POX: Songs the Immediately Remind you of your Early Childhood and take your mind somewhere slightly indefinable when you hear them

That's all I've got right now.

how could I have forgotten those?????

The part in "Mr.Jaws" where he plays "wouldn't you give your hand to a friend" still haunts me to this day. And makes me laugh.

A bunch of other stuff

Now, I truly feel old, yet young again in a pleasant sort of way.

...just off the top of my head. can-con too ;-)

Steve Miller -- Abracadabra
Sister Slegde -- We Are Family
The Supremes -- You Keep Me Hanging On
Bonnie Pointer -- He's the Greatest Dancer
Anita Ward -- Ring My Bell
The Beatles -- She Loves You
Michael Jackson -- Billie Jean
Hues Corporation -- Rock the Boat (not to make it look like I'm following suit with others on this thread, but this song really was huge around my house back in the day. Remembering this song blasting from the turntable are my most lucid musical memories of the 70's (which are scant))
Stephen Bishop -- On and On
Air Supply -- Even the Nights are Better (I had to google the title to remember who sang this song ... omg Air Supply !! ...)

These are 10 I would hear quite frequently on my parents' car radio. Usually tuned to CKLW, one of the greatest, most influential American radio stations of the era. (Altho it wasn't actually located in the USA but rather in Windsor, Ontario - "South of Detroit", as Chuck Eddy would say.) To the five-year-old me, most of these sounded oddly spooky but exciting. I'd bounce all around the back seat - NOBODY wore safety belts in those days!

There are others. Many, many, many others: I had to narrow this down from a list of 23 and could've kept going from there. I am blessed with a very sharp memory for events after three & a half (which in my case is late '74).

All the folk songs (John Denver/Peter Paul & Mary stuff) my mom used to sing me to sleep with, though, totally qualify for this POX.

Listen to me, baby, you got to understand
You're old enough to know the makings of a man
Listen to me, baby, it's hard to settle down
Am I asking too much for you to stick around

Every boy wants a girl
He can trust to the very end
Baby, that's you
Won't you wait but 'til then

When I see lips beggin' to be kissed (Stop!)
I can't stop (Stop!) I can't stop myself
(Stop! Stop!)

Lightnin's striking again
Lightnin's striking again

Nature's takin' over my one-track mind
Believe it or not, you're in my heart all the time
All the girls are sayin' that you'll end up a fool
For the time being, baby, live by the rules

When I settle down
I want one baby on my mind
Forgive and forget
And I'll make up for all lost time

If she's put together fine and she's readin' my mind (Stop!)
I can't stop (Stop!) I can't stop myself
(Stop! Stop!)

Lightnin's striking again
Lightnin's striking again and again and again and again

Lightnin's striking again
Lightnin's striking again

There's a chapel in the pines
Waiting for us around the bend
Picture in your mind
Love forever, but 'til then

If she gives me a sign that she wants to make time (Stop!)
I can't stop (Stop!) I can't stop myself
(Stop! Stop!)

Lightnin's striking again
Lightnin's striking again and again and again and again
Lightnin's striking again and again and again and again

When I was young I didn't quite understand the concept of overdubs and thought albums were recorded in one big room in one take (I think my Spike Jones album had something to do with this). "I Am The Walrus" was probably the most fascinating/horrifying song of my childhood, full of inexplicable, hallucinatory noises. While spinning my parents copy of the Blue best-of on my fisher-price LP player, I'd go through periods of desperately skipping the track or making myself sit on my hands and endure what sounded basically like the portal to hell being opened. Sometimes when I hear something with dark hyperproduction like Songs For The Deaf or that Trail Of Dead album I wish I could send a copy back to my elementary-school self so he can ponder it like he pondered the whole R=4 thing on the cover of Green.

(Chorus- woman's voice)

Daddy please don't
It wasn't his fault
He means so much to me
Daddy please don't
We're gonna get married
Just you wait and see

Every night, the same old dream
I hate to close my eyes
I can't erase the memory
The sound of Julie's cry

She called me up, late that night
She said, "Joe, don't come over,
My Dad and I just had a fight
And he stormed out the door!

I've never seen him act this way,
My God, he's goin' crazy
He said he's gonna make you pay
For what we done-- he's got a GUN
so run, Joey run, Joey run!"

(Chorus- woman's voice)

Daddy please don't
It wasn't his fault
He means so much to me
Daddy please don't
We're gonna get married
Just you wait and see

I got in my car, and drove like mad
Til I reached Julie's place
She ran to me, with tear-filled eyes
And bruises on her face!

