We pulled into the parking lot right as the song started playing, and our hands collided when we both tried to turn up the volume. It's the type of song where you drive around the block one more time, or you sit in the driveway or parking lot, just to listen to it. I have a theory: songs on the radio sound better than they do anywhere else. You can't rewind and listen to them over and over, and there's something special about knowing that those songs are heard by hundreds of other people as you're listening to them.
When that first song started playing in the parking lot, he sighed and turned to me. "This is a heart song," he said. Songs like that bring back an immediate rush of memories.
Wherever You Will Go, by the Calling, is one of those songs. It plays at the end of the video tape version of the Stanley Cup- the year that the Colorado Aves won. I can't count how many times I've watched their victory, scoring that goal over and over through our old VCR player. It brings back memories of living in Colorado as a little girl, where hockey is the kind of sport that matters. It makes me nostalgic for a place that I haven't missed in a long time.
Whenever I heard 100 Years, by Five for Fighting, I'm back in the bottom bunk of my small, ground floor bedroom, in Amman, trying not to cry on that first night away from home. I flipped through the songs on my dad's iPhone until I found this one, and it was on repeat until I fell asleep. I listened to that song countless times when I was fifteen..."Fifteen for a moment/ caught in between ten and twenty." All of my memories from that summer play with this song in the background.
Lastly, and most recently, is We Are Young. Fun sings this song in the background of the Chevy commercial. I first heard it that night during the Superbowl. My friend Tyler and I sang the chorus all night long, before going home and looking it up. Last Wednesday, we listened to it while my best friend interpretive danced while she drove her car. It's tied to so many memories and moments from the last month and a half.
What are some of your heart songs?
xo
katie
ps. compiled on spotify, for your listening pleasure.
Definitely going to go check these songs out! :) Some of my heart songs, as you put them, are New Soul by Yael Naim, Wash Away by Joe Purdy, and Better Together by Jack Johnson, and not because they remind me of certain moments, but because they make me think, and every time I hear them I am drawn in to listen :)
ReplyDelete:D. I LOVE driving and listening to "We Are Young" on the radio :D
ReplyDeleteI've never thought about radio songs like how you described them in the first paragraph. So true!
ReplyDeletei can totally relate. music really can bring back a boatload of memories - good or bad.
ReplyDeletegreat post.(:
oh i've got way too many heart songs to compile into one list. but i find myself listening to 'atlas hands' and 'safe and sound' a lot lately.
ReplyDeletethere is a reason i follow this blog, and that is because it is inspiring. heart-warming and it makes me feel happy and want to turn the radio on. i love the radio. and i love this post.
ReplyDeleteHmmm....Some of my heart songs would be "Sparks Fly" by Taylor Swift, "All I want for Christmas is You" by Mariah Carey, and "I Dreamed of You" by some country artist.
ReplyDeleteOne of mine is "To be with you" by The Honey Trees... You guys totally got me obsessed with The Honey Trees from your March playlist. THANK YOU!
ReplyDeleteoh, i had never heard 'we are young' before! what a great song!♥
ReplyDeletexo,
J
i love love love all the songs you've mentioned! i am so happy i know some of them because i am always behind on the hits.
ReplyDeleteI'm obsessed with music. Whenever I'm out by myself (or with people for that matter) I always have my favorite music playing in my ear. In the years to come, I think the music that I listen constantly right now will bring back SO many memories and will always remind me of the years I spent in Suzhou, China. I actually just started a notebook where I write down all the music I listen to everyday and kinda what I was doing while I listened to it. I'm really happy about it :)
ReplyDeleteWonderful post Katie! xx, Annie.
I LOVE "100 Years" by Five for Fighting. So emotional.
ReplyDeleteOne of my heart songs is "Ocean Avenue" by Yellowcard. Me and my brothers listened to it all. The. Time.
I just read this comment and it made me smile because Oceam Avenue is great.
DeleteAny song by Dar Williams will always remind me of sitting in the car on hot summer days with my mum, waiting for my brother. And our family sat at a festival, listening to Foals. And more recently, seeing my friend sing Sparks Fly at a gig and feeling overwhelmed by how crazytalented she is.
ReplyDeleteMy interpretive dancing is the bomb. We should do that again, without licking the driver.
ReplyDeleteI loved this post Katie.
ReplyDeleteSo so much. But I decided I won't music nerd out about it.
100 years is wonderful.
Wonderwall used to be a heart song, but I might have overplayed it.
Closer to Fine by the indigo girls.
Pinch me by BNL.
Sometime around midnight by the airborne toxic event.
Don't let them see you cry by Manchester Orchestra.
We really need to bring our music collections along when we hangout. I feel like you're the perfect person to listen to music with.
Anything Switchfoot, pretty much. That's my whole heart. <3
ReplyDeleteAbbie /// XOXOX