# Songs with a nostalgic sound **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 16, 2014, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-nostalgic-sound/688569 "2014-05-16T04:25:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mean_mr.mustard/32/3865_2.png) [@Mean\_Mr.Mustard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mean_Mr.Mustard)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2014, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-nostalgic-sound/688569/21 "2014-05-17T19:37:30Z")
**Queen** - [Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNuN6k8GE1c) **Paul McCartney** - [Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DupyAkOZLYA) **Beatles** - [Honey Pie](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTuOAPE-LOo) mmm ---
**Author:** ![Jungian\_Camisole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8baadc/32.png) [@Jungian\_Camisole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jungian_Camisole)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2014, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-nostalgic-sound/688569/22 "2014-05-17T23:05:35Z")
I have been listening to and quite enjoying the work of Madeleine Peyroux. I never heard of her until this year; I instantly fell in love with her voice. For your pleasure, “Don’t Wait Too Long”. [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/xsDJp_dS-W8/hqdefault.jpg "Madeleine Peyroux - Don t Wait Too Long") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsDJp_dS-W8) ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2014, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-nostalgic-sound/688569/23 "2014-05-18T00:41:30Z")
The Bonzo Dog Band did a lot of nostalgic stuff. Many (like “[By a Waterfall](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loKznDGqTcw)”) are remakes of older songs, but there were a few originals, like **[Hello Mabel](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUq6ktf19WE&feature=kp)** (Yes, that’s Eric Idle, and I think that might be Michael Palin pretending to play bass). ---
**Author:** ![MrKnowItAll](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrknowitall/32/87_2.png) [@MrKnowItAll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrKnowItAll)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2014, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-nostalgic-sound/688569/24 "2014-05-18T05:04:42Z")
Don’t forget the Beatles’ [“When I’m Sixty-Four”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCss0kZXeyE&feature=kp). ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-nostalgic-sound/688569/25 "2014-05-20T02:00:36Z")
Thanks for all the submissions, folks! I stayed away from the 'dope for a few days due to the malware thing- that’s the only reason I haven’t been back to this thread sooner. I’ll have more to say once I’ve listened to everything. I think my issue here is just getting on in years- I used to get a strong feeling of nostalgia around 7th-9th grade about the times before… I dunno, puberty I guess. Now I might as well be entirely done being a youngster, even if I don’t always act like it, which I suppose is opening up a whole new field of things to be nostalgic about. _sigh_ Anyway, so far it is quite interesting to hear what other people interpret as ‘nostalgic’. This seems to be a pretty idiosyncratic thing and probably not something where we could point to a single example that applies to most of us. Music can be so darn _mysterious_… ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-nostalgic-sound/688569/26 "2014-05-20T02:48:44Z")
If you’re nostalgic for the early seventies, a lot of Black Keys would fit the bill. ---
**Author:** ![Oedipus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Oedipus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oedipus)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-nostalgic-sound/688569/27 "2014-05-20T03:52:08Z")
Can you explain that more a bit? Do you mean nostalgic like the singer himself is yearning for times long ago (before his lover spurned him or whatever) or do you just mean that it has an old sound that emulates that of the past? Those are two very different things ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-nostalgic-sound/688569/28 "2014-05-20T05:41:29Z")
That Iggy Pop song is fantastic! These aren’t recent recent, but still evoke another time. Carmel - [“Bad Day”](http://youtu.be/u3TMc22m7tE) The Style council (featuring Tracey Thorn) - [“The Paris Match”](http://youtu.be/r9P6aeUvb4U) Leftover Cuties - "[Smile Big"](http://youtu.be/8kOOb344Tnk) Kate Bush - [“Home For Christmas”](http://youtu.be/rrM4Kr46S3A) Are covers of older songs by fairly recent artists out or would that be a whole other thread? April March - [“Laisse Tomber les Filles”](http://youtu.be/ljTQVyWJ8uA) (This is a [France Gall](http://youtu.be/FWRCJhsz5t4) cover, but I love both versions) April March - [“Le Temps de l’Amour”](http://youtu.be/A_VL8M0EnMU) (a cover of a [Françoise Hardy](http://youtu.be/gXWqz5qWYEw) song, recently featured in the movie Moonrise Kingdom. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-nostalgic-sound/688569/29 "2014-05-20T13:59:35Z")
> [@Oedipus](#): > > Can you explain that more a bit? Do you mean nostalgic like the singer himself is yearning for times long ago (before his lover spurned him or whatever) or do you just mean that it has an old sound that emulates that of the past? Those are two very different things More the second one, though not so much emulating the past as having a backwards reference in time (though the sound). It turns out that the translation of the lyrics to the Iggy Pop song are perfect material to go with a nostalgic sound, but to me it is like something about the unironic subtle earnestness of the performance is pointing backwards somehow, which gets capped off by that clarinet which seems to trace around the outline of, uh, the Platonic form of nostalgia itself? It is hard to know where to draw the line. There is the performance itself, and then there is what it becomes after my brain gets its hands on it. I didn’t know what the lyrics meant until recently, but somehow the sound evoked nostalgia. I guess if I knew exactly what was going on there I wouldn’t have started a thread. Anyway, short version, it is more about the sound than the subject matter. But if a song gives somebody that nostalgic feeling they ought to post it regardless of how I slice it. ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-nostalgic-sound/688569/30 "2014-05-20T14:03:12Z")
> [@Jungian\_Camisole](#): > > I have been listening to and quite enjoying the work of Madeleine Peyroux. I never heard of her until this year; I instantly fell in love with her voice. > > For your pleasure, “Don’t Wait Too Long”. > > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsDJp\_dS-W8](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsDJp_dS-W8) That’s nice. She’s going to stumble onto what I’m talking about without even trying since she sounds like Billie Holiday. Cool! ---
