Theme Songs

I was in Zambales to surf over the weekend (I’ve always wanted to say that, and no, I am not a surfer, but, yes, that’s what I was there for) and to cap our Saturday evening, my friends and I had a little iPod party. One of them whipped out his iPod and started playing songs on his small, but powerful speakers. Soon, we were requesting the most romantic songs we could think of, swooning to old standards and old pop classics, dreaming of loves, past and future. Okay, maybe that last bit was just me. Me, drunk.

I’m not a musically-inclined person. I don’t own an iPod; I don’t listen to the radio often; I don’t have a CD collection. And I’m not really sure what it is exactly that gets me hooked on a specific song, other than the story I would fashion in my mind from the lyrics or from what is happening in my life around the time I hear the song.

The best way to describe it is I treat songs like soundtracks to the episodes of my life.

For instance, I hold “My Heart Will Go On” close to my heart because I watched Titanic in a crowded movie theater, sitting on the floor, beside a boy I was in love with. This boy turned to me in the middle of the film, his face distraught, and asked, “Is the ship really going to sink?” My thought bubble then: “Oh my God, if this is not love, I don’t know what is!” Then I burst out laughing.

My personal requests included one of my favorite Paul McCartney compositions, “This Never Happened Before,” from The Lake House. Remember that scene where Keanu Reeves’ character meets Sandra Bullock’s character in her past, when she hasn’t really met him yet? Keanu goes to a party, dances with her to this song, and they end up kissing. This song is one of the songs I’m saving for when I find The One, because I’m very sure I’d also say the same things Sir Paul is saying in that song: “This is the way it should be.”

Another song I requested was a song I first heard on French Kiss: “Dream a Little Dream of Me.” Now, I remember liking this song around the same time I discovered the Internet chat room. I met someone online and, for lack of any other romantic way to stay online together, we would listen to songs. Around that time, webcams weren’t easy to get, VOIP wasn’t in existence, downloading songs took forever and streaming wasn’t so popular. I would send him mp3s, which he would download for hours, and we would listen to them. The last song I would make him listen to, before I said goodnight, was “Dream a Little Dream of Me.” You can guess why.

Of course, not all the songs I wanted to hear were available on any of the iPods or smartphones that evening. And, late into the night, I started thinking of all the songs I’d fallen in love with after hearing them on played on film.

The Beach Boys’ “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” became a personal favorite after 50 First Dates. I still think one of Drew Barrymore’s most adorable moments on film is when she was painting the wall with lilies, singing this song, off key, at the top of her lungs.

“I’d Go the Whole Wide World” by The Monkees, as sung by Will Ferrel in Stranger than Fiction, was also on my list.

Top Gun, in my book, is way up there among the films with the best soundtracks. Like The Bodyguard. Top Gun has “Take My Breath Away” and “You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feelin.” Back in college, I would hang out with my BFFs at a bar near my village, and we would always sing “You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feelin” to end the evening. The Bodyguard, of course, has, to begin with, “I Have Nothing” and “I Will Always Love You.”

To be continued.

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