# Top 40 songs from your kidhood that are still evocative **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 1, 2018, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-40-songs-from-your-kidhood-that-are-still-evocative/807985 "2018-02-01T23:10:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2018, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-40-songs-from-your-kidhood-that-are-still-evocative/807985/21 "2018-02-02T21:11:51Z")
Probably too many to name! Shoot, I got a little misty in the Love Boat thread. The new wave songs of around 1983 (“Safety Dance”, “In a Big Country”, “(Keep Feeling) Fascination”, etc.) always bring back my days at gifted camp. I was from a very small town, and 13-year-olds had very little exposure to such things. Two weeks of college town media had to go a long way. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2018, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-40-songs-from-your-kidhood-that-are-still-evocative/807985/22 "2018-02-02T21:26:19Z")
I’m adding Dean Martin’s “You’re Nobody 'Til Somebody Loves You” to my list of Chestnut Tree songs. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2018, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-40-songs-from-your-kidhood-that-are-still-evocative/807985/23 "2018-02-02T21:37:14Z")
Crap! I’m so old, you don’t want to hear my songs. ---
**Author:** ![kiz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7feea3/32.png) [@kiz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kiz)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2018, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-40-songs-from-your-kidhood-that-are-still-evocative/807985/24 "2018-02-03T12:32:28Z")
“Sugar Sugar” and “Dancing In The Moonlight” were the very first singles I bought with my allowance. Whenever they play on my employer’s satellite radio I sing right along with them. My dad adored Jim Croce. “Bad Bad Leroy Brown” was the last song he remembered before he passed. I auditioned for a school show with “The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia”. I played “I Think I Love You” at full tilt when David Cassidy passed. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2018, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-40-songs-from-your-kidhood-that-are-still-evocative/807985/25 "2018-02-03T15:39:15Z")
I was a child when the 1960’s changed music forever. All of the early Beatles catalog, but especially I Want To Hold Your Hand. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2018, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-40-songs-from-your-kidhood-that-are-still-evocative/807985/26 "2018-02-03T15:52:00Z")
Since I’m older than the earth’s core, I remember songs from the late 50’s. Stupid Cupid by Connie Francis, Splish Splash by Bobby Darin. Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Yellow Polka Dot Bikini (don’t know who sang that!) was a favorite of my cousin and me! And another one called She Can’t Find Her Keys. Somewhere Beyond the Sea by Bobby Darin really imprinted itself on my young psyche. Decades later, still one of my favorite songs, I have it on a CD out in the car. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2018, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-40-songs-from-your-kidhood-that-are-still-evocative/807985/27 "2018-02-03T16:23:30Z")
My brother also adored Marianne Faithfull. “As Tears Go By” is my favorite Marianne song. ---
**Author:** ![Jennshark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Jennshark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jennshark)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2018, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-40-songs-from-your-kidhood-that-are-still-evocative/807985/28 "2018-02-03T23:16:29Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > So, I was born in '75, therefore grew up in the 80s. So, Top 40 music that is still evocative. Let’s see: > > “Purple Rain” by Prince seems to be the one that first comes to mind. There’s no one specific thing it reminds me of, just one general emotion of the 80s. It’s like the song that summed up the best of the Top 40 to me of that decade. > > “99 Luftballons” by Nena. Either German or English version. Just brings me back to the good ol’ memories of nuclear annihilation and Cold War brinksmanship set to a catchy pop number! Also very much encapsulated the 80s for me. > > “Eternal Flame” by the Bangles. First song I slow-danced with a girl to. > > “I Beg Your Pardon” by Kon Kan. It’s rare I hear this in the wild, but, for whatever reason, I was obsessed with this song in 8th grade. It only peaked at #15, and I doubt most people remember this song at all, but it takes me back to my last year of grammar school. I wish I had a more interesting connection, but that’s it. > > “So Far Away” by Dire Straits. First girl I kissed. OK. Years after it was a Top 40 hit, but I was in Poland, fell in “love” with the neighbor girl at my aunt’s farm, kissed her the night before I left, and I had some cheap Eastern European pirate copy of “Brothers in Arms” I had bought a week earlier from a kiosk with me, and that song, quite obviously, spoke to me as I left back to return to the States. > > “Jump” by Van Halen. WGN made me a Cubs fan. I grew up on the South(west) Side of Chicago, where I should have been predestined to be a White Sox fan, but my Polish parents’ lack of guidance in all things baseball and the Cubs day-games-only at home policy and WGN’s coverage of them on broadcast TV brainwashed me into becoming a fan. Somewhere in the mid-80s, Van Halen’s “Jump” became more-or-less a Cubs theme song. Actually, [here’s a beautiful example of it from 1984](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5_ZwCZsGyw) and how it was used in Cubs games. I can’t hear “Jump” to this day without thinking of mid-80s Cubs baseball, for better or worse. Yes to all of these and 600 more from my HS years (this is why I had to cut my list off at jr. high). I’ve found that some '80s songs I despised - like “Jump” - are very evocative now. Please don’t tell anyone, I was a cool New Waver and this would ruin my rep. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2018, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-40-songs-from-your-kidhood-that-are-still-evocative/807985/29 "2018-02-04T00:15:14Z")
“I’m so old I remember when New Wave was.” ---
**Author:** ![california\_jobcase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9d8465/32.png) [@california\_jobcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/california_jobcase)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2018, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-40-songs-from-your-kidhood-that-are-still-evocative/807985/30 "2018-02-04T00:25:55Z")
Melanie- “Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)”, “Look What They’ve Done To My Song,” and “Brand New Key”. Hurricane Smith- “Oh, Babe What would You Say?” The end of Abbey Road still gives me chills after 48 years. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2018, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-40-songs-from-your-kidhood-that-are-still-evocative/807985/31 "2018-02-04T02:00:58Z")
Born in 1950, started paying attention to music when I was about five. I still enjoy these: Rock a Bye Your Baby Nel Blu Dipinto Di Blu Teddy Bear The Blob The Hokey Pokey ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2018, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-40-songs-from-your-kidhood-that-are-still-evocative/807985/32 "2018-02-04T02:41:45Z")
I couldn’t even begin to name them all. Pretty much anything from the middle '70s to early '80s will do it for me. They remind me of a happy, carefree child/teenhood and my early college years. I love some of the cheesiest '70s songs ever, because of that. ---
**Author:** ![betterlifethroughchemistry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/betterlifethroughchemistry/32/3094_2.png) [@betterlifethroughchemistry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betterlifethroughchemistry)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2018, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-40-songs-from-your-kidhood-that-are-still-evocative/807985/33 "2018-02-04T04:10:58Z")
1970, I was eight years old and we had gone to spend Christmas in NH at my mother’s cousin’s house…they had two daughters, one who was probably 13, and one closer to my age…Christmas day, the older girl opened a present, a record album, screamed at the top of her lungs, ran up to her room and proceeded to play said album at high volume over and over again for the rest of our visit…and when I hear CCR play, “Lookin’ Out My Backdoor”, it takes me immediately back to a snowy visit to NH a long time ago…still a great song… Another is “Saturday In the Park”, we spent several summers in my Mom’s hometown in VT, they used to have little concerts in the town park on Saturday evenings, it was mostly oompah bands and local folk singers, but for some reason, whenever I hear that song, it takes me back to summertime playing with my cousins while the band played in the little gazebo… ---
**Author:** ![betterlifethroughchemistry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/betterlifethroughchemistry/32/3094_2.png) [@betterlifethroughchemistry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betterlifethroughchemistry)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2018, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-40-songs-from-your-kidhood-that-are-still-evocative/807985/34 "2018-02-04T04:14:34Z")
> [@california\_jobcase](#): > > Melanie-“Brand New Key”. Yes, this one, too, I remember my Mom humming to it in the kitchen while she made lunch…wow, had totally forgotten that one until I read it and it instantly played in my mind… ---
**Author:** ![betterlifethroughchemistry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/betterlifethroughchemistry/32/3094_2.png) [@betterlifethroughchemistry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betterlifethroughchemistry)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2018, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-40-songs-from-your-kidhood-that-are-still-evocative/807985/35 "2018-02-04T04:19:09Z")
> [@kiz](#): > > I played “I Think I Love You” at full tilt when David Cassidy passed. I’m afraid I may have to surrender all of my Grateful Dead tee shirts, bootleg tapes and Dick’s/Dave’s Picks CDs if I publicly admit that that was the very first album I ever purchased with my allowance money… ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2018, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-40-songs-from-your-kidhood-that-are-still-evocative/807985/36 "2018-02-04T14:14:29Z")
The Irish Rovers–“The Unicorn”. ---
**Author:** ![Ms\_Boods](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Ms\_Boods](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ms_Boods)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2018, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-40-songs-from-your-kidhood-that-are-still-evocative/807985/37 "2018-02-04T14:31:45Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > “Secret Agent Man,” by Johnny Rivers. Theme of the TV show of the same name, aka _ **Danger Man** _ in Great Britain. _Danger Man_ had its own cool theme song, ‘Highwire.’ (Not dissing Johnny Rivers, just pointing out that it was a different tune over here.) [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/4u6jYfJgj-o/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEmCOADEOgC8quKqQMa8AEB-AGwBIAC4AOKAgwIABABGGUgUyhKMA8=&rs=AOn4CLACzYI2HPtrQxRJRfktf90KxRXs-Q "Danger Man Theme - Edwin Astley Orchestra - 1965 45rpm") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4u6jYfJgj-o) (Only a fragment of the tune was used in the USA showing of the programme, just after the opening credits.) ---
**Author:** ![Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/soul_brother_number_two/32/3515_2.png) [@Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul_Brother_Number_Two)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2018, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-40-songs-from-your-kidhood-that-are-still-evocative/807985/38 "2018-02-04T14:39:12Z")
I truly believed that when I reached adulthood, my life would be Dancing in the Moonlight. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2018, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-40-songs-from-your-kidhood-that-are-still-evocative/807985/39 "2018-02-04T15:49:51Z")
> [@betterlifethroughchemistry](#): > > I’m afraid I may have to surrender all of my Grateful Dead tee shirts, bootleg tapes and Dick’s/Dave’s Picks CDs if I publicly admit that that was the very first album I ever purchased with my allowance money… I’ll do you one better: not only was that also the first album I bought with my own money, over the years it disappeared, so when CDs hit the record stores, I bought a Greatest Hits CD. Still got it. So now, I have crystal clear, distortion-free bubble gum. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2018, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-40-songs-from-your-kidhood-that-are-still-evocative/807985/40 "2018-02-04T17:08:18Z")
“Maneater” by Hall and Oates. I was eight or nine at the time, and I thought the line “watch out boy, she’ll chew you up” was hilarious. (I was taking it literally, and loved the idea of a pop song about cannibalism.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-40-songs-from-your-kidhood-that-are-still-evocative/807985.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-40-songs-from-your-kidhood-that-are-still-evocative/807985.md?page=3)