All at once I saw him there,
Sneaking up the driveway (Woman's voice: Watch out!)
Julie yelled, "He's got a gun!"
And she stepped in front of me

Then suddenly, a shot rang out
And I saw Julie falling
I ran to her, I held her close
When I looked down, my hands were red
And here's the last words Julie said

(Woman's voice)

Daddy please don't
It wasn't his fault
He means so much to me
Daddy please don't
We're gon...na get... mar...ried......

Run, Joey run, Joey run, Joey run, Joey run, Joey run, Joey ruuuuuunn!!!

billy joel - uptown girl
mike oldfield - moonlight shadow
madonna - material girl
cyndi lauper - girls just wanna have fun

"You Are My Sunshine"

Some Christmas carols, esp "God Rest You Merry Gentlemen"

"Puff the Magic Dragon"

"Ode to Joy"

a lot of Hindu bhajans - religious songs and chants

the Indian national anthem

"Blowin' In the Wind"

some Canadian jazz from the 80s, like the people who I would have caught on TV - Oscar Peterson, the Shuffle Demons or stuff that sounds like mainstream 80s jazz

"Peter and the Wolf"

maybe Pachelbel's canon

this choral thing that goes something like "All things will perish from under the sun/ Music alone will live . . ."

Slippery When Wet to a lesser extent. The hits are so overplayed now that the effect has really been deteriorated (see also Michael Jackson). Some 80s Rush hits like "The Pass" and "Distant Early Warning" kind of do this. My cousins were obsessive. Styx actually does this very much although I don't remember specifically listening to any Styx song in this period. I think
they were probably just played enough that they were sort of subconsciously absorbed. They make me think of 80s amusement park rides for some reason. Journey a bit too.

It was one of my first music obsessions. I have a very clear memory of listening to it on my Cookie Monster Clock Radio soon after my sixth birthday, looking down at my parents outside my window as they puttered around our backyard at dusk.

Listening to the song now gives me this weird vertiginous sensation, like I'm feeling someone else's feelings, maybe because I can't imagine how I could've been obsessed with something so blandly tasteful and spider-jivey.

"Ticket to Ride" - The Beatles
"Geno" - Dexys Midnight Runners
some Fairport Convention jigs & reels
"Mother" - Pink Floyd

Can't remember anything more...

Guy Mitchell: Pretty Little Black Eyed Suzie
Pet Shop Boys: It's A Sin
Ottowan: Hands Up (Give Me Your Heart)
Sweet: Wig Wam Bam
Mister Murray: Down Came The Rain
Ken Dodd: Where's Me Shirt (classic or what? at least for the wordplay :))
Adamski: Killer (sublime...)
Max Bygraves: Tulips From Amsterdam (sublime too!)
Yazz: The Only Way Is Up
Doris Day: Que Sera Sera
New Order: 1963 (not sure if I quite heard it in my actual childhood, but not too far off... and it evokes something about it brilliantly)
Prefab Sprout: Hey Manhattan (likewise to the above...)
Andy Stewart: Scottish Soldier (yes, i *know*... dear me! ;))
Kylie Minogue: I Should Be So Lucky (was *everywhere* for bloody ages; first sort of big pop hit that seemed to be 'everywhere')
Henry Hall: Teddy Bear's Picnic
Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance With Somebody
Rolf Harris: Two Little Boys
Charles and Eddie: Would I Lie To You
Danny Kaye: Wonderful Copenhagen
The Timelords: Doctorin' The TARDIS
Madonna: La Isla Bonita
Soul II Soul: Back To Life
Hollies: He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother
various versions of Cat Stevens's 'Wild World'
Hall and MacGregor: Football Crazy
Luciano Pavarotti: Nessun Dorma
Julee Cruise/Badalamenti: Falling (obliquely... 'twas a hit and my parents watched "Twin Peaks". One couldn't miss this, though it went out of my mind for many years; more fully associated with 2000-01, when I got into "Twin Peaks" myself, being old enough frankly)
Tommy Steele: A Handful of Songs
The Firm: Star Trekkin' (one of the very earliest I remember)
Kaoma: Lambada
Jeff Wayne: Eve of the War
ELO: I'm Alive

Reflect upon that, as you will...! ;)

My listening wildly varied between some of the contemporary late '80s/early '90s pop and the "Hello Children Everywhere" compilations, with British material from the 20s-early 70s and lots of 50s American stuff. Also very slightly remembered Haven holiday discos from Whitby and the odd primary school one... 'Indie' stuff, or even Abba and the Beatles made no impression on me at all until really 1994/5. Early adolescence, aged 11, 12, "Abba Gold" and the Beatles' "Please Please Me" album especially, made a big impact.

Being honest, I actually do love a majority of the above songs, if to varying degrees.

