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Sade all the way. Every time I hear her voice it’s like a step back in time. Oh and I can’t forget about Marvin Gay. That’s funny you have that Enya song on there. I haven’t heard that song since I was a kid. I didn’t recognize it at first until she starts saying “sail away sail away sail away.” Hahaha! Love it. Great post.

Oh boy….

Reminds me of the countless car rides I had with my parents at a young age, as this stuff was usually herd on the radio.

Phil Collins, hah.

Enya is insane. She does all the vocals on her tracks. On her Wiki page it says that she’ll use up to 100 vocal layers.

Great post. My parents tell me I use to dance around to Eurythmics.
:)

thanks to remind me of this enya tune. Just brillant.

Tears for Fears, YES, War, The Police. The first ones that come to mind. Totally brings back memories of growing up with my Dad in the mid-late 80’s; riding in his truck with the cassette deck, and hanging out with him in his studio coloring in my sketchbook while he worked on commercial illustrations (airbrush, french curves and masking film!). And I STILL love listening to them. I am always surprised that no matter how long it’s been since I’ve listened to one of their songs, I still know all the words by heart.

And hearing Enya, wow. I remember when I first discovered her when I was about 12, I think it was Memory of Trees. It was Christmas and I was at my grandparents’ house, my aunt put it on the stereo for me. I remember being totally blown away by it and saying, wow! I LOVE this, it’s gorgeous!!! My friends made fun of me, but I didn’t care. I had forgotten that I still love it. Thanks for the post :)

Oh, and @Scott “I also have a super-8 of myself at age 3 in cowboy boots dancing/convulsing to Disco Inferno.” Classic. This made me burst into laughter here in my office (I guess I should be working or something…).

“i’ve been listening to John Cage since I was 3 and…”

There was a time around ages 6 through 8 when my musical tastes were formed around the soundtrack to Back to the Future. I gravitated away from Huey Lewis and towards Chuck Berry and other early rock n roll. I fact I just thought of a bunch of songs I liked as a kid that were all used in TV shows (21 Jump Street and Head of the Class) but I’ll stop now.

Did my mom help you with this playlist?

Sting, Phil Collins, Peter Cetera, Eric Clapton, and Michael Bolton were heavily frequented during my childhood drives with mom.

I don’t see any reason to be embarrassed. You’ve posted far worse music before. :P

So much fun reading everyone’s responses! U2’s Joshua Tree was a must for every road trip my family took to Disneyland and Magic Mountain. And then there was Elton John, Fleetwood Mac, and The Best of the Eagles that my dad used to play while my mom was in the kitchen cooking dinner.

Just like Aaron mentioned above, the music I listened to was heavily inspired by 80’s movies. I became obsessed with The Psychedelic Furs, The Smiths, and New Order after hearing them in Pretty in Pink.

The funniest and probably most memorable phase I went through came in 6th grade when MTV consumed my life and listened to nothing but The Cranberries, The Breeders, Smashing Pumpkins and Dinosaur Jr. I had my Dr. Martins and everything. Funny times.

Great post!

Born in 87.
Sade…Kenny G…Toni Braxton…Marvin Gaye…Prince…Maxwell…Kenny Lattimore…Oleta Adams…Erykah Badu…Patti LaBelle…Gladys Knight…P.M. Dawn…Teena Marie…Quincy Jones…Shalimar…Michael Jackson…etc.

Everyone’s responses pretty much sum up how I also feel about childhood music. Interestingly enough, growing up in South America I had very similar musical influences. I remember soaking up my parents collection as well. The Police, Chicago, Peter Cetera and Phil Collins/Genesis were constantly playing in my house. In fact, when i moved to this country at the young age of 10, I used to tell kids who were into MC Hammer then, that I was into Phil Collins. You should have seen their faces. I was lucky not to get beat up. Later on, I went through a very similar phase as Junia did in 6th grade.

Thanks for sharing this post Jakub, the music definitely takes me back to being a happy 6 year old kid and it brings me a smile every time.

Love this post. I have been listening to Depeche, the Police, the Cure, etc. since I was old enough for my brain to process music. My dad also tells me that I forced him to play a certain Milli Vanilli (sp?) cassette over and over and over…this site will definitely be the only place I ever share that one :-D

It’s funny, my dad used to play guitar for me all the time when I was a little boy and I loved it more than anything. He is a collector, and has a bunch of vintage Martin and National guitars. I have found recently that the majority of my favorite artists use Martins and Nationals. I’m left to wonder if my dads playing, and my exposure to the sounds of these guitars since I was a baby, is the reason I like these artists.

Some of my earliest memories are of dancing around the living room to Tangerine Dream, “Too Hot For My Chinchilla”. Other prominent members of my childhood included Thomas Dolby (Europa especially, as well as Gate to the Mind’s Eye), The Lovin’ Spoonful, James Taylor, lots and lots and lots of Beatles, and Brian Eno (mostly just the Apollo Soundtrack, which he’d put on while we were playing Asteroids).

Enya was my mom’s find I think. But my dad caught on quickly; he was always a step ahead of us in finding good music/ getting into the stuff we’d find. He told us who Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails were. He introduced me to my favorite bands in middle school (Meat Beat Manifesto and Front Line Assembly).

I think my dream may be to expose my kids to the same musical brevity my dad did. I don’t know if I’m up to the task. There’s been no time in my life when I’ve brought up a genre and he didn’t respond with at least a “yeah those guys have something really special going, have you listened to Paco de Lucia/The Red House Painters/Peaches/Debussy?”.

oh yeah and… SAIL AWAY, SAIL AWAY, SAIL AWAYYYY!

My parents were a tad older than me..
They played Classical,Jazz,Broadway Show Tunes,Brazil 66 ,Frank Sinatra,Barbara Streisand, etc..
I was lucky..I was exposed to many types of great music..

And I don’t mean to weird you out but,she still looks alot like my late wife..
She was Polish & Italian..

My mom listened to vinyl a lot, and many responses are similar.
A big nostalgic one for me is Joe Jackson – Stepping Out.
I used to request Genesis – Tonight, Tonight, Tonight a lot at the roller rink.

U2 & Tears for Fears for some reason take me to my happy nostalgia zone even though no one in my family was really into either.. I think its just from the radio on car rides as a kid.

This is great! I love that you posted this playlist. SADE – I Couldn’t Love you More was actually my friend’s First Dance song at her wedding this year in May. And I’ll always love to hear Enya and Phil Collins. I can’t remember the majority of what my parent’s listened to but I do remember dancing around to their 12″ Culture Club – Karmachameleon single. Such wonderful memories.

I really love Enya. She is G-E-N-I-U-S

Ha ha,little meaning.I’m very minded,raise my hands.

Anything Lionel Richie is time machine for me. Great post and thanks for sharing.