Sing Along Songs

Music is kinda my 'thing' . . . it's a huge part of my life, and it always has been.

Jim jokes that I can beat anyone you know at "Name that Tune." He's right. I have this uncanny knack for knowing the name and artist for many, many pop and country songs. I have won 2 separate contests . . . once at a time-share resort in Mexico, I won a 'name tha tune' contest and we got a free appetizer. On a cruise, I came in 2nd to a DJ -- who I considered to be drastically over-qualified for the competition. Really, I got a trophy for that cruise-ship contest, so I consider it a win.


Not only do I recognize the song, but if it was released between about 1985 and now, I can often tell you the year it was originally playing on the radio. I associate so many of my memories and so much of my life with music . . . I just think back to when I remember hearing it, and I can ususally pin the year without hesitation.

For example . . . and I swear, I did NOT look any of these up, so there is the potential that I'm off by a year or a season . . .

• Madonna, "Like a Prayer" -- 1988, 5th grade when we lived in New Hampshire(incidentally, I can do this with just about every song on her 'Immaculate Collection' CD -- it's like my entire childhood on disk)


• Blind Melon, "No Rain" -- spring 1994, right after I got my driver's liscense


• Alanis Morisette, "You Outta Know" -- late 1995, early 1996, right as I was about to graduate high school


• The Cardigans, "Love Me, Love Me" -- fall 1996, my freshman year at UGA


• Justin Timberlake, "Bringin' Sexy Back" -- summer of 2006, right after Meg was born


• Amy Winehouse, "Back to Black" -- spring of 2008, when I was pregnant with Kate

Those were the first few that jumped into my head. I could literally go on and on.



So I know the song and the date . . . and many times, most of the words, too. My love of lyrics literally fills more of my brain than I care to admit. I hear a song once, and it sticks . . . it's just how my memory works. My cousin, 10 years my junior, once told her school-age friends when we were all driving around town one summer day, "My cousin, she knows the words to every song on the radio." She must have been about 8 yrs old, making me about 18 . . . and I still have that ability to sing along to this day.

And sing along I do -- oh, do I ever. In the car, I am like a freakin' American Idol applicant or something. I sing along to everything. Sometimes I turn on certain CDs and sing the same song over and over . . . if it's the kind that suits my voice and I think sounds great.

Jim says I have a nice voice. He actually seems to like to hear me sing, so I oblige him most of the time when we are in the car together.

The heartbreaker: Meg has started putting the brakes on my car rides full of sing along songs. From the backseat, I hear, "No Mommy Sing!" from my two year old. My heart dropped the first time she did it. She doesn't want me to sing?! I thought. My dreams of mommy-daughter sing alongs are on hold for now . . . the kid hardly lets me get a note out these days before she requests that I knock it off. "Please don't sing, Mommy," is what I've taught her to say. If she's going to shoot me down, at least she could be polite about it.

As I sit here and type, Kate is in my lap, "AAAhhhhh-ing" away and making all kinds of baby noises. I think she's trying to sing.

Maybe she gets it from her mom.