The Soundtrack to Our Lives

By Julene McCoy in Arts & Entertainment on Jun 14, 2006 5:06PM

We all have songs associated with certain times in our lives. The perfect road trip, the prom, our first love … sometimes these are songs that are unavoidable on the radio or television and end up by sheer repetition associating themselves with our lives. We’re looking at you, Pussy Cat Dolls. Could we ever forget that excruciatingly, horrible summer of 1996 and the Macarena craze? Or how “Don’t Stop Believing” became synonymous with the White Sox and the World Series?

The songs that tug at our hearts the most are the ones that we associate with the people who accompany us on our travels through this world. Whenever we hear “Obsession” by Animotion it takes us back to the days of when love was following a boy around and giggling. When we graduated to relationships that didn’t involve as much hanging around in the dark shadows, our college love was set to the stylings of New Order’s “Regret”. One of our friends walked into their wedding reception to “Another One Bites the Dust” – if that’s not matching up with the perfect mate, we don’t know what is.

What are some of the songs that have captured your hearts and helped define personal eras? The Trib’s Cheryl Lavin has a head start for us. A quick poll of our friends made us start laughing and crying at the same time when one friend said that the song that defined her first love was Barbara Streisand’s “Somewhere”, which was artfully dedicated on a mix tape by a gentleman who was clearly not afraid of his feelings.