Electric Light Orchestra - "Can't Get It Out of My Head"

During the 1990s, guys used to make mixtapes for girls -- this practice usually was a result of guys having a crush on the recipient of the mixtape.  In my case, a somewhat annoying girl (who reminded me of Jan Brady) in one of my classes knew that I owned a huge CD collection and asked if I could make her a mixtape.  I told her I'd be happy to...provided she picked out her own songs and bought her own cassette tape.  Looking back, I admit that wasn't very nice of me, but I didn't want the girl to think that I liked her (because I didn't...and because I was 17 years old and acted like a stereotypical 17-year-old).  Her mixtape contained the usual mix of popular songs from 1994 (Bryan Adams, The Cranberries, Michael Bolton), but I remember she chose the song "Can't Get It Out of My Head" by Electric Light Orchestra.  I had never heard of the song and this girl was a couple years younger than me yet she somehow knew a song released in 1974.  Much like the song title implies, this memory is firmly etched in my brain.

Dream Academy - "Life in a Northern Town"

Did you ever purchase one of those compilation CDs and discover a song that you had never heard but instantly liked?  For me, Dream Academy's "Life in a Northern Town" was that song.  The song came out in 1986, but I didn't discover it for well over a decade later.  With its catchy chorus, the song can be guilty of becoming an instant earworm.