5 classic rock songs that will take baby boomers back to memories of their first kiss – Grunge

Compiling a list of five classic rock songs that will take baby boomers back to memories of their first kiss reveals something interesting about music and memory. Simply put, music is a powerful time machine that transports us back to our youth and experiences transformative moments like our first kiss.

There’s science behind all this. Music stimulates the parts of the brain associated with emotion and memory, and we can all undergo mental time travel that takes us back to scenes in our lives. Scenes from people’s teens and 20s are better remembered than later events. It’s what psychologists call a “reminiscence bump.” Finally, the memory of your first kiss is adjacent, if not overlapping, with the memory of your first love. Those memories are persistent because they evoke intense emotions.

Classic rock songs are the soundtrack to baby boomers’ first kisses, and can transport people, even if only for a few minutes, back to a time when everything seemed possible and the excitement and anxiety of adulthood awaited. These songs, including the candid reportage of the Crystals’ “Then He Kissed Me,” the simple praise of Wings’ “Silly Love Songs,” and the painterly impressionism of Fleetwood Mac’s “Sentimental Lady,” remind not just Boomers but all of us of the life-changing power of music.

The Crystals’ 1963 hit “Then He Kissed Me” may be the most on-the-nose example of a song guaranteed to bring baby boomers back to memories of their first kiss. Amid blaring guitars and galloping percussion, Dolores “La La” Brooks’ confident, peppy lead vocals could be an entry in a young woman’s diary. “When he danced, he held me tight/And that night he walked me home/All the stars were shining bright, and then he kissed me.” Baby boomer women, then girls, likely resonated with the song’s straightforward, if old-fashioned, story that ended happily with a marriage proposal.

The song’s directness may seem cheesy, but it’s bold, evocative, melodic, emotionally engaging, and a superlative example of the 1960s girl group sound, a genre that combined pop, R&B, rock and roll, and brave vocals by black female singers. “Then He Kissed Me” benefits from the lavish production of co-writer Phil Spector. Spector, who died on January 16, 2021 while incarcerated on murder charges, bathed ‘Then He Kissed Me’ in a dense, echoey orchestral ‘wall of sound’, in this case featuring harp, strings and brass.

Like the vivid memory of that first, seemingly magical kiss, the song has proven timeless, recorded by Rachel Sweet in 1981 for her similarly titled album, “…And then He Kissed Me,” and included on the soundtrack of the 1990 gangster film, “Goodfellas.” But it’s Crystals’ version that continues to delight baby boomers, drawing them back to the excitement and joy of that transformative moment.

“Cherishing is the word I use to express all the feelings I’m hiding here for you.” What could be more romantic than a heartfelt confession of deep and unrequited feelings? While checking out Facebook posts for “Baby Boomers by Jukebox Nostalgia,” I came across a woman who cited the association’s chart-topping 1966 hit “Cherish” as the trigger for a romantic memory. “He gave me that record to show how he felt,” she wrote.

For boomer kids, this was the smooth contemporary pop their parents played on their hi-fi stereos. Under the right circumstances, such as at an adult party, kids might catch a glimpse of mom and dad slow-dancing and making smoothies while association co-founder Terry Kirkman sings, “You can’t tell me how many times I wish I could be the one who takes care of me as much as I take care of you.”

Children learn by example and may not have yet entered their teenage years when they experience their first kiss. Then everything your parents like is, by definition, uncool. Amid boppy beats, swarming harmonies, and peppy “buzzing” backing vocals, the song radiates an unmistakable surge of emotion as it builds into the sing-song chorus. What could be a more wholesome soundtrack for a baby boomer’s supposedly chaste first kiss? Unfortunately, the song’s bridge reveals a stalkerish vibe, with Kirkman obsessing over the attention other men shower on his yet-to-be-girlfriend, then yelling that she’s driving him out of his head.

