The Soundtrack of Your Life

As a baby of the late 60s, my most impressionable musical years were in the 70's. I love music; it invokes such enjoyable feelings in me and even when I'm feeling my worst hearing a certain song can just lift my spirit. There are particular songs that when I hear them they just transport me back in time. I think most people will tell you that there are certain songs that are a soundtrack for their life. For example: When I hear "Disco Duck" by Rick Dees, I'm transported to my mother's living room in Harlem and dancing around the living room with my cousin Donna. The Brother's Johnson- "Get the Funk out of my Face", reminds me when my cousin Ronald and I would sing "Get the F*** out of my Face" because we wanted to use a curse word and think we were grown.

Soundtracks that that will always hold a special place in my heart are "Saturday Night Fever", "Thank God It's Friday", these are albums that even today I can listen to from beginning to end and not want to skip one song. Music was something special in my parent's home as well; my father had an (imaginary) love affair with Donna Summers & Diana Ross. One of our favorite past times was to sit down across from one another and sing the songs together to see who would mess up the lyrics first. My mom's major crush was with Barry White and the O'Jays she has every single one of Barry's albums, even the Unlimited Orchestras instrumentals.

I of course grew up during the Motown phenomenon and I blame Berry Gordy for making me a romantic. Even to this day, I fall in love with a song just by hearing or reading the lyrics, once I feel the song in my heart I am a goner. The music of the 70's is where my love for R&B music came from, I would sing the words to all the love songs and I would dedicate the songs to the boys I liked in school. My mother still has the albums and if you were to look at each album cover you could tell what boy I had a crush in that moment of time. My favorite song during my pre-teen years was the O'Jays - "Cry Together" -even at the age of 11 years old I knew this was the kind of love I wanted to have.

Variety shows were big in the 70's, and growing up it was something my mother and I shared a love for. We would watch Captain & Tennille - "Love Will Keep Us Together", "Do That To Me One More Time"; Tony Orlando & Dawn - "Tie a Yellow Ribbon on the Old Oak Tree", "Knock Three Times" just to name a few. Those were the days, laying across my mother's bed and singing along to all the songs. I didn't realize it at the time but music was a very large part of my life; I don't ever remember not loving whatever music was on the radio or on television for that matter.

I didn't know there was a difference between Country Music, Rock & Roll, R&B or Top 40 Music. For example whenever I hear a song by the Carpenters, "We've Only Just Begun"; "Rainy Days and Mondays"; "They Long to Be- Close to You"; it always reminds me of being at my grandmother's house on a rainy day and not being able to go outside and my only outlet was the radio.

I wasn't until my honeymoon that I even realized how influential television theme songs were in my life. On our honeymoon, my husband and I played a game where we had to listen to the first line of a song and guess the name of the TV show. The theme songs on today's shows aren't produced or even written the way they were 30 years ago. Try this out as a comparison; think about the theme songs on today's shows and compare them to the first few lines of the songs below.

All In The Family - Boy the way Glen Miller played/ Songs that made the hit parade. / Guys like us we had it made, /those were the days....

The Brady Bunch - Here's the story of a lovely lady / Who was bringing up three very lovely girls. / All of them had hair of gold, like their mother, The youngest one in curls...

Happy Days - Sunday, Monday, Happy Days, / Tuesday, Wednesday, Happy Days, / Thursday, Friday, Happy Days, ? Saturday, what a day, Rockin all week with you...

The Jefferson's - Well we're movin on up, To the east side. / To a deluxe apartment in the sky. / Movin on up To the east side. / We finally got a piece of the pie....

Welcome Back Kotter - Welcome back, / Your dreams were your ticket out. / Welcome back, / To that same old place that you laughed about....

Different Strokes - Now, the world don't move to the beat of just one drum, / What might be right for you, may not be right for some. / A man is born, he's a man of means. /Then along come two, they got nothing but their jeans./ But they got, Diff'rent Strokes....

Greatest American Hero - Look at what's happened to me, / I can't believe it myself. / Suddenly I'm up on top of the world, / It should've been somebody else. / Believe it or not, /I'm walking on air....

The Love Boat - Love, exciting and new / Come Aboard. We're expecting you. / Love, life's sweetest reward. /Let it flow, it floats back to you....

Three's Company - Come and knock on our door / We've been waiting for you / Where the kisses are hers and hers and his / Three's company, too...

I'll admit I had to look some of these lyrics up, but it was great to see how many I remembered by just thinking back to what was a much simpler time. You know growing up I use to hear my parents always talk about how simpler times were back in their day. Now that I've gotten older and grown a little wiser I realize it's not that times were necessarily simpler, it was more that we didn't realize how good life was for us then with no responsibilities. As an adult there are so many things going on, and life just seems to encroach on your every move that all you have are the memories of yesteryear. Today's music and television shows leave a lot to be desired. Don't get me wrong I have three Tivo's in my home so I absolutely love TV but it's just not the same. I realize nowadays there are more reality television shows then regular shows but hopefully our kids will be able to look back to the 90's and the early 2000's and have great memories like we do.

I hope this article brought back some memories of your younger years; and if nothing else, I hope it put a smile on your face.