The Soundtrack of Life
Life is riddled with song, a symphony of chords that, strung together, define who we are. Where we’ve been. What we’ve become.
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about the soundtrack of my life. What would really make the cut? Sure, there are songs that evoke visceral emotions when I hear snatches of them. Choruses that make me cry, every time. Beats that force me to get up and dance with joy. Songs that make me feel four or fourteen again, down to smelling cookies in the oven or the musty interior of a packed school bus. Tunes that transform me into a person I used to be, that remind me how far I’ve come.
Like the first song I ever remember hearing. Pennies From Heaven.
Bing Crosby crooned that song in the 1936 movie, but I never knew that as a tiny girl, being rocked to sleep in my Mom’s arms. She sang me to slumber every night in a cumbersome antique rocker that creaked in time with her heavenly voice. Like yesterday, I remember looking up at her while she sang, with her lean fingers rubbing my eyelids to make them heavy. I’m sure she sang other things, but I only remember this one, a song that has, ironically, become something of a life anthem for me, as living hasn’t always been easy or kind.
Whenever I’ve rocked any child to sleep, it’s been my lullaby of choice. I remember what Cayleigh‘s face looked like when she wrapped herself around me and fell asleep to that song, and the shadow of Cooper‘s infant smile in the fading Hudson Valley light.
In my lowest moments of adulthood, I still sometimes sing Pennies From Heaven through my tears, in the dark, when I’m alone and aching. It takes me back to that time, when my mother held me, protecting me from every walloping thing in life. To me, it means safety, a shelter in the time of storm.
What’s the first song you remember hearing?
Trackbacks & Pingbacks
- How To Be a Killer « The Accidental Cootchie Mama
- Lean on Me « The Accidental Cootchie Mama
- I Was a Young American « The Accidental Cootchie Mama
- Smile Though Your Heart Is Aching « The Accidental Cootchie Mama
- Worthless « The Accidental Cootchie Mama
- Hooked on Classics « The Accidental Cootchie Mama
- The Very Thought of You « The Accidental Cootchie Mama
- Christmas in…..August « The Accidental Cootchie Mama
- The Day the Music Died « The Accidental Cootchie Mama
- A Kind of Magic « The Accidental Cootchie Mama
- We Are Young « The Accidental Cootchie Mama
- Take Me Out « The Accidental Cootchie Mama
- Let There Be Peace on Earth « The Accidental Cootchie Mama
Andra, this iIS my first and favorite childhood song! My dad sang it to me, along with Bing, as we danced, my stockinged little girl feet on top of his shoes and he made me feel as if the song was about me, since my name is Penny. I actually wrote about it some time ago after I listened to an audio book I picked up on a trip up north. Our book group later read it. It is called “Penny from Heaven” by Jennifer Holt, and is a young adult book that you might enjoy reading.
Like you, I often sing Pennies from Heaven, and I thank you for the memories you have of it.
lifeonthecutoff.wordpress.com/2011/04/15/penny-from-heaven/
Such a gorgeous memory, Penny. I wondered if you’d have a connection to this song. I had not found your blog when this post was published. I’m redoing the link, because the one above does not work.
http://lifeonthecutoff.wordpress.com/2011/04/15/penny-from-heaven/
Thanks, Andra, for redoing the link. I know we weren’t “connected” back then and your post today gave me such a good feeling and memories I have that I wanted to share the book with you.
Can’t really think of a song that stood out, all I remember is getting a transistor radio when I was about 8 years old and listening to music all day every day. The Top 40 station back then was a big mix of standards, rock n roll and a little bit of country. Frank Sinatra, Everly Brothers, Buddy Holly, Pat Boone, The Drifters, Patsy Cline and many others.
Well, you certainly have a lot of great ones in that mix, Lou. I love to listen to those kinds of stations today.
My Mom never truly sang to any of us kids but my Dad sings bits and pieces of songs all the time. Funny thing that…Michael does the same thing, except he makes up his own words sometimes. What a pip he is and what a beautiful memory you shared – thank you.
