Playlist: Childhood

Another week when Sarah's prompt is irresistible to me. She wants to know about the music of our childhood. I am going to share not one, but two songs with you today which reminds me of that time. Please do remember that I am much older than the rest of you.

Vinyl was the order of the day when I was small. My parents had a decent record collection (if you excluded the James Last). The first was a particular favourite which we played loads of times. I will stress that both of these songs date back several years before I was born. I may be old, but I'm not THAT old.



A corker, yes? It's a classic; so upbeat and brilliantly performed by Bobby Darin. I can't believe he died at only 37. He was only 23 when he recorded Mack the Knife - his voice sounds so mature. His was the definitive version and when I hear it, I end up humming or singing this for hours afterwards.

The other song is completely and utterly different. It's an instrumental piece, a film theme tune,  but you do hear it on Radio 2 occasionally.



I don't know exactly why I like it but it just does remind me of my childhood. The violins are soothing and uplifting at the same time.

Apparently, A Summer Place was a romantic comedy which must have been unremarkable as it appears only to be famous for the instrumental theme, recorded by Percy Faith. It won a Grammy for Record of the Year, becoming the first film theme and the first instrumental piece to do so. As a child, I was totally oblivious of this and only realised that it was a film theme as an adult.

That's my Childhood Playlist. What's yours? Click on the badge below to find out more choices from other great bloggers.

Playlist: Breakin' Shapes

I'm joining in today with Week 5 of the Mumra Playlists. Sarah, the lovely blogger behind Mumra, sets a theme and you blog a track or tracks that you feel fits it.

When I saw this week's theme, Breakin' Shapes, I knew I had to join in. I am not the world's best dancer, but I'm far from the worst too. I don't always want to dance for hours but I do like to dance if the music is right. There is one song that will always get me dancing. In a way, it provides the soundtrack to a part of my life - a time when I was ridding myself of someone who had a profoundly negative effect on me to the point that it destroyed my confidence and my self-esteem, even though I knew that most of the things that I was being made to believe were untrue. As I managed to break myself free of his influence, this track had been out as a single for a few months. Some of the words seemed rather relevant:

Heartbreaks and promises, I’ve had more than my share
I’m tired of giving my love and getting nowhere, nowhere

and

So baby if you want me
You’ve got to show me love

and to me, signified the rebirth of my independence (and my confidence to some extent). If you don't know what it is, it's Show Me Love by Robin S, one of the biggest dance anthems of the 1990s. 

Serious part aside, the whole track is a cracker. The riff from the Korg M1 synth (I looked that up!) is so distinctive, I can recognise the song within a split second of it starting. I can't help but want to move whenever I hear it. Even if I'm not actually dancing, my foot taps or I nod my head. Many is the time I have stopped what I'm doing to dance to it  - at home, I'm not about to start some weird solo flashmob in a clothes shop, although that could be interesting. Have a listen and I defy you to remain motionless throughout. I can't do it anyway. 

Hop on over to Mumra to discover more entries that will get you toe-tapping, body-popping and yes, maybe even starting that flashmob in a clothes shop...