If Your Life Was A Song

Throughout my ENTIRE life, music has been a vital component in my family. My mother was and still is, a professional musicisan and at age 78 (79 next month!)still plays the violin in the Utah Symphony and plays it beautifully. My dad was V.P. for Capitol Records and was surrounded by musical artists. Since we received records in the mail on a DAILY basis, we, as kids, were "drenched" in music.

So I have been asked this question before..."If your life was a song, which one would it be?" I was asked that several years ago and still haven't come up with one! Maybe I haven't come up with the perfect song because there are so many that encapsulate my life...but I'm still thinking on that one!
I love the saying ,"Music is the soundtrack of our life". I think Dick Clark coined that one, but whoever it was, it's true. No matter where I am in the world, if I hear a certain song(s), I am immediately catapulted back in timel...ususally to a good place, but sometimes to a place that I would have loved to forgotten...I guess that comes along with it.

The other day I was in a bookstore and they were playing classical music. It happened to be "The Meditation" (not sure who's it was by) but my dearly departed grandmother's face popped into my head (my mother played it at her funeral=hence the memory). Anyway, my thoughts moved all over the place and I was sweetly reminded of her home in Alburquerque that was filled with authentic Native American antiquities, closets full of books containing stories from the most remote corners of the world and some of the sweetest music coming from her baby grand piano. It was so interesting to me because she has been gone for almost 30 years...but the sounds, smells and visions in my mind were clear.

My "soundtrack album" would include some of the following songs:

• "Our House" by Bread=my older brother, Mark when we were living in Westlake Village, California.


• "Schools Out" by Alice Cooper=Driving home late at night back in about 1972 from the health spa in Ft.Lauderdale.


• "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls=my oldest daughter and a few of her friends dancing in her room when she was in high school....over and over and over!!


• "Man in the Mirror" by Michael Jackson=my son singing to the top of his lungs with his door closed when he was about 9 years old. (again, over and over and over...)


• "Unchained Melody" by the Righteous Brothers=my deceased mother-in-law's smiling face...it was her favorite song.


• "25 or 6 to 4" by Chicago=marching on the football field with my high school band...we did a HORRIFIC rendition. Go Hurricanes!


• "Graduation Day" by the Four Freshmen=great times at the Barbour's pool in California...Ross Barbour was one of the Four Freshmen and they were our best friends.


• "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" by the Beatles=My first date with my husband. We sang this together and he had the sweetest smile on his face.


• "I Saw Her Standing There" by the Beatles=singing with Jilly in Louisville and doing our silly hand gestures.


• "Close To You" by the Carpenters=singing in the car with my sister, Carol on our family roadtrips and having the most perfect harmonies!


• "Hey Jude" by the Beatles=Natalie, Brad and me singing at the top of our lungs on our way to Las Vegas with Natalie's friend, Paige.


• "Ob-la-di-ob-la-da" by the Beatles=my niece, Oakley, singing it with us everytime she got in our car.

The list goes on and on...and YES, almost every Beatles song would be on it! But so would many others like Elton John, Chicago, Styx, The Rolling Stones, Journey, Boston, Neil Young, Credence Clearwater Revival, Cat Stevens, Roy Orbison, Earth Wind and Fire...also, Musicals like "The Sound of Music", "The Kind and I", even "Mary Poppins!...and let us not forget the most sacred music in the world, our beautiful Hymns of praise to our Lord.

So, back to the original question.."If your life was a song, which one would it be?" I still haven't got a clue but I am thankful for the beauty of music and am even more thankful parents who recognized that it was important in our lives. I'm thankful for a mother who, although she was classically trained and exposed us to the genius of the greats, allowed us to listen to "our" music and embraced it with us. I love that she recognized that many "modern"composers (ie: Lennon/McCartney) were indeed geniuses and made meaningful contributions to the world. I am thankful for a father who exposed us not only to the greatest melodies of the 40's, 50's and 60's, but also to the people themselves by sharing the human stories of who they really were...even inviting many into our homes and showing us that they were real people with real lives and families of their own.

Music has been and will be one of the most constant and important parts of my life. It is the part that has added the color and passion that has made my life more interesting and memorable. Music IS the soundtrack of my life...What is your song?