Childhood Music Memories

When I think back to my childhood, it seems to have begun upon moving to Long Island with my family, even though I had just turned eight years old.  There are scattered memories of the years prior to moving to Long Island, but for all intents and purposes, my childhood memories begin in December of 1976.

This important time in my life was marked by the music that moved me during these formative years.  Personally, I define my childhood as the years leading up to Junior High School, so it's not surprising that my childhood music memories all fall between the years of 1975 and 1980.  Looking back, it seems that these were not only my formative years for life, but for music as well. 

In 1981 I was about to start Junior High School.  A month or so before my first day of Junior High School music was forever changed for me because of a phenomenon called MTV.  I was at sleep away camp when the channel launched on August 1, 1981 with a song by The Buggles called "Video Killed The Radio Star."  Upon returning home just a few weeks later, I was instantly addicted to MTV.  By the time September came around, my parents were threatening to cancel our cable service because I spent countless hours fascinated by this new medium.

In 1977, long before the debut of MTV, I can still remember listening to a variety of artists.  Some of this music was released in 1975 and 1976, but overall, 1977 is the year that music really started becoming important to me.  I can still picture my father goofing around and singing "Saturday Night" by the Bay City Rollers to us in our kitchen.  It was a catchy song, that would probably still get stuck in my head if I heard it today, but it means something to me because it reminds me of spending time as a family.  My father passed away, but his inspiration lives on, as I am now the musical clown for my children.  I may be the one making them laugh, but it is with his spirit in my heart guiding me.

As a family, we also enjoyed the soundtrack to both of John Travolta's classic movies - Grease and Saturday Night Fever.  To this day, I'm still not sure if I like the movies so much because of the music or vice versa, but these soundtracks have never lost their appeal for me.  There is another song that came out around this time that reminds me of a family trip that we took up to the Catskill Mountains for winter break.  It is kind of corny, and definitely a one-hit wonder, but I still like it because of the memories that it invokes.  I can still picture us skating around the covered outdoor ice rink of the Stevensville Hotel as "Pop Muzik" by an artist called "M" blared from the speakers above our heads.

A few other one-hit wonders bring me back to those days although no family memories come rushing back when I hear them.  The first one was wildly popular, and many people today probably still remember when Ruppert Holmes helped us all to "Escape" while having a surprise rendezvous with his own wife.  Click here to read the lyrics to the song if you're unsure about what I'm talking about.  The other one-hit wonder was more obscure.  Some people may remember Alan O'Day's "Undercover Angel," but many others may not.  It is a song that has a distinct 70's sound to it, but I still turn the radio up if it ever comes on.

There was one more band that many would probably consider to be a one-hit wonder, but they actually had two popular songs off of their album called "Get The Knack."  Most people will remember The Knack's ever-so-popular song "My Sharona," but few probably remember that they had another song off of their debut album that was fairly popular called "Good Girls Don't."

Aside from the one-hit wonders, my musical tastes were starting to evolve as I became a fan of a number of artists as well during this time.  I can still remember being in my friend's house listening to his sister's copy of Styx's "Grand Illusion" and thinking that it was one of the best albums that I'd ever heard.  It wasn't long before I went out and bought it myself.

During my time at sleep away camp, it seemed like the whole camp was listening to the Billy Joel records that became instant classics (The Stranger, 52^nd Street and Glass Houses).  Each one of these records seemed to have one track better than the next, and very little in the way of the filler that most albums inevitably have.  Another artist that brings me back to my sleep away camp days is The Cars.  Their two classic albums (The Cars and Candy-O) are still very nostalgic to me.  To this day, I can't hear the song "Just What I Needed" without cranking it up.

I can still remember some of the albums that I got as gifts for the holidays from my parents.  The two that stick out most in my mind are Meat Loaf's "Bat Out Of Hell" and the classic KISS album "Alive II."  While Meat Loaf took many years to put out his next album, KISS seemed to put them out with great regularity.  Many die-hard KISS fans think of their album "Dynasty" as the disco version of KISS, but I still think that it's a great album, with the most popular song being "I Was Made For Lovin' You."  This album also came with a poster, which was displayed proudly in my room for many years.

It was during this time of my life that I also became a huge fan of Queen's music.  Like most popular bands, Queen seemed to put out an album each year.  During one short stretch of time, Queen released "A Night At The Opera," "News Of The World" and "Jazz."  These albums gave us the classic Queen songs "Bohemian Rhapsody," "You're My Best Friend," "We Will Rock You," "We Are The Champions," "Bicycle Race" and "Fat Bottom Girls." There was a poster included in the "Jazz" album that also was hung on my wall for quite some time before my mother saw it and thought that it should be taken down.  If you've ever seen the poster, you'd understand why.

In recent years, I found the autograph book that we were given before we graduated sixth grade.  These books featured multi-colored pages and were given to us to have our classmates sign before moving on to Junior High School.  I can still remember the "clever" things written by my fellow classmastes like "on this page of pinky pink, I write my name in stinky ink, oh my gosh, what a scream, I just realized this page is green."  Obviously, the wit of sixth graders back then left a lot to be desired.  However, the reason that I bring this book up is because it allowed space to list your favorites.  My personal favorite songs listed in my autograph book in 1980 were "Refugee" by Tom Petty and "Heartbreaker" by Pat Benatar.

There was one music video and song that I absolutely loved.  It came out in 1981 while I was in Junior High School, but it was too memorable to leave out.  It is "Centerfold" by J. Geils Band.  As soon as those first few notes came on, it was time to turn up MTV as loud as it would go.  I suggest that you do the same as you watch the video for yourself...