Songs that your 12 year old self loved

I'm not in love 10CC

At 12, it was obvious my music stylings tended towards dramatic power ballads.

Tears of a Clown - Smokey Robinson

Hand in my pocket, Alanis

The first four 45s I bought:

1) Sugar, Sugar (archies)

2) Take A Letter, Maria (RB Greaves)

3) Quentin's Theme (from "Dark Shadows)

4) I'll Never Fall In Love Again (Tom Jones)

Drove my mother crazy playing this on repeat the weekend of November 22, 1963:

3) Quentin's Theme (from "Dark Shadows)

Miss Me Blind - Culture Club

Flashdance Soundtrack

Footloose Soundtrack

My Sharona.

Anything by the Monkees.

I turned 12 in 1976, the beginning of the worst pop music stretch that lasted about four years.

I have been listening to the 70's on 7 on SiriusXM and, boy, the late 70's took a shit on music. Sure, there are some singles that still hold up well, but a lot of it is schlock. I was accosted by a Kansas song followed by a Styx song this morning.

Come Undone by Duran Duran

Ahhh 1991 in Staten Island. Years before J Lo we had Corina and her purple crushed velvet catsuit!

Oops here’s the link...

I'm A Slave 4 U

I remember being in 5th grade when the VMA performance aired and I had to use all of my will power to avoid correcting my female classmates' flop re-enactments. I tell you, it was one of the hardest days in the closet.

I also remember in like 2nd or 3rd grade that when some boys and all of the girls were excited to see Britney on Sabrina The Teenage Witch! #TGIF I miss the turn of the century.

Soundtracks from Saturday Night Fever and Grease. Le Freak. Hot Child in the City.

Voices Carry by Til Tuesday

Raspberry Beret by Prince

Through the Fire by Chaka Khan

Lucky Star, Borderline; Madonna

Karma Chameleon, Time, Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?; Culture Club

Drive, The Cars

Every Breath You Take, King of Pain; The Police

Middle of the Road, Back on the Chaim Gang; The Pretenders

Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Time After Time; Cyndi Lauper

Let’s Dance, China Girl; David Bowie

I should mention I fell in love with these songs through Mtv, which I watched every single day after school without fail. The videos were awesome.

I went to see which songs came out when I was 12 and damn: 2002/03 was a horrible year for music. The only songs from that period I still occasionally listen to are a few tracks from Xtina's and P!nk.

I'm not even a big Christina fan but Fighter is definitely the best thing she's ever done. And the music video had some great imagery in it too (like Christina as a human pin cushion)

Only on DL can I admit this: To this day, I still listen to Jessi Colter's I'm Not Lisa...

I Wish/Stevie Wonder

Boogie Fever/The Sylvesters

Magical Mystery Tour/The Beatles

My education in liking boys:

Then He Kissed Me - the Crystals

It's My Party - Lesley Gore

Da Doo Ron Ron - the Crystals

Judy's Turn to Cry - Lesley Gore

I Will Follow Him - Little Peggy March

I Only Want to Be with You - Dusty Springfield

Baby, I Love You - the Ronettes

The Best Part of Breaking Up - the Ronettes

She's a Fool / Maybe I Know - Lesley Gore

You Don't Own Me - Lesley Gore

Most of you should be more truthful and list songs by Dinah Shore, Jo Stafford and Frank Sinatra. They were big when you all were 12. Just admit it

More from 1995:

Wonderwall - Oasis

Fantasy - Mariah Carey

You'll See - Madonna

Andy Gibb 'I just want to be your everything'. Yup still love it.

1975. GO!

This pre-Priscilla gem by Charlene - I've never been to me.

I was mad for Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves

1987

Some of my favourites:

"Pure Shores" - All Saints

"Caught Out There" - Kelis

"All the Small Things" - Blink-182

I actually listened to "Pure Shores" the other day and realised how much I still love it. Cannot believe it's twenty years old.

"Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend" - Carol Channing

"The Man that got Away" - Judy Garland

"This is My Life" - Shirley Bassey

Hey, I was in pre-drag in my bedroom, discovering all my makeup and styling secrets from beauty magazines.