Bob Welch’s yearning croon can be heard somewhere between a sigh and a breeze over the guitar’s delicate coils. “You’re here and it’s warm / But if I take my eyes off you, you’ll be gone.” Few songs capture the heightened emotion at the heart of a first kiss, where every moment is etched in memory and imbued with meaning, like “Sentimental Lady.”

When two baby boomers share their first kiss, sad songs lamenting the fleeting nature of love are already playing around them. They may have already had in mind the possibility of a breakup filled with the dramatic, romantic grandeur that young people love. “Sentimental Lady,” one of two songs Welch composed for Fleetwood Mac’s 1972 album Bear Trees, captures that sweet sadness with the delicacy and complexity of a madrigal, especially as Welch’s velvety vocals intertwine with Christine McVie’s airy alto as the song fades out. The original version of the song has a gentle but somehow off-kilter quality, like a half-remembered dream dissolving in the morning light.

Although “Sentimental Lady” failed to chart when released as a single, Welch began a solo career in 1974 and recut the song in 1977. The abbreviated version, which featured production and backing vocals by Lindsey Buckingham, who joined Fleetwood Mac after McVie and Welch’s departure, rose to No. 8 on Billboard’s Hot 100. By then, the young lovers who didn’t qualify for the 1972 version were five years older and perhaps too worldly — in a teenage know-it-all sense — to touch Welch’s “sentimental gentle breeze.”

Plangent’s electric piano emerges from a cloud of sustained, sighing voices as Eric Stewart sings, “I missed you, but then again/It doesn’t mean you mean that much to me.” 10cc’s No. 2 Billboard hit “I’m Not in Love” may seem like an anti-love song, but it’s a heartbreakingly romantic Boomer first kiss anthem.

Stewart co-wrote the song as a result of his search for a way to express his love to his wife without sounding insincere. “I decided to say, ‘I don’t love you,’ subtly listing all the reasons I could never let this relationship go,” Stewart told Sound on Sound. The song points out and undermines the pop culture message that baby boomer men and boys should refuse to acknowledge their feelings. There’s a scene in the movie and boomer TV classic “It’s a Wonderful Life” where Jimmy Stewart declares he doesn’t want to marry Donna Reed before passionately kissing her. 10cc’s song is a musical analog of that scene, sustaining the tension of an impending hug, but unlike the film, the song refrains from teasing a kiss.

At the song’s midpoint, a beaded curtain of silvery percussion parts chimes and a female voice whispers, “Be quiet, big boys don’t cry.” It is clear that the protagonist of “I’m Not in Love” is over-protesting. He is crazy in love and will melt into a pool of tears if he doesn’t seize the fleeting joy of a first kiss.

In the middle of Paul McCartney’s celebratory song “Silly Love Songs,” a moment of introspection occurs: “Love doesn’t come right away/Sometimes it doesn’t come at all.” That glimpse of vulnerability gives the song an unexpected gravitas, and the song then takes off at a frenzied pace. The conflicting emotions of the moment are especially noticeable for those kissing for the first time. As mentioned above, talkative boomer kids can imbue a quick lip lock with great meaning. They are on the verge of adulthood. A first kiss can be dangerous, but it can also be exciting and fun. A whole new world of relationships is opening up.

That’s why McCartney, a master songsmith, doesn’t ignore the song’s sentiments like some music-hall quip to his “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey.” He is pouring out his heart. McCartney is well aware of the implications of his silly song, telling us to embrace love when it comes, because it’s much rarer than we think.

The hit single “Silly Love Songs” from the 1976 album Wings at the Speed ​​of Sound, featuring a jubilant bassline and rolling, uplifting horns, spent five weeks atop Billboard’s Hot 100. “People have been singing love songs forever…and I have a lot of people I love,” McCartney told Billboard. “You’re lucky to have that in your life.” Catchy and deceptively light, “Silly Love Songs” evokes the energetic range of emotions boomers felt when their lips touched for the first time, and as those feelings deepened over the years. What’s wrong with that?