I love the making up of words to songs. Especially if they’re silly or funny.
It’s either my mother singing “This is my Father’s Word” the classic hymn, or it’s my memory of my first vocal recital at age 6 singing “Christopher Robin is Saying His Prayers.” Both are wrapped up in the same memories.
Both are fine songs.
You know, I’d heard of the song but I’d never actually heard it before now.
I still get sentimental at the lullaby my father always sang me when I was little. Which was, um, from a commercial for Faygo soft drinks.
I think that’s awesome, Annabelle. Those kinds of things really stick in the head.
Hey, Andra–sorry to have been away from the internet all weekend. I’m sure I missed a lot of great stuff. I’ve been getting ready for visits from Tori (The Ramblings) and Lisa (Woman Wielding Words) beginning tomorrow evening. Any chance you’re up for a VERY BLOGGY ROAD TRIP, so you can join us? I know I’m a little late with the notice (sorry) but email me if you can. Our full and fun-filled day together will be Wednesday. kownrroom@yahoo.com .
Hugs,
Kathy
I wish I could, Kathy. I am in a fit of making words until September 5. Long story. Please let me know if you do this again, though, because I would love to try to be there.
Mum used to sing an old irish lullaby to my brother and me to help us settle for the night. It was a happy, jaunty little number. The gaelic was lost on us but year later she told me it was about a bird flying around a mountain finding food for her chicks. Never forgotten it, nor the fact that she often fell asleep before my brother and me!
Did she sing it in her sleep, Jim?
I love songs sung in gaelic. We had a concert at our house several years ago with an Irish musician, and he sang some lovely tunes in Irish.
Sadly no Andra – she snored like a drain – I was # 6 so it was understandable!
Ha. Snored like a drain. I love that description, Jim.
The first song I remember hearing was Que Sera Sera. My grandfather would sing it all the time. My grandparents were born in Sweden and for the longest time I thought he was singing a swedish song! I think most people would remember Doris Day singing it.
That’s funny, Debbie, and a lovely memory. I love the Doris Day version myself.
Boy, there are so many. I’m with Lou – radio was so big back then, and it was always playing. We had our transistor radios on playing the pop songs.
I just love that your momma gave you that song, and that it’s lifted you through difficult times. This was really wonderfully crafted.
It’s funny the things that stick with me, and the things I remember from so, so young. I don’t know why, because I was a baby.
I had a clock radio and listened to it a lot, so I know how radio used to be.
What a lovely memory of your young childhood…babyhood, really! Apparently I was singing before I turned one and I have always memorized music very easily, so I don’t know if I can pinpoint a first. I have a lot of early childhood memories tightly bound to music, but I know that my dad sang “I Love Paris in the Springtime” when I was very little, and I can remember that. I will always identify that song with him. I have always been so eclectic, and I constantly sang around my own children, so I wonder if they could answer this question! I must ask! Very sweet post, Andra. It makes me want to turn on some “golden oldies” today! Debra
Lovely post and it really made me think. What songs do I love? I still love that Christmas song, City Sidewalks, it always brings back memories of my childhood in the city!
The sidewalks of London must be something at Christmastime, Susan. I’d love to see them at that time of year myself. Someday.
When the lights go on, it can be amazing. A year or two back, there was a general outcry as it was more of a film display to a certain film, than Christmas. So there is always something to chat about! I remember though the best sights were during my childhood, but isn’ t that always the case? Loved your post on the songs…still thinking about my list!
This is going to be a series, and I hope to evoke lots of other songs for you, Susan.
We were in London right after US Thanksgiving last year, just as the Christmas markets were going up. I love those. Always enjoy strolling through them when in Europe at that time of year.
Fantastic! Looking forward to the series! I should do one on the Christmas markets!
Heart and Soul by Rod Stewart. I can still see my mom and me singing in the car and the 45 record she bought for me on Valentine’s Day, when I was 3.
Oh, those 45 records. They were something to thumb through. Lovely memory.
The happiest time in my life was when I was rocking my babies before they went to bed. I sang and sang and sang. I remember you, Andra, with your thumb in your mouth (either one, you liked them both) and if I stopped singing, you would start swinging the free arm like a director wanting me to sing another. I sang ditties (as my mother would say), old Guy Mitchell songs, 50′s songs, hymns – I had a large selection because I came from a singing family. We didn’t necessarily sing well – we just loved to sing.
You and your sisters still sing well together, Mom.
That’s what I like about the power of music, Andra… how it transports you in an instant to another time. I can’t remember what my first favourite song was, but I remember being on holiday when I was nine or ten, and constantly played Bright Eyes on the jukebox, much to everyone else’s dismay! Whenever I hear it now, I’m back on that holiday once again…
It’s so funny to me how music can evoke things in an instant. Just a chord or two is all it takes, isn’t it?
I don’t remember any one song. There was always music. My dad favored the folk storytellers and 60s psychedelic scene, my mom liked pop, show tunes, and crooners, too. If there was one band who defined my childhood, I’d say Peter, Paul, & Mary, but Harry Chapin is a close second.
Peter, Paul & Mary is a great definer of childhood.
Hard to say but either This Land Is Your Land or Charlie On The MTA. My Mom was a hard core folkie. Seeger, Odetta, etc.
I really missed that era entirely, I’m afraid. Learning more about it as an adult. I hope you’re enjoying your trip to the Cape, and you end up with good boating weather.
I sang as soon as I learned to talk . . . especially in the grocery cart. But I have no clue what songs I sang at that point.
Music has always been central to my life. So many songs for my songtrack.
I hope they’re lifting you up these days, Nancy.
Lovely post, Andra: I love Pennies From Heaven.
My first memory? Puppy Love. By the Osmonds. I wish it was something with a bit more taste. I took it in to school for the nuns to put on the class record player, but Sr Mary Margaret put on the wrong side by mistake: Crazy Horses. Her sanctified forehead wrinkled in distaste and all the boys in my class started playing air guitars.
Oh Kate. The image of English Catholic school boys in uniforms playing air guitar in class under the watch of a disapproving nun is priceless. I am dying over here.
I was equally smitten with puppy love by Donny Osmond. I had two or three of his 33rpm records, and I had the Donny and Marie Barbie dolls. Actually, I think my mother probably still has those somewhere.
Ooooh, they’d be worth a bob or two, I should think!
My mum’s favourite song – “Smoke gets in your eyes”
I can’t for the life of me remember if she sang it to me but its firmly lodged in my head. Our house was always filled with music growing up – from the radio to the record player, there was always a beat somewhere in the house.
Linda, The Platters are another musical touchstone for me, too. I struggled with how to include them in the early years and decided to go with what I already used. Thank you for giving me an excuse to throw them up there, because I LOVE them, too. Your mum had excellent taste.
Actually, Smoke Gets In Your Eyes dates back to 1933, well before even MY childhood, but it’s just one song of many that I’ve always loved. Our Mom, too, was a singer (actually was studying voice when she met our Dad and decided marriage was a more attractive future), and this is one of many, many things I remember her singing during my growing up years. The radio was on a lot, ’cause for the first 9 or 10 years of my childhood there was NO television, and even today, many of the lyrics still roll effortlessly from my tongue (it’s just the carrying the tune part that seems to have escaped me along the way….:(). Thanks for more lovely, music-related memories!
You know, I can’t remember a first song. There are so many. Mom sang me lullabies, my parents played me music on the stereo, and Dad is a rocker. It’s just always surrounded me, to the point that at any time, the music in my head is earworming along song to song, and a random lyric will erupt from my mouth with no connection to anything around me.
I wondered how you would answer this one, given your Dad.
Hi Andra, my friend Alison turned me on to your blog. Hope we get to meet someday! I’ve never heard “Pennies from Heaven” before! But, I absolutely love it. What a beautiful memory to have.
Hi Maggie! Thanks for letting me know you’re reading. Glad you found a new song to love. Hope to meet you, too.