1992

I was 12 in 1978, and my top three favorite songs were:

Last Dance (Donna Summer)

I'm Every Woman (Chaka Khan)

Shame (Evelyn Champagne King)

For me, the late 70s was still an awesome time for music. The early 80s, not so much. The mid-to-late 80s was very good, though.

I liked a lot of these songs and still do! The year was 1983.

The Battle Hymn of the Republic

Girls Just Want to Have Fun

Total Eclipse of the Heart

Better Be Good To Me

She-Bop

Strut

I had a major, MAJOR crush on Paul McCartney. I wanted to move to Scotland to live with him and Linda and Heather. * If I did I'd be Stella's big adopted brother. I was really depressed about being unable to figure out a way to do this. I even went so far as to start walking from Hicksville, Long Island to New York City on August 1st, 1971. The Concert for Bengladesh was that Sunday. I figured I'd stroll into the Garden and talk to George. And George knew Paul. He could talk to Paul and that would be that. Simple! Remember, I was 12 years old. Anything seemed possible. So, that summer "Too Many People", the first song on Paul and Llinda's album "Ram", was a fave. I still play the album because it's a joint effort between Paul and Linda. After that Wings formed and things sounded different.

*(Cut to February 2009. I'm seated on the upper deck of British Airways Flight 049 London Heathrow to Seattle. The seats in Club World Business Class are staggered in a herringbone fashion so you face your next door neighbour during take off and landing, when the glass shade must be in the down position. It turns out my seat mate lives in Campbeltown, Argyllshire, Scotland. His land abuts Paul McCartney's farm. He is a college professor. Anyway, he told me some interesting information about Paul. Nothing scandalous. He did say that he once saw Paul and Heather Mills in the local Woolworth having an absolute screaming fight about wh. colour jumper to buy for their daughter, Bea.)

Everything on the FUNNY GIRL soundtrack.

But especially Barbra's songs.

1962 Johnny Angel

I was in grade six and was invited to a classmates birthday party.

I danced with the birthday girl - the first time I had danced with anyone- but couldn't stop looking at my friend Rodney and wished I was dancing with him.

I thought to myself as I danced with Debbie the birthday girl to Johnny Angel- I love Rodney!

That's weird, as I wrestled with that revelation.

1984

I was 9 not twelve and I loved Roy Orbison singing "Crying". I even tried to sing it in front of the mirror in my grandma's bedroom.

"Running Bear (Loved Little White Dove)."

"That's Amore."

"Catch a Falling Star (and Put It in Your Pocket)."

1980! One of the best years for music ever. Xanadu soundtrack. Fame soundtrack. Rock Lobster by B52s. Emotional Rescue by the Rolling Stones. The Pretenders' first album. Pat Benatar. Michael McDonald singing backup on everyone's albums. God, I could make a list 100 songs long.

Kids today will never understand the pure joy of waiting for your favorite song to be played on the radio and finally hearing it.

I bought the 45 and played this over and over and over and over.

I don't think there's any song I loved as a kid that I dislike now. Some are guilty pleasures but I still love them.

I remember listening to Here Comes Your Man and La La Love You by the Pixies on loop. I was also completely obsessed with David Bowie.

David Essex - "Rock On"

Angie Baby by Helen Reddy

I was obsessed

But I was 10 not 12

1981 - best year for pop ever. Out with the old, in with the new.

Livin La Vida Loca

Steal My Sunshine

Beautiful Stranger

1977

Dreams/ Don't Stop Fleetwood Mac

New Kid In Town The Eagles

Undercover Angel Alan O'Day

Southern Nights Glen Campbell

Jet Airliner Steve Miller Band

Open Arms, Don't Stop Believing, Still They Ride (fuck it - all things Journey before Raised on Radio)

Wham

All My Loving - The Beatles

Debbie Gibson, Only in My Dreams. Gold star obvi.

1973: Killing Me Softly by Roberta Flack, Angie by The Rolling Stones, Dream On by Aerosmith and Dancing in the Moonlight by King Harvest.

I love this thread so much. It's really a time capsule in its own way.

We had a choreographed line dance to Car Wash when there was indoor recess and the teacher let us play 45s.

And 40+ years later, I still find the strings and bass line irresistible.

NB: The guy on the far right in the zebra print shirt looks deliriously flaming. He would’ve liked our line dance.

