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Last week I found myself thinking about a song from my childhood. Specifically I was recalling The Battle of New Orleans by Johnny Horton. It was a song that my Dad would play a lot and one that we kids loved to dance around too. Then the boys were intrigued by the new Dell commercial that features Lollipop which happens to be another song that I’m familiar with from those lazy days of summer as a child.

Thus my “Pop Culturally Relevant (at least to me) Music Project” was born.

I’m lobbying my dear hubby for a music budget to acquire copies of the songs we add to our growing list. What makes these Pop Culturally Relevant? Opinion. This isn’t a project that is steeped in research or even anything at all scientific. This is a growing list of songs and musicians that matter to me and my husband. Songs that I remember. Songs I can still sing today. Songs I personally think a person should hear at least a few times in life. I’m hoping to collect a top ten from most of the people in our family plus a few friends that have very different music tastes than mine. When were done or at least have enough to fill a few playlists I think we’ll have a great collection of songs for the boys (and let’s be honest ourselves too!)

So what is on our list so far:

Artist: Johnny Horton
Song: One Night in Bangkok
Song: Lollipop
Song: Beep Beep
Artist: Billie Holiday Song: Strange Fruit
Artist: The Mamas & The Papas

I’ve only been thinking about it for a few days so I know it will grow (and grow, and grown). What song or artist would make your list and why? I’m finding that along with the song or artist I need to take some time to write a brief bit about why it is relevant to the person.

For instance let’s take the Battle of New Orleans by Johnny Horton. Back when I was about 8 years old we had a AM/FM Radio – Tape player in the dining room of our house. On cleaning days when we’d (the four of us kids) be just tired of picking up toys and were sad little sacks of “we’ll never get done!” Dad would put on this tape with a few Johnny Horton songs. One of our favorites was Battle of New Orleans. We’d get up, dance and march around the dining room in mock battle while the song played. Generally being goofy kids. And at the end of the song our job didn’t seem to horrible or impossible anymore.