Love Theme from Superman (Can You Read My Mind)

Would've been excellent if I'd dreamt of flying.

Artist: John Williams
Year: 1978
Rating: Warm

Interplanet Janet, Redux

Upbeat, silly, geeky. Perfect mood music to whistle to on my walk with Dorrie this morning.

Last in my head on April 10, 2009.

Music/Lyrics: Lynn Ahrens/School House Rock
Year: 1978
Rating: Hot!

2011 Review, Part 1: Artists, Eras, and Ratings

I've been doing this blog for three years running now, and if you know me at all, you know I love excessive navel-gazing documentation! Having said that, I present to you the summary of Songs in My Head, 2011 Edition!

Part One: Summary, Artists, Eras, and Ratings

Number of entries: Exactly 100, down about 30% from 2010.
First song blogged in 2011: Yesterday Once More by the Carpenters.
Last song blogged: Fading into Obscurity by Sloan.
Oldest song: The Washington Post March by John Philip Sousa from 1889.
Newest song: Modern Man by Arcade Fire from 2010 (another song from the same album was the newest song I'd blogged in 2010, as well. I haven't been listening to much new music lately.)
Unsolved Mystery: No one as yet has been able to identify this persistent song in my head.

Onward to the Stats!

Artists:
(Click charts to embiggen!)

Now that I have three years' worth of data, pie charts are out and stacked bar graphs are in for this category. It continues to surprise me that Sloan is still the clear leader of the pack, but otherwise, I've got a pretty typical mental repertoire for a now urban, once suburban, middle class white chick born in San Jose in the early Seventies. Likewise for the now patented formula for the era of songs that pop into my head:


...virtually the same curve all three years of blogging, complete with the Gumby-shaped dual-peak of '70s and '80s songs dominating my internal landscape of tunes.



And again, the songs that pop into my head, by a vast majority, tend to be songs I actually like, which is kind of awesome. It's also apparently in line with research on earworms or involuntary musical imagery (INMI): most people who get songs stuck in their head do, in fact, like the songs, despite the occasional appearance of a nasty worm like Who Let the Dogs Out?

A'ight, that's all I've got for now. Stay tuned to this here blog for more about the Genres and Whatnot of 2011!

xo
Sooze

We Live For Love

I saw new wave band Missing Persons last month at the Red Devil Lounge. I think I woke recently with Ms. Benatar in my head in an associative groove of badass women of the '80s. I listened to this song over and over at one point in my younger years when my dear friend Barry put it on a mixed tape for me. You know, tapes.

Blogging about this song makes me reflect on the tremendous influence of Barry's mixed tapes in my mental musical repertoire. He's always had his finger on the pulse of pop music, often deeply appreciating the mainstream chart-toppers in genres I was too much of a hippy-throwback to enjoy. He was the first person I knew, for instance, to LOVE Kylie Minogue back in the '80s, while I was listening to the Beatles and Crosby, Stills, Nash, & Young.

Barry's mixed tapes were carefully curated to blend the objectively good with the god-awfully cheesy in perfect measures. His tapes often introduced me to songs I'd never heard before, and just as often helped to reify the emotional importance of songs that I'd loved as a kid or in my teenage years. He was way ahead of the curve on '80s nostalgia, filling play lists with new wave and 80s dancey tunes before the decade was even over.

This flight of nostalgia propelled me to look back through the blog and discover how many entries I've written so far featuring songs that had appeared on Barry's mixes over the years. I even devised a new tag for these songs: the "Barry-Mix" tag, or simply Bmix. This post makes 19 entries, and counting!

By the way, today is Barry's birthday. Happiest, my love.

Artist: Pat Benatar
Year: 1979
Rating: Hot!

I Get A Kick Out of You

It's strange to wake up with a song about the zing! and thrill! of love, and have no particular person come to mind. It's a blank, neutral feeling. Which is oddly refreshing.

Artist: Frank Sinatra (written by Cole Porter).
Year: 1934 (original); first recorded by Sinatra in 1953.
Rating: Warm

She Believes in Me

This clip is too good to pass up. Once Kenny and Lionel figure out who's doing which verse, I swear, their performance will bring tears to your eyes.

Artist: Kenny Rogers (and Lionel Richie)
Year: 1978
Rating: Luke Hot

The Odd Couple, Redux

Last in my head on August 19, 2010.

This entry gives us a good excuse to rock out to one of my favorite categories of songs in my head: theme music!


Artist: Neal Hefti
Year: 1968
Rating: Warm

Love the One You're With

There's a girl right next to you
And she's just waiting for something to do...

Artist: Stephen Stills
Year: 1970
Rating: Luke Hot

Still the Same

Officially the first tune in my head in 2012. I spontaneously started whistling it on Muni last night on the move between two New Year's destinations. I knew it was a Bob Seger song, but couldn't come up with any lyrics or the title. When I whistled the melody to my friend Ricky, he made a great guess: Best of My Love by the Eagles. The tunes are incredibly similar. The magical internets have helped me solve the problem, so I don't have to resort to posting a Mystery Song entry. :)

Happy New Year, all!

Artist: Bob Seger & The Silver Bullet Band
Year: 1978
Rating: Warm