Top Five Songs Of Nostalgia
ah yes, youth
1. Those Were The Days – Mary Hopkins – Discovered on the X Factor of its era, “Opportunity Knocks” and nurtured by Paul McCartney, the Gypsy classic looks back on the power and glory of a youth long gone. People are nostalgic for different losses, here the desire is for a return to place where the vitality of youth isn’t sapped by the decay of age – B+
2. Yesterday Once More – The Carpenters – A primer on the how to tug yourself into a wistful reverie. It’s easy, “every sha-la-la-la, every woooe-oe-oe still shines” and with Karen’s voice, which can sound pretty devastated at the best of time, it is a self-fulfilling masterpiece of misery. The song is blocked out by sorrow and all she wants to do is wallow in the past – A+
3. The Way We Were – Barbra Streisand – “If we had the chance to do it all again, tell me would we? Could we?” There are two movies where I love the first half hour and then lose interest. One is the david Lean “Great Expectations”, all of the parts where Pip is a kid are excellent. The other is “Th Way We Were” and up to the part where Barbra Streisand tells him what’s wrong with his book, I’m with it and then I’m whatever. The Marvin Hamlisch melody tugs you into yesterday, he grabs you so hard you completely ignore that Babs and Redford are the least likely college kids in existence – A
4. In My Life – Johnny Cash – Lennon wrote it as a 20 something but he was too young for it. Johnny is looking backwards but when he steadies and turns to his wife in the last verse, there is a different nostalgia: it is the loss of a present, of a now that is also going too quickly. It is nostalgia on top of nostalgia – A+
5. I’ll Be Seeing You – Billie Holiday – Billie could bring the blues to “Happy Birthday To You” and she gets all of the Irving Kahal and Sammy Fain classic. The music is beautiful l but the lyric is so tender it is beatific. Kahal, the lyricist, died young, just 38 years old – A
I’ll be seeing you
In all the old familiar places
That this heart of mine embraces
All day and through
In that small cafe
The park across the way
The children’s carousel
The chestnut trees, the wishing well
I’ll be seeing you
In every lovely summer’s day
In everything that’s light and gay
I’ll always think of you that way
I’ll find you in the morning sun
And when the night is new
I’ll be looking at the moon
But I’ll be seeing you
I’ll be seeing you
In every lovely summer’s day
In everything that’s light and gay
I’ll always think of you that way
I’ll find you in the morning sun
And when the night is new
I’ll be looking at the moon
But I’ll be seeing you
