50 Songs for 50 Years of Life

 

50 for 50 Years of Life:

 

I wanted to create a soundtrack for my life. These are not necessarily my favorite songs. They are songs that remind me of a certain time of my life. They evoke memories or nostalgia. This is something that I have talked with my friend Mike Fields about creating. I came up with some rules for this list.

  1) Can only use an artist once.

 2) The song had to be released that year. (The last song is the only exception to this rule)

3)   In the first couple of years, I simply picked songs that I liked or that reminded me of something later in life. For example, I will always remember being on a bus in eighth grade on a field trip and people insisting I listen to Hotel California. Killing Me Softly by Roberta Flack was the number one song on the day I was born (March 7, 1973)

4) Only one song per year (I broke this rule on 1978…I have a lot of great memories of both of those songs!)

 

What would your list look like?

 

 

50 for 50 Years of Life:

 

1973 – Killing me softly-Roberta Flack

1974 – Matthew –John Denver

1975 – Shooting Star – Bad Company

I976 – Sick As a Dog - Aerosmith

1977 – Hotel California - Eagles

1978 – Grease Lightening – Grease/ Copacapana  - Barry Manilow

1979 – The Gambler – Kenny Rogers

1980 – Everybody Needs Somebody -Blues Brothers

1981 – Jesse’s Girl – Rick Springfield

1982 – Jack and Diane – John Cougar

1983 – Every Breath You Take – The Police

1984 – Jump – Van Halen

1985 – Home Sweet Home – Motley Crue

1986 – These Dreams – Heart

1987 – Touch of Grey – Grateful Dead

1988 – Every Rose Has It’s thorn - Poison

1989 – If We Never Meet Again – Tommy Cromwell and the Young Rumblers

1990 – Bouncing Round the Room - Phish

1991 – Half the World Away - REM

1992 – No Rain – Blind Melon

1993 – Laid – James

1994 –Better Man – Pearl Jam

1995 – Ironic  - Alanis Morsette

1996 – What I got – Sublime

1997 – The General  - Dispatch

1998 – One Week – Bear Naked Ladies

1999 – Doo Wop that thing – Lauren Hill

2000 – Beautiful Day  - U2

2001 – Last Night – The strokes

2002 -  The Rising – Bruce Springsteen

2003 – Mr. Brightside – The Killers

2004 – American Idiot – Green Day

2005 – Best of You – Foo Fighters

2006 – Satellite – Guster

2007 – 1234 – Feist

2008 – Dogs Days Are Over – Florence and the Machine

2009 – Home – Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros

2010 – The Cave – Mumford and Sons

2011 – Born this Way – Lady Gaga

2012 – Ho Hey - Lumineers

2013 – Two of us on the Run – Luscious

2014 – Rip Tide – Vance Joy

2015 – Rescue Me – Amy Helm

2016 – Better Man – Leon Bridges

2017 – Day I Die – The National

2018 – You’re the One – Greta Van Fleet

2019 – California – OAR

2020 – Haven’t been Doing so Well – Frank Turner

2021 – How Dare You Want More - Bleachers

2022- Lost Track – Haim

2023 – Love is All You Need – The Beatles