There's an old song, "With a song in my heart." I seem to have more times of songs in my head. Two stand out in my song memory that I can't figure out why they were in my head during a time when I should have been more focused on what I was doing at the time. The songs had no connection with my moment.
"The Book of Love", 1958 by the Monotones came to mind when I was running at North Central, on their track that was not a full 440, because of its odd shape in a tight area. What made that song come to mind so clearly? I have no idea. I can recall just where I was on the track, the far side, with that song entering my head as I was running to hold my first place position.
Another identical experience happened at the Rogers track, when I was running an 880. I was in third place, coming off the final turn, heading for the finish behind two upper-classmen Pirates, when the Four Preps, "Big Man Yesterday" song entered my head.
I'm still a runner, and I wear headphones while I run, listening to a station that plays oldies. That gives me the pleasure of listening to songs that bring back memories of yesteryears and the people of the times. When I hear "Book of Love" or "Big Man Yesterday," I recall those track meet experiences.
I am of the age where trying to call up memories of things, names, people, are not easy. But, listening to music memories sure helps. My earliest song memories go back to my earliest years, when I was 2 and 3 years old. I remember hearing Xavier Cugat's "Tico Tico", a song I enjoyed so much I remember my dad mentioning it to me when it was played on the radio when we were visiting an aunt and uncle when I was age 2, prior to my dad going into the Army. Another song, when I hear it to this day, was 1945, the very popular end-of-the-war song, Harry James on the trumpet and Doris Day singing "It's been a long, long time." I can still picture myself, sitting on the floor in front of the floor model radio in our apartment in Mount Shasta, listening to that song and enjoying it, understanding that it was about returning servicemen. It was at that time my dad had just been discharged from the Army and my uncle stopped by our apartment having been released from the Navy, he still wearing his uniform, on his way home in Minnesota.
Music is the best memory inducer.