Cat Stevens "Moonshadow"

Three flimsy red poster boards displaying handwritten facts about the moon comprised "Our Neighbor The Moon" -- my science fair project from 5th grade. My classmate Paul, however, arrived to school and showed off his...tornado. Yes, his project was about tornadoes and he designed some sort of box contraption that somehow created a tornado within it. When he presented it to the rest of the class, we all gasped in jealous amazement. It's clear Paul had some help from his dad. When designing my moon project, my dad simply took me to Walgreens to purchase said red poster board and then wished me luck. While Paul's tornado scored vanity points within our classroom, I remain curious what my teacher thought of Paul's dad doing all the heavy lifting...

The Stylistics "You Are Everything"

Kevin Arnold and Winnie Cooper. For a handful of years, America watched the duo grow up on the television show The Wonder Years. Throughout the six seasons of the coming-of-age series, the relationship between Kevin and Winnie was always in the forefront...for better or worse.

During Season 4, Winnie's family moved a few miles away which sent Winnie to a new school and put her and Kevin's relationship to the test. During a field trip that both schools attended, Winnie revealed to Kevin that she has a new love interest and dumped him. What a great field trip! Before climbing aboard the bus for the sad ride back to his school, Kevin finds the ring he once purchased for Winnie sitting all by its lonesome. Seeing it made the uncomfortable title of "Winnie's ex" a reality.

An episode later, still in denial over his breakup, Kevin convinces his best friend Paul Pfeiffer to host a party in hopes of wooing back Winnie. Paul reluctantly agrees. Winnie and her new boyfriend attend Paul's shindig as does Kevin and his date Madeline (who has flirted with Kevin throughout Season 4). At the party, Kevin works overtime to convince Winnie that he's doing just fine, thank you very much, but no one is buying it. Not Paul, not Madeline, and definitely not Winnie. He eventually puts himself in a timeout and adjourns to the nearby laundry room in Paul's basement when Winnie enters. In an effort to melt the ice, she tells Kevin she needs him to be her friend. Feeling jaded, Kevin tells Winnie he's not her friend and lashes out at her...all the while The Stylistics' "You Are Everything" further paints the picture throughout the scene. After Winnie leaves in tears, Kevin goes home where he finds his dad in the garage. In a tender moment that hits too close to home, Kevin breaks down in front of his usually stoic dad, Jack. Not mincing words, Jack says, "I wish I could say it gets easier." 

The episode concludes on Winnie's front porch with a disappointing conclusion where Kevin went to apologize. All the emotion from the previous scene completely drained from the episode when Winnie easily accepted Kevin's apology. Kevin's inner-monologue reveals that his and Winnie's relationship has changed and will never be the same. The narrator ends by saying, "Maybe we weren't the same two kids we'd once been...and even though I didn't know what was gonna happen to us...I just knew I couldn't let her out of my life."

Some things last.
And even though I didn't know what was gonna happen to us or where we were going I just knew I couldn't let her out of my life.

Read more: https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/view_episode_scripts.php?tv-show=the-wonder-years&episode=s04e12

America "A Horse With No Name"

After one Cleveland radio station pulled the Christmas song "Baby, It's Cold Outside" after listeners complained that its lyrics promote date rape, a Louisville radio station promises to play the song all day on Christmas. To each their own, I suppose. In the pre-#MeToo era of 1971, some radio stations banned America's "A Horse With No Name" for its alleged reference to heroin usage. Despite that, the song went to #1 on the Hot 100 and #3 on the Adult Contemporary Charts. 

Stevie Wonder "If You Really Love Me"

"You'll never guess who called me on the request line tonight," Robin, the station's overnight host, asked me as I walked into the studio.

Still half-asleep, I replied, "Who?"

"STEVIE WONDER!" 

"Wait. Stevie Wonder called....here?"

"YES! I mean, I think it was him. Someone dialed the phone for him and told me to hang on because someone wanted to talk to me. So, I did, and then Stevie Wonder got on the phone and told me he was listening to the station and really liked the music," Robin explained.

Most radio stations use a computer program called VoxPro to record and edit phone conversations.  At some point during Robin's conversation with Stevie, she pressed "Record" on VoxPro. At some point during the long conversation, 1998 technology reared its ugly head and the computer crashed. Instead of a recorded conversation with one of the biggest musicians in the world, Robin simply had this ominous symbol:

She asked if I knew how to salvage the audio from our vintage Mac computer. I tried every trick I knew without any luck. The next weekend, Robin revealed that our IT department couldn't recover her conversation with Stevie.

James Taylor "You've Got A Friend"

It sounds cliche, but I can still recall the moment like it happened yesterday.  It was a cool Spring day in 1998 when my first real girlfriend broke up with me at a Baker's Square parking lot.  She was a girl I had a crush on throughout high school, but I never had the courage to ask her out until college.  Ultimately, we dated for three years while I was in college, but the distance between our schools had created a divide in the relationship.  Not to mention, she was pre-med and had less time to see me on weekends.  I couldn't imagine life without her, but I was forced to do so.  That night, she became my first ex-girlfriend.

That night, since she drove, she had the pleasure to then drive me home after ending our relationship.  She turned on the radio and James Taylor's "You've Got A Friend" broke the silence.   As James Taylor tried to lighten the mood, my ex encouraged me to sing along with her.  She sang in our high school's choir and thought nothing of singing.  Since I had never heard the song before and wasn't familiar with the lyrics, I remained quiet -- not to mention I was in no mood to sing (and rarely was).  I don't remember much from the remainder of that evening other than her car wouldn't start after she dropped me off, yet that song would haunt me for years to come. In an eerie and fitting end to this story, as I'm writing this I see a Facebook notification pop up alerting me that my first ex just liked one of my posts on Facebook.  (True story -- it just happened!)  Nearly 12 years after we broke up, she reconnected with me via Facebook.  At first, I resisted but eventually, I made peace with our past.  I suppose the lesson here is that life doesn't always go as we planned.  Sometimes it works out for the best and it may take years for one or both of us to recognize and accept it -- I speak this from experience.  Peace.

The Bee Gee's - "How Can You Mend A Broken Heart?"

A song that failed to chart in the UK for The Bee Gees proved to be their first #1 song in the United States.  The somber "How Can You Mend A Broken Heart" topped the Hot 100 in 1971 (peaking at #4 on the Adult Contemporary Chart).  A handful of years later, Florence Henderson covered the song during an episode of The Brady Bunch Variety Hour.

Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds - "Don't Pull Your Love"

BAND NAMES THAT SOUND LIKE LAW FIRMS: enter Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds with their 1971 signature hit "Don't Pull Your Love".  Close your eyes, and it almost sounds like Elvis on lead vocals.

Loggins & Messina - "Danny's Song"

A friend of mine insists that 7-Eleven is selling drinks in soda cups imprinted with famous bands.  She showed me a photo from Facebook of one of the cups that featured Loggins & Messina.  I can't imagine a Slurpee tasting any better than it already does...until now.

Gordon Lightfoot - "If You Could Read My Mind"

Find an easy listening artist with a name better than Gordon Lightfoot, and I'll give you a quarter*.

*No purchase necessary.  Plus applicable tax.  Expires 1/30/15.  Offer not valid in 48 contiguous states.