Little Anthony & the Imperials, "Shimmy Shimmy Ko-Ko Bop" (my mom had the 45)
C.W. McCall, "Convoy"
The Beatles, "Let It Be"
Barry Manilow, "Even Now"
Captain & Tennille, "Love Will Keep Us Together"
Maxine Nightingale, "Right Back Where We Started From"
Jefferson Starship, "Miracles"
Frank Mills, "Music Box Dancer" (I am so so very sorry)
Chicago, "Saturday in the Park"
Gerry Rafferty, "Baker Street"

All at once I saw him there,

(Good, at least he doesn't suffer from "Cheshire Dad" syndrome)

Sneaking up the driveway (Woman's voice: Watch out!)

(The line is actually "sneaking up behind me," I think -- which made me wonder how Joe saw him)

Julie yelled, "He's got a gun!"
And she stepped in front of me

(But if Dad was *behind* Joe, then Julie stepping *in front of* him should put Joe between her and Dad, no? So confusing!)

Cliff Richard - "Summer Holiday"

That was Joan Baez.

"House at Pooh Corner" Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (the wah-wah guitar on this track is AWESOME)
"Take It Easy" Eagles
"The Streak" Ray Stevens
"Delta Dawn" Tanya Tucker
"You Can't Change That" Raydio
"Revolution #9" Beatles (My dad used to play this to freak me out)
"Dreams" Fleetwood Mac
"I Never Promised You A Rose Garden" Lynn Anderson
"Cover of the Rolling Stone" Dr. Hook
"Puppy Love" Donny Osmond

And I'm totally feeling that Minnie Riperton too.

"Mull of Kintyre" - Wings
"One Day at a Time" - Lena Martell
"Brown Girl in the Ring" - Boney M
"When You're In Love With a Beautiful Woman" - Dr Hook
"If I Said You Had a Beautiful Body (Would You Hold It Against Me)" - Bellamy Brothers
"Rhinestone Cowboy" - Glenn Campbell
"I've Never Been To Me" - Charlene
"Ally's Tartan Army" - Andy Cameron

I think you can blame my mother for all but the last one.

Yeah, Jesus. Still does to me! I also interpreted "Leaving on a Jet Plane" as being about a mother leaving her child. Maybe it was Mary Travers' voice. This is when I was like four or five years old. The whole literary zeigeist in popular music in the late '60s and '70s produced some songs that are just incredibly devastating sociology (like Harry Chapin's tragic "Cat's in the Cradle") or maudlin to just an unbelieavable degree (like Bobby Goldsboro's "Honey!"). I guess a lot of us endured songs like this as young children.

Don Henley = Boys of Summer - even as a child this song made me feel like i had lost something. and i was just a kid!!

wham!= careless whisper- mall music, i remember walking in "the" mall and hearing this repeatedly, still reminds me of the Bon Ton.

billy joel= pressure- one of the radio hits that stuck

micheal jackson=billy jean- haunting synth line, had no idea what it was about for a decade

micheal jackson= thriller- this one actually scared me. damn you, vincent price's voice!!

hall+oates= maneater- 'whoooa, here she comes'. nuff said.

all of jon denver (thanks mom!)

all early beatles (thanks again, mom!!)

quiet riot= can't recall the name but 'come one feel the noise, grrls rawk the boys! we're gettin wild wild wild!'

van halen= 1984
along those lines
david lee roth= crazy from the heat
both those last 2 appealed to me due to videos which had these grrls...which didn't appeal at the time, but now i see why they should've......

1. "Deacon Blues" -- Steely Dan (this may explain certain things...)
2. "Wild Wild Life" -- Talking Heads (this song makes me uneasy and slightly queasy; I have to wonder if something mildly traumatic took place with it in the background)
3. "Who's Crying Now" -- Journey (if pop-soul childhoods lead to well-adjusted adults, what do AOR childhoods lead to?)
4. "In the Air Tonight" -- Phil Collins (see above)
5. "I Can't Go For That" -- Hall & Oates (maybe there's hope for me yet...)
6. "More Than This" -- Roxy Music (as with Steely Dan, I've always had an extremely strong emotional response to this song, even when very very young)
7. "Cars" -- Gary Numan (EXTREMELY early childhood memories here, but still vivid)
8. "Human" -- Human League (I remember being utterly, completely creeped out by this song, visualising something amorphous and suffocating while it played on MTV)
9. "Panama" -- Van Halen (one of the first 45s I remember asking my mom to buy for me)
10. "Street of Dreams" -- Rainbow (same as above)

Actually these are all 7th grade classics for me.

Most anything a bit Radio 2 from 1973/74, clearly.

"Hold me now" - Thompson Twins

"Peanuts" - 1910 Fruitgum Company (one of my parents records)

"Mama" - Genesis (really creepy, I used to listen intently to the radio because i thought that laugh was the coolest thing ever)

"Locomotion" - OMD (danced on a rickety mahongany table to this in our living room)

and yes, all early Beatles(and Beach Boys too, really)