One fateful day a few years ago, after much warning that baby boomers had to spend more money on advertisers' products and services, my ears were assaulted by some jarring hip-hop number. Fox 97 was no longer an oldies station. How would I start my day without Randy and Spiff's "Stupid Criminal" stories and the tunes that made me feel good (and young)? A little of Delilah, "The Queen of Sappy Love Songs," was okay at night but the mornings needed help.
Well, joy to the world ("and all the little fishies in the deep blue sea") -- we now have a new oldies station, 106.7. I guess every generation identifies with the popular songs of their youth and my teenage years have a sound track of Beach Boys, Simon and Garfunkle, and all the groups that were part of the British Invasion. My neighbor, Nancy, and I argued about which group, the Beatles or the Dave Clark Five, would last longer. She won.
Just hearing the Temptations, the Four Tops, the Supremes or any of the Motown crowd makes me jump up (not while driving) and move around like someone possessed. My poor cat becomes frozen and just stares at me and I know she's thinking, "uh, oh, here she goes again."
Nostalgia is the core of the oldies and they bring back sweet memories. The fast songs are fun to sing along with and the slow ones epitomize my teenage view of romance: The Righteous Brothers singing "Ebb Tide," and the Duprees crooning "You Belong to Me." My all-time favorite song is still "Words" by the Bee Gees.
Randy and Spiff are back to ushering in the morning program with their goofy wit and conversations with listeners. The DJ of the afternoon is Scott Shannon whose raspy voice and slightly arrogant manner can be annoying but that's okay because he plays great songs.
To quote a golden oldie: "It's the kind of music that soothes the soul; I like that old-time rock and roll."
7 comments:
I'm with you! I love the oldies. Hubby and I stayed up last weekend late watching an infomercial (seriously) hosted by Bobby Goldsboro (his hair still looks painted on) and some woman I didn't recognize. They were hawking a Time Life series of CDs featuring songs of the 60s and 70s. There really was some terrific music to come out of that era. The big surprise? My 16-year-old knew a lot of the songs!
See what a good parenting job you did -- passing on the oldies to your kids. I've watched those infomercials too -- they're addictive.
Well, I couldn't stop watching once I recognized Bobby. I used to cry every time I heard "Honey".
I know what you mean. That song was so sad and I thought the disc jockey at the time it was out was rude when he said, "Now he has nothing left but a sticky life." I unfortunately remember the worst stuff.
I don't know where you've been, my friend, but perhaps this swell award will lure you back to the blogosphere!
You'll have to check out the Hall of fame to get it-now, git along, Scarlett-run like the wind! :-)
We must be about the same age because those songs are my songs too! I don't care what anyone else says, growing up in the 60's was THE BEST!! What other decade can claim the beginning ofso many styles of music? The 60s had the Beach Boys and the California sound, The Temptations, 4 Tops, Supremes, Stevie Wonder and the Motown sound (my fav since I grew up in Detroit), the Beatles and the British invasion, AND the soft rock/folk lyricists like Simon & Garfunkel, Joni Mitchell, Peter Paul, and Mary. What a decade!!!
Glad to share an award from Cathy with you! I've joined your blog as a follower. Now come on over and check out mine!
Gail
www.writefromthesoulvisualeyes.blogspot.com
I will definitely do that, Gail -- so glad to hear from you.
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