**Author:** ![Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/try2b_comprehensive/32/65_2.png) [@Try2B\_Comprehensive](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Try2B_Comprehensive)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 2:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-nostalgic-sound/688569/31 "2014-05-20T14:15:00Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > Mary Hopkin – “[Those Were the Days](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gVdOQvx379Y).” That works- interesting that this one also uses clarinets and maybe an accordian in a kind of “French” way, along with (I think) a uk- old European or African stringed instruments if you listen. Yup. I wonder if the French have this figured out especially well, and people who want that sound are copying them. ---
**Author:** ![Oedipus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Oedipus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oedipus)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2014, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-nostalgic-sound/688569/32 "2014-05-20T16:45:27Z")
Maybe? Francoise Hardy - [Tous Les Garcons](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_V-b8QIYOpM) ---
**Author:** ![LouisMasure](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e9a140/32.png) [@LouisMasure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisMasure)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-nostalgic-sound/688569/33 "2014-05-21T10:24:38Z")
The Connells - [74 75](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-ITv4OBV9c) ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-nostalgic-sound/688569/34 "2014-05-21T13:03:15Z")
[The](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvKjpGP6P5Y) [Black](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRBseJAmtJQ) [Angels](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yGXxcNkqdzA) continue to amaze me, by somehow _not_ actually being The Doors. Stan Rogers, too, amazes me not only in vocal _style_, but with _songs_ that ["]sound like they were written no later than 1850]([url=[Stan Rogers - Barrett's Privateers - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIwzRkjn86w)). ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2014, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-nostalgic-sound/688569/35 "2014-05-21T16:39:24Z")
Olly Murs’s [“Dance With Me Tonight”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3EG4olrFjY) sounds to me like a song from the 1950s, but it was released in 2011. ---
**Author:** ![Nema98](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d2c977/32.png) [@Nema98](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nema98)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2014, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-nostalgic-sound/688569/36 "2014-05-28T00:17:46Z")
“Crazy Little Thing Called Love” by Queen- I think they were going for a 50’s sound, and Freddie Mercury’s vocals seem intentionally sung in a Elvis like fashion. Some of you beat me to mentioning “Mercy” by Duffy, the song sounds somewhat from the 60’s Motown era. There is this song that gets radio airplay by a band called New Hollow, and the song is “She Ain’t You” . Sounds like something out of the 90s, and his voice is somewhat similar to Gavin Rossdale of Bush. There are some songs since the pass year that seem to contain sounds of the disco era of the latter 1970’s, like “Get Lucky” by Daft Punk and Pharrell. A more recent one is Sam London- “Move Your Body”, and doing some research it seems Nile Rodgers also plays on that record. This is my first post on the dope by the way, nice topic. ---
**Author:** ![fuchsiagroan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/9de0a6/32.png) [@fuchsiagroan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fuchsiagroan)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2014, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-nostalgic-sound/688569/37 "2014-05-28T00:40:14Z")
The Faint, And One and The Drums sound nostalgic for the 1980s. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2014, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-nostalgic-sound/688569/38 "2014-05-28T01:08:15Z")
Steve Earle’s [The Other Side of Town](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxi73Iw13bs) is stone country. Old time honky tonk. You can hear some faint clicks–like a record that had been played many times… Then there was Doug Sahm’s version of Freddy Fender’s [Wasted Days & Wasted Nights.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgRl_kmwhpo) He was looking back to Chicano Swamp Pop, at a time when Freddie was living in obscurity. Freddie came out of retirement & they recorded the song together as the Texas Tornadoes. Now they’re both gone… Asleep at the Wheel & Vince Gill–[Yearning Just For You](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xccwkGH0X8). From one of their Bob Wills tribute albums. Here’s the Wheel with George Strait, [Big Balls in Cow Town](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQXlVT0mmkI)… ---
**Author:** ![Ashley\_Pomeroy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c68b51/32.png) [@Ashley\_Pomeroy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ashley_Pomeroy)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2014, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-nostalgic-sound/688569/39 "2014-05-28T16:38:07Z")
Caro Emerald’s “A Night Like This” springs to mind - it’s based around a Mellotron rhythm track from the 1960s and sounds like a homage to the bossa nova explosion of that period: [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQw4w9WgXcQ) There was a retro 60s girl group period in the UK in the wake of Amy Winehouse, Duffy being the obvious other example although there were lots of others. That I can’t name, because they never amounted to much. ---
**Author:** ![nachtmusick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ac91a4/32.png) [@nachtmusick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nachtmusick)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2014, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-nostalgic-sound/688569/40 "2014-05-30T09:06:43Z")
> [@CheshireKat](#): > > Pokey LaFarge’s whole schtick is nostalgia, including dressing the part: > > [Garbage Can Blues](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jckFQ2U4z5I) > > Great talented band! That is a talented band. It reminded me of a band that bathed themselves in nostalgia, but are now themselves nostalgia: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/vEtbfzMLVWU/maxresdefault.jpg "Stray Cats - Stray Cat Strut (Official Music Video)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEtbfzMLVWU) 80’S video of 50’s music. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-nostalgic-sound/688569.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/songs-with-a-nostalgic-sound/688569.md?page=3)