Catherine or Niceheart tagged me to name the hit songs during the year I turned 18 years old. Now that would be giving away my age I am pretty sure this is going to be a lot of fun so I am doing the tag. I can’t really remember the mundane events that happened during this year because I was enjoying my sophomore year in college as a Psychology student at Centro Escolar University. During that year when I turned 18, what I remember vividly was hearing gunshots aimed at the protesters along Mendiola Street. We were all dismissed early and went out of the campus through the back gates. I later found out that 14 sugarcane farmers from Hacienda Luisita died on that sad black calendar day.
The rules:
1. Go to www.popculturemadness.com
2. Select the year you turned 18
3. Get all nostalgic over the hit songs of the year
4. Write about it
5. Pass this tag onto 5 others

Here is a link to the site that enumerates the Billboard Number One hits when I was 18. Below are the songs I chose that I loved and sang during that year. I am not a pop hits person so my choices were sort of different from mainstream. The first five songs are still favorites. The last five were not really my favorites but were popular nonetheless:

• I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For by U2 in the album The Joshua Tree. Bono’s voice is husky and seems to ask you to help him with his quest to find what he is looking for. The lyrics reach out to people whose lives seem empty, who continually looking for something that will have answers to their questions.

I have climbed highest mountains
I have run through the fields
Only to be with you
Only to be with you
I have run
I have crawled
I have scaled these city walls
These city walls
Only to be with you
But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for

• Down to Earth by Curiosity Killed the Cat in the album Keep Your Distance. This song makes me remember Jean, a college classmate who also loves British bands or New Wave. I still have Jean’s note that is still in the case of my Keep Your Distance tape. This song has an unusual beat, though the lyrics are not that cool, still I love this piece.

• Lean on Me by Club Nouveau. I love this version of the Club Nouveau. It is funky and upbeat. It is, if I am not mistaken, one of the more popular tunes played over the radio and in “discos” or dance clubs as these are called now.

Lean on me, when you’re not strong

And I’ll be your friend, I’ll help you carry on

• La Bamba by Los Lobos. I watched this movie featuring Lou Diamond Phillips. Who wouldn’t want to get up and dance to this groovy upbeat song that has been interpreted by so many artists.

Para bailar, la bamba.
Para bailar, la bamba se necesita una poca de gracia
Una poca de gracia y otra cosita
Y arriba, y arriba

• Under the Milky Way by The Church. I thought that The Church was a British band but it was in fact an Australian band. The song has a haunting quality with the singer crooning, rolling the words as he sings. Acoustic guitar is played in this song.

Sometimes when this place get kind of empty
Sound of their breath fades with the light
I think about the loveless fascination
Under the milky way tonight
Wish I knew what you were looking for
Might have known what you would find

• The Promise by When In Rome. The Promise is one of the danceable tunes. I find the song a little “corny’ but then this has a special place in my heart. During my first volunteering work as a junior counselor for special children in a ten-day camp, this song became the “official” song of the entire camping schedule. Whenever this song is played on the big loud speakers, the children would stop what they were doing and dance! It sure was fun but of course, this song sort of bled my ears dry. Imagine hearing it played again and again for ten days!

• Didn’t We Almost Have it All by Whitney Houston
• Bad by Michael Jackson
• Never Gonna Give You Up by Rick Astley
• (I’ve Had) The Time of My Life by Bill Medley and Jennifer Warnes

I’m tagging: Dana, Christianne, Rhodora, Princess, Jane, and Kathy. I know I’m supposed to tag only five but just in case one of you guys have been tagged by this.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 15th, 2007 at 12:27 am and is filed under Bits and Pieces, Tags/Meme. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.