Levesque) - Ed Allen - and Dolly Parton, of course [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-dated-song/656181.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-dated-song/656181.md?page=4)