When Sam was very small, I started making compilation CDs to play in the car whenever we were out and about, with the aim of giving him a solid introduction to the wonderful world of pop music in all most of its many varieties. I don't have a date for when I made that first CD, but he must have been about one, so it was a good 9 years ago. These were the first three tracks on CD 1...
It wasn't about choosing my favourite songs, but what I thought he'd like as a one year old. He was obsessed with cars from a very young age, so the Beatles' "beep beep yeahs" seemed like an obvious opener. I'm not sure why I chose Jet Plane next, other than that it has a similar travelling message and a soaring melody that was good to sing along to. Daydream Believer, on the other hand, is just one of the greatest and most joyful pop songs ever written. It had to be there.
That first CD included other singalong greats like Sweet Caroline, Build Me Up, Buttercup and a Motown double-whammy of I Can't Help Myself and You Can't Hurry Love. Paul Simon's You Can Call Me Al was on there because we used to listen to Graceland a lot at bath / bedtime back then. Although many of the favourite artists of my youth were present (REM, Billy Joel, Freddie Mercury), there was no Bruce or Huey, Johnny, Jarvis or anything by The Smiths. And though Glen Campbell made the final cut, he was wearing rhinestones, not searching in the sun for another overload. I rip to 80 minute CDs, so I'm always limited to between 20 and 22 tracks. That said, there were a couple of leftfield choices...
A good nah-nah-nah-nah chorus was bound to appeal to a one year old.
Anyway, I've kept making these CDs over the years and gradually broadening Sam's knowledge of popular music, though the song choices have become less obvious and more eclectic as time's gone by. Last week, I put together SAM 150, a compilation which ranged from The Staple Singers to Leo Sayer, Pete Townsend to Modern English, Joni Mitchell to Ash, The Climax Blues Band to The Trammps to The Shangri-Las. It also included the following, even less obvious choices...
Top power pop tune - one listen, and Sam was singing along.
And then there's this... a new discovery, but one that had me hooked as soon as Diamante Azzura Bovelli started belting out her tribute to the year I turned 15, like Pat Benatar or Bonnie Tyler at their best. Again, Sam was soon singing along. Which, considering he was born in 2013, is kind of like me singing about 1936 when I was a kid. Imagine that.
Not that I'm trying to make you feel old. But Diamante, in case you fancy another nail in your coffin, was herself born in 1996, nine years later than the year she dreams of dancing in.
Still, 150 CDs. You can't say I've completely wasted my life...
