Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of stuff that I used to listen to back in high school and early college. Whether it’s because a lot of memorable stuff happened in those years or because the music was just that good, I always find myself leaning back and just enjoying myself when these songs come up on shuffle.
I listen to all kinds of music, honestly. I listen to movie soundtracks, I listen to brainless pop, Finnish screamo, ska, classical, punk, ’40s big band jazz, indie hipster stuff, Broadway musicals, everything. But I feel like, right around my late teens and early 20s, I found myself listening to some seriously choice music and nothing I’ve found since then has quite compared. I have this shortlist of nostalgic songs that always bring me into a really, really good mood. I thought I’d share:
- Tonic – If You Could Only See
- The Offspring – The Kids Aren’t Alright
- Fastball – The Way
- The Fugees – Killing Me Softly
- Eagle-Eye Cherry – Save Tonight
- Deep Blue Something – Breakfast at Tiffany’s
- Incubus – Drive
- The Verve Pipe – The Freshmen
- The Wallflowers – One Headlight
- Semisonic – Closing Time
There are so many others, honestly. But without fail, if one of these songs comes up on shuffle, I just kind of sit back and bask in it. I’ll crank it up if it’s not already blasting. Sometimes I’ll even sing along. A couple of these songs (‘The Way’ and ‘The Freshmen’) are even on my top 25 songs of all time list, which I put together on a whim a few weeks ago after discussing favorites with my roommate.
How about you, modest readership? What never fails to get you in a good mood when you hear it?
‘The Freshman’ always makes me want to cry, for some reason. It’s a lovely song though.
AND I LOVED INCUBUS SO MUCH IN HIGH SCHOOL. ‘Drive’ was like, my freaking anthem I swear.
I think for me, it depends on my mood. C&C is sad music, but if I’m in a certain mood it can put me in a good mood when I hear it. But I find whimsy, folksy music always makes me smile. Same with boppy, pop tunes. Just depends.
I’m a weirdo because I can’t listen to these or many other songs from high school because they have the opposite effect on me, LOL.
The Beatles always put me in a good mood and for some reason, the album A Hard Day’s Night always brings me back to my freshman year of high school. And Alanis Morrissette never fails to remind me of middle school.
Every single one of those songs is one that I can’t help singing along to, even if I DON’T WANNA.
Good list.
That’s a rather choice list, I must say.
I’d add that pretty much anything “grunge” does that to me. Alice in Chains is definitely my “OOOHHH YEAH!” band of all time. Especially “I Know Something.” It starts out James Brown before going metal.