When I hear the song (blank) it makes me think of (blank)

So, I’m at the doctor’s office this morning, waiting to get my COVID booster. The radio in the waiting room starts playing “Funky Town” by Lipps, Inc. Every time I hear that song, it makes me think of the “Malcolm In The Middle” episode where Hal is teaching Malcolm how to roller skate.

(Also, in the “obvious stuff you just now realized” category, “Lipps, Inc” = “lip sync”. :man_facepalming:t2:)

Every time I hear the song “Moving in Stereo” from the Cars, I think of Phoebe Cates’ breasts, and have thought that ever since Fast Times at Ridgemont High came out.

On the rare occasion I hear “Windy,” the 1967 hit by the Association, I think of a girl I knew in high school. She was very much like the girl in the song, a kind of “hippie chick” of the time. I lost touch with her, and always wondered what became of her. I was saddened to find, long afterward, that she had died, only in her 30s. I never found out how or why. I don’t hear that song often anymore, but I always think of Billie when I do.

I imagine many people, like I do, have tons of these, so I’ll just mention a few.

Little River Band’s Reminiscing will always make me think of Magic Mountain (SoCal) in the late 70s. The sound of it on the loudspeakers as me and my pals walked around our favorite place is not only engrained in my mind but my friends from that time say the same thing.

When John Mellancamp’s Hurts so Good comes on the radio I immediately picture the bar scene from Footloose.

When I hear “Stuck in The Middle with You” I think of the torture scene from Reservoir Dogs

When I hear “The Song Remembers When” by Trisha Yearwood, a song about how songs trigger memories, I remember the stretch of road I was on when I contemplated what memory I would associate with the song.

Robert Palmer’s “Addicted to Love” was all over the damn place when the missus and I were on our honeymoon. So that’s been a pretty strong association for me ever since.

Aqualung.

Takes me right back to college days. I’d come home after summer classes and laze around the pool.

Taking classes in the summer in college was a really nice experience I like to recall.

Gimme Shelter.

Also college summer school days. But goes back to the jukebox in the student union.

96 Tears.

Another jukebox memory provoker. Lunch in the high school cafeteria. And this was some years after it was a hit and still someone would play it (and only it) almost every day.

Ring of Fire.

People would bring transistor radios out to the berry fields where we picked berries as a summer job as kids. When Johnny started to sing people all over would yell “Turn it up!”. Yeah, making 5 or 6 cents a pound. Big money.

“These Dreams” by Heart.

When I was in 8th grade, I went to an orientation at the high school that I would be attending the following year. They played some hokey videotape about how wonderful high school would be. “These Dreams” was a prominent feature of the video. Because, you know, being a high school student is living the dream!

The first two that popped into my head before reading the thread both link to That 70s Show.

Bad Blood, by Neil Sedaka and Elton John, reminds me of the episode where Eric went to work with his mom Kitty, who was a nurse at the time. One of her favorite patients dies during her shift, and on their way home, Eric’s trying to talk to Kitty about it but she cranks up this song on the radio and sings over him, gets him singing too. It’s a good song and a funny scene, but I also find it touching.

The other song is Tell Me Something Good, by Rufus. Eric walks in on his parents having sex while this song is on the radio. After that, the song pops up again and again, forcing Eric to relive the horror of that moment. Poor bastard. :smile:

“Ring of Fire” reminds me of the day my roommate and I invented the legendary Ring of Fire Dance. Sitting around the house one hot summer day, listening to the college radio station, when “Ring of Fire” came on. We both jumped up and started dancing around the living room in a big circle, including on and over the furniture. There may have been beer involved.

Every song from the 1970s makes me think of what radio station in what city I was working at when I first heard it. In fact, there are songs I keep on my playlist that I otherwise wouldn’t listen to at all if they didn’t remind me of X.

Double Van Halen/Saturday Night Live associations:

  • “Beautiful Girls” makes me thirsty for a Schmitt’s Gay beer

  • “Right Now” makes makes me hungry for Crystal Gravy

Boys Of Summer / Cindy S, the one that got away. It’s been more than 35 years since we broke up and I still get a powerfully bittersweet feeling every time I hear that song.

The song Dream a Little Dream was used in Stranger Things. I can never hear that song without thinking of a scene from the movie Dream a Little Dream.

I’m not complaining.

That one reminds me of the 1989 Cubs, who unexpectedly won the National League East division. They were nicknamed the “Boys of Zimmer” after manager Don Zimmer. After the last home game of the regular season when the division title was almost wrapped up, the team did a victory lap around Wrigley Field as that song was playing.

I can think of a couple dozen songs that… Nope, we’re having guests overnight, and I’ve GOT to get cleaning!

(Sorry. If I hadn’t stopped myself, I’d’ve been here for two hours listing songs and the places/people/experiences they evoke. Seems like my whole life has a soundtrack running in the background.)

When I hear Oh Yeah by Yello it makes me think of cool Ferraris.

…and that young lady ended up marrying Patton Oswalt.

I had a male friend who was roommates with a man I used to date. The three of us were quite close. My friend and I rode horses together a lot and talked about everything. Well, nearly everything, as it turns out.

One night when I came to the club where my boyfriend worked as a bouncer, he came up to me immediately and was beside himself in tears. Our friend had killed himself that day. Stupid suicide over a woman.

This song was playing, and to this day, whenever I hear it, I remember my friend.

And I always think of my last home when this song comes on, because everyone called it this:

We had some rockin’ times there. :smiley: