If your life had a soundtrack, what would the theme song be, and what songs would be included?
Recently someone asked that very question in the 9Rules Notes section (Your Life’s Theme Song) and I thought that to be one I would ask you. To be fair, here’s my response:
It depends at the stage in life at which I find myself. When I was young, Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nacht Musik could have been considered my “theme song”, as could have the Hungarian Dance #5 by Johannes Brahms, What a Wonderful World by ol’ Sachmo, and Mi Viejo San Juan, which I suppose is still somewhat applicable.
Of course, if you consider my marriage, then Aerosmith’s I don’t want to miss a thing (a Country version of which was done before and I can’t for the life of me remember who it was by) and Fly me to the moon by… just about everyone.
While there are other pieces I could mention having been descriptive of me during various stage in life, I would have to say that currently that “honor” goes to Sinatra’s Young At Heart, Lee Ann Womac’s I Hope You Dance and to a certain extent Blasphemous Rumors by Depeche Mode.
(By the way, the links open to a clip of the song mentioned.)
Here’s a little extra background (not included in the thread) on each:
- Eine Kleine Nacht Musik: When I started playing violin, this was it: the song to learn. I don’t know when I first heard this song, but knew I loved it ever since, and if I had to pinpoint one reason why I started playing the violin, this would be it. After a few years of playing violin, I could finally play this song, and a few years after that I could finally play it well.
- Hungarian Dance #5: This was one I fell in love with after I started playing, and was for years my “signature piece”, the piece of music which showed of my best skills. For years, whenever anyone asked me to play for them, this is what they would hear.
- What a Wonderful World: As a kid, I watched a lot of television, especially Nickelodeon. At nights, they would give this 2 minute cartoon, about a little creature who turned on a radio, then floated down a stream in a spaceship (or something like that). This was the song that played in that cartoon. A few years later, after I got to the US, I heard this song again in a movie and finally learned that it was by Louis Armstrong. To this day, I still sing this song when I’m relaxing at home or driving down a dark road.
- Mi Viejo San Juan: The first time I heard this song it had me in tears: it was the saddest song I had ever heard. It is a song about a man who leaves Puerto Rico, vowing he’d one day come back, but never being able to make it back. When I moved to the US, for a long time, this song was all I could think about.
- I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing: A few days after I first met The Wife (at that time she was dating someone else and marriage was not even in the radar), we went to go see the movie Armagedon and it described how I’ve felt about her from the moment I met her. This was one that made a very prominent appearance during our wedding reception.
- Fly Me to the Moon: This actually became an accidental theme song. My favorite version was the version used in the closing credits of the series Neon Genesis Evangelion , but it didn’t become a “theme song” until The Wife and I were planning our wedding. The song, it seemed, followed us around everywhere. It was the song playing when we decided to start dating, and when we would go on a date, somehow this song would always end up playing: over the intercom at a store, in the radio, in a movie… you get the picture. Obviously, we’d always hear a different version — Sinatra, Torme, Harry Connick Jr., etc — but the version didn’t matter. The song did. We ended up dancing to this during the bride/groom dance (or whatever’s called) during the wedding reception. The Neon Genesis Evangelion version.
- Young At Heart: “Fairy tales can come true, it could happen to you…” I had always loved that song, but it wasn’t until recently that I truly got its meaning and realize that it applied to me. To stay young at heart means to stay innocent of things, to stay excited about life, to never close yourself to such things as love and friendship, and to never worry or give up and be willing to laugh when your dreams fall apart at the seams.
- I Hope you Dance: If you’ve heard this song, you know it’s about one thing: never being afraid to going out and doing something, even if you look foolish to others; never being afraid to follow your heart wherever it leads you; never forgetting that there’s a huge world out there, and there’s nothing you should give up on so long as you’re still breathing; and never ever ever passing up a chance to “dance” when you’ve got the chance.
- Blasphemous Rumors: (Interesting that I should be ending on this note). This song has become a bit of a theme song in that it points out how God’s machinations and control of the universe may just be part of his sense of humor. “…and when I die/I expect to find him/laughing…”
Alright, so there you have it: now it’s your turn. If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, or if you just recently started reading, I’d like to know about your life’s soundtrack. Who knows, maybe I’ll grab a copy of the song(s) and maybe get to know you a little better.
P.S.
If you can, provide a link to a sound clip of the song. Amazon has sound clips for some of their CDs, so you may want to check there. Thanks.