Music Monday VIII

A real life Spice Girl. 

This weeks Music Monday theme is songs of my childhood, songs that I can hear anytime, anywhere and instantly be zapped back to the past.

Everybody Loves Somebody by Dean Martin

If there is one musical artists that always makes me think of my dad it's Dean Martin. This song makes me feel like I'm 8 years old sitting in the back of the car at night, coming back from dinner while he belts it out. 

Doctor Jones by Aqua

I'm pretty sure I completely destroyed by Aquarium CD because I played it that many times. I vividly remember always playing it from our Playstation 1, so it would blast while all the coloured patterns would play on our tiny little TV and I would make up dances in our front room. 

Anthem for the Year 2000 by Silverchair

The Neon Ballroom album cover alone is very nostalgic for me as my older brother had it stuck to his bedroom door and I would stare at it while banging away begging him to come and hang out with me. Aside from that, I remember the first time I saw the video for this song and being so FUCKING scared. I have definitely mentioned on this blog that I love 90's Silverchair, even though my first real memory of them was paralyzing fear that the weird robot lady was going to kill us all when we hit the year 2000, 19 years later I've finally accepted I'm probably safe. 

Never Give Up On The Good Times by Spice Girls

Spiceworld, another album I overplayed and loved every minute of. I even had a photoshoot where I replicated all the poses from the album booklet.....see above, it's the only one I could find,.

Hello by The Cat Empire

As far as I can remember The Cat Empire was my very first concert, and still one of my favourite bands. My favourite thing about this song when it blew up was that it used to really piss my brother off when I would sing the "Hello Hello" bit because he said I was doing it wrong. Really drove him fucking crazy, great times. 

The Young New Mexican Puppeteer by Tom Jones 

While my parents were divorcing my dad temporarily moved into the Granny Flat attached to my house that was empty after my Grandma passed away (what a fun sentence). My brother and I would go and sleep over (Sam slept on the couch and I slept on the floor...our bedrooms were literally 20 steps away, so looking back it made no sense...but still). We used to always beg my Dad to play this song as it was our favourite. I was only about 4 or 5 years old and although a confusing time, I actually really loved that time in my life.

Lovefool by The Cardigans

Speaking of that time in my life! Around that same time my mums friend Anne was constantly at our house. There are a few things that stick out in my mind about Anne- her flame nails, the time we made ANZAC biscuits accidentally full of salt and this song. 

Ring Ring by ABBA

I did a dancing recital to this when I was five years old. To keep things full circle here is a video of my dad, brother and I dancing to it in said granny flat from above story.

Pour Some Sugar on Me by Def Leppard

Now I know what you are thinking, what an inappropriate song to remind you of your childhood! You can bring that up with my mother. I remember the day she played it the first time so well for some reason, singing it as she made dinner. The funniest thing is that I was discussing this with a friend of mine years ago and she had the same exact memory with the song, I think it's just a rite of passage. 

One for Sorrow by Steps

Steps belong in that same club with Aqua and Spice Girls. I was obsessed. The reason I chose this song in particular is that my next-door neighbour and I used to love to make up dance routines. A handful stick out in particular....the time we performed a full dance routine to Whenever, Wherever by Shakira on her balcony hoping someone would walk by and see, the time we broke it down to Whole Again by Atomic Kitten in her carport while her parents laughed at us for pretending to start a car for  the line "You still turn me on", the last routine we ever made up to Bounce by Sarah Connor right before I moved to the USA or this one. I remember some of the dance moves even though it was about 18 years ago. Side note: We used to always have fake characters whenever we were out in public, and in the case of our Steps alter-egos I was Lisa and she was Faye but both of our boyfriends were Lee....because neither of us wanted H...sorry H. 

Genie in a Bottle by Christina Aguilera

My favourite memory of this song is that one Christmas we all sat around and played charades and every time it was my turn I would put my hands over my head and pretend I was in a bottle while my family and friends exhaustedly exclaimed it was Genie in a bottle and I needed to get my shit together and pick a new song next turn....fat chance...Genie in a bottle until I die.  

Prisoner of Society by The Living End

Recently my older brother and I got drunk, reminisced about our childhood and screamed this song at each other in a bar in Brooklyn. 

I'm Gonna Getcha Good by Shania Twain

Similarly to Pour Some Sugar on Me this falls into a list of songs I categorize as "The Winamp Years." I'm not even sure if Winamp was the program we used...but still. When I was around 8 or 9, I remember hanging around in my school uniform in the early evening, hanging out with my mum while she cooked dinner and we listened to music. This was one of our favourites.