Well and truly into September. Days are getting shorter but not yet shorter than the nights. The last few weeks of summer weather tempered by cooler nights which means sleeping is more comfortable but waking times are earlier because of SCHOOL.

1977: Ronnie McDowell, “The King is Gone”

First week of September 1977 I would just have been starting third grade in Parma. This would also have been the beginning of the last school year there, as we moved to the farm in Springport in summer 1979. I have no memory of this song. Then again McDowell sounds so much like Elvis (or would have, to eight-year-old me) that I likely wouldn’t have known the difference. I imagine this was a popular song for its time, but having heard it now, I don’t like it.

1982: Juice Newton, “Break It To Me Gently”

As a kid I had a serious crush on Juice Newton, thanks to “Angel of the Morning” and “Queen of Hearts.” This week in 1982 I was just starting eighth grade, and probably overwhelmed with being 13 years old. So the merest hint of Newton’s voice would have put me in a hormonal fugue state of dissociation from the mundane realm. We’ve all been there at some point.

1987: Bryan Adams, “Victim of Love”

Bryan Adams was HUGE in the late eighties, so I night have heard “Victim of Love” at some point, though I have no specific memory of it. The video is familiar, though, so it was probably playing on a TV somewhere on Grand Valley’s campus.

1992: Mary J. Blige, “You Remind Me”

I think this is a first listen for me. Neither the song nor the video strike any nostalgic chords, though the style is familiar, in the manner of early 1990s videos. I would have been at the beginning of my last year of college when this song charted.

1997: Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, “Look Into My Eyes”

Another first-listen for me here. The harmony on the chorus feels familiar but reminds me of another song which I can’t place right now.