The Crests – Sixteen Candles
It starts the way many lifelong loves begin: late-night radio, a single voice reaching across snow and static. “Sixteen Candles”…
The Chi-Lites – Oh Girl
I first learned the shape of “Oh Girl” on a night drive when the roads were nearly empty and the…
La-La (Means I Love You) – The Delfonics
I first heard “La-La (Means I Love You)” the way it should be heard: drifting from a small radio after…
The Kingston Trio – Tom Dooley
I sometimes imagine a single microphone, a circle of voices, and the light hiss of tape waiting for truth. That’s…
A Whiter Shade Of Pale – Procol Harum
I first hear it the way so many did: not as a song arriving with fanfare, but as a hush…
Small Faces – Itchycoo Park
It starts with a breath—no, with air being shaped like clay. You hear the band lock into a gentle sway,…
(We’re Gonna) Rock Around the Clock – Bill Haley & His Comets
When the lights came up in certain American theaters in the spring of 1955, the ushers had stories. The kids…
Sam Cooke – Wonderful World
I hear it before I name it: the soft shuffle, the close-up voice, the gentle sway that seems to walk,…
Loggins & Messina – Danny’s Song
I first heard “Danny’s Song” in the kind of hour you only notice when you’re awake for it: after midnight,…
The Penguins – Memories Of El Monte
I first heard “Memories of El Monte” on a late-night drive down Valley Boulevard, where neon laundromats throw fishbone shadows…