Blondie’s Atomic

Coolio, Gangsta's Paradise

George Michael, "Faith"

My exposure to music changed in a major way just as I was turning 14 - new school, my overprotective parents were distracted with starting a business...I finally began to reject the AM radio / elevator music (Christopher Cross, Hall and Oates, and MUZAK) to which my parents limited me and my sibs (though, thank God, Mom made sure were exposed to Classical and Gershwin). While there are many songs from my 12th year, I think the ones that took the deepest roots did so at 14-15. New friends introduced me to The Smiths, and other left-of-center groups. But albums by Madonna, The Cars, Pet Shop Boys, Human League, Tears for Fears, U2, INXS, Blondie, and Sigue Sigue Sputnik still resonate as most deeply-rooted in my teenage psyche.

‘03-‘04. Half-decent year in metal if you were willing to embrace crossover (and as kids we were). Dimebag was murdered and Megadeth put out what we thought would be their final album, but aside from those sad events it was mostly even-keeled.

Let’s see: Deftones ‘Minerva’ was big for me, as was: Rammstein ‘Mein Teil’; Skindred ‘Pressure’; System Of A Down ‘B.Y.O.B’; Slipknot ‘Duality’; and the entirety of Linkin Park’s METEORA. Yeah, I was *that* kid. I loved Orange Goblin and thought they’d be bigger than QOTSA, though the latter’s single for that year ‘Go With The Flow’ is a fantastic song and their LULLABIES TO PARALYZE album would shut me up on release a year later. Iron Maiden’s DANCE OF DEATH caught a lot of flack, but ‘Rainmaker’ went on to become a Greatest Hit (and I bump ‘Journeyman’ to this day).

The songs from back then I still listen to most often today are Chevelle ‘The Clincher’ as it perfectly encapsulates my adolescence in a cathartic way as yet unmatched, or A Perfect Circle ‘Passive’ because of the association it has for me with a seminal movie in my coming-out process (Bryan Singer’s X-MEN 2, much to my shame).

Apart from that, I most remember just fervently wanting Green Day, Good Charlotte and any & all self-proclaimed Emo bands to go the fuck away forever. My friends all liked Evanescence, I didn’t get it.

^^‘The Clincher’, still a breathtaking shred (and no, it isn’t ‘chick-metal’ or Tool-lite).

"Sherry" by the Keane Brothers

When we first heard Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag" Father immediately went and purchased the piano roll! I was mesmerized.

I think my 13 year old self love anything by the Beatles.

Still love it

1977: -"Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue" by Crystal Gayle

Lazy r26 here again. 1975.

The Hot 100 of 1963 (when being a single really mattered):

Does this one bring back schoolgirl memories!

1971 (so much to choose from!):

Ain't No Sunshine -- Bill Withers

American Pie -- Don McLean

Don't Pull Your Love -- Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds

Day After Day -- Badfinger

Tired of Being Alone -- Al Green

Brown Sugar and Wild Horses -- The Rolling Stones

Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves -- Cher

Reason to Believe and Maggie May -- Rod Stewart

Baba O'Riley and Behind Blue Eyes -- The Who

It Don't Come Easy -- Ringo Starr

Stairway to Heaven -- Led Zeppelin

What's Going On -- Marvin Gaye

R48 Their best song, in my opinion.

I Felt Gay

I was 12 in 1954, Shake, Rattle and Roll was my favorite recording, was then and still is. I was taught to to dance that year by a young nun at St. Lorretto's in Montgomery. AL It sure paid off in high school. Very few guys could really dance to rock. Most would waste their time going outside and smoke those rancid smelling cigarettes.

I was 10. And white and middle-class suburban.

[quote]I was 10. And white and middle-class suburban.

And what did you like when you were 12? And (presumably still) white and middle-class suburban?

I don't remember. I posted the song that stuck out the most around about that age.

At12 I was already hopelessly romantic. Remember this song so well.

I WANT YOU TO WANT ME - Cheap Trick

HEAD GAMES - Foreigner

HEART OF GLASS - Blondie

YMCA - Village People

WE'VE GOT TONIGHT - Bob Seger

A LITTLE MORE LOVE - Olivia Newton John

"Donna Donna the Prima Dona" still sets my fingers popping and my body bopping.