There were things on the last music post where I didn't know if I wanted to get into them yet.
https://sporkful.blogspot.com/2025/05/1963-1961-april-daily-songs.html
I did say I would continue working backward through the Billboard charts.
I just finished 1959.
One interesting thing about that is it appears to have been the first year where it was a top 100. It looks like there will be a couple of years with a top 50, and then mostly top 30s with a few top 35s through 1946.
I am sure there were changes in both radio stations and music sales that affected that.
The other thing that I had mentioned, then kind of let sit, was that "Volare" really affected my mother.
I want to talk more about that.
"Volare" charted in 1960. That was the year that my parents got married. As I was listening to 1959, when they first met, but also a big part of their youth in general, I came across Paul Anka's "Lonely Boy". I remember her telling me long ago that Dad used to play that one on the jukebox.
Her favorite song from her youth was actually "Come Prima" from 1957. That would have been before they met, but nonetheless she really liked it.
She can still be pretty chatty now, but her words are often garbled. It isn't even where she is speaking in English or Italian now; it is that the words are not distinct and the sentences are not complete.
Because of that, it is often easier to sing to her. I will tell her things, but being able to sing lyrics instead of coming up with words helps.
I have sung a lot of 80s songs, which she loved back in the day, but one day I had the thought to sing "Volare" and it really seemed to get through.
You may be thinking, why "Volare" instead of her favorite, "Come Prima"? Well, the lyrics to "Volare" are easier for me to remember. However, it got me thinking and I printed out the lyrics for "Come Prima" for the next time.
When I sang it she started to cry.
That can actually seem like a bad response, but I knew she was responding to it emotionally, and I don't always know if anything is getting in there.
I will sing hymns fairly often as well. There is not always a clear response, but when I sang "Love One Another" she started singing along. No, she wasn't exactly forming the words, but she was going along with the tune.
When I want to know more about music, yes, I generally enjoy music and I enjoy knowing more about things.
There is also more to it. Music can be very powerful, and not always in ways we can predict.
When I decided to keep going backwards, I was not thinking about getting into songs from my childhood or songs from before I was born that were important to my parents, but here I am, at a time of grief, but it is still good to be here.
For my mother...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jWsIpAbo-8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usWFcKTe2YQ
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