My Vicky Life

30 day music challenge

Day 29: A song that you remember from your childhood.

I have an older sister who used to sing and play guitar, and was into the whole folk movement thing. I remember her singing songs like House of the Rising Sun, made famous by The Animals, but also done by a stupendous folk singer named Odetta. Sometimes our dad would get into the act and join my sister for songs like Swing Low Sweet Chariot, which, since we lived in New Haven, we often heard sung by the Yale Whiffenpoofs. (It has since occurred to me how odd it is to hear a bunch of upper class white boys in tuxedos singing what used to be called a “Negro spiritual,” but I do like Eric Clapton’s version.) My sister’s other greatest hits included songs like Gordon Lightfoot’s Early Morning Rain, Pete Seeger’s If I Had A Hammer, and lots of Judy Collins and Peter, Paul & Mary. My other sister was into people like John Denver and Glen Campbell. Not quite my cup of tea, but I can’t deny that Rocky Mountain High and many of John Denver’s other songs are great, and Glen Campbell’s cover of Jimmy Webb’s Wichita Lineman is actually quite lovely. She was also a huge Burt Bacharach fan, and had lots of Dionne Warwick and Dusty Springfield records. I remember a bunch of old 45s she had too, like Blood, Sweat & Tears’ cover of Laura Nyro’s And When I Die, The Foundations’ Baby Now That I Found You, lots of Beatles and Herman’s Hermits, and since it’s October, I’ll confess we had a 45 of Monster Mash by Bobby “Boris” Pickett. It might be worth cleaning out a closet or two to see if one of us can dig that one up again.