Cherry Tunes

Sharon has tagged me to list the top 10 songs that mean something to me. I've listed them in almost chronological order. They are not necessarily my favourite songs but they all stir feelings for me, some good and a few not-so. Songs that are linked can be clicked for listening on YouTube. I've spared you the first one as I realise not everyone has my finely-developed musical appreciation and I cheated a bit on no. 6 because there were just so many to choose.

1. Shang-a-Lang - The Bay City Rollers: I had tonsilitis every 3 weeks from teething age and was regularly confined to bed for days on end. My parents bought me a little plastic record player and this was my first non-Pinky & Perky album. I played it continuously from 7am every morning from the age of 3 until they finally got fed up and bought me a Blondie album when I was about 7. I had a tartan scarf and a life-size poster over my bed.

2. It Must Be Love - Madness: Jonathan W was a year older than me and when he went up to Big School, it wasn't cool for him to have a kid 'girlfriend'. I'd play this as I waited for him to walk by our house after the school bus had dropped him off. After a few weeks, we started meeting at the tumble-down stables behind the vicarage, which we nicknamed 'Cardboard Castle'. It was all quite innocent. We never kissed. On the night Prince Charles and Lady Di got married his parents had a big barbecue at their farm and I was lured into a room with Jonathan and his mate turned the lights off. I was out of there like a shot. I pass him on his tractor most days. We always wave.

3. Crying - Don MacLean: This was played everywhere the year my parents split up. Mind you, so was Fern Kinney but I never felt any emotional attachments to that.

4. Wig Wam Bam - The Sweet: Our Comp had an Orchestra Well in the centre of the Hall. It was compulsory for us to stand around the top of it and dance to this at every Piledriver Disco. I always won the spot prize for my pelvic thrusts. I am very proud of that achievement and could never understand why careers advisors suggested it be removed from my early CVs.

5. Sexual Healing -Marvin Gaye: First proper boyfriend, Nigel. He had an orange Opel Cadet. Clumber Park and a rhododendron bush were featured. I don't really want to say anymore.

6. The Passenger - Iggy Pop: There are so many tunes that remind me of Steve Bird Discos at The Baths, Ram Jam, The Undertones, the Rezillos, Martha & The Muffins, The Kinks, Thin Lizzy, even one of Sharon's but Iggy was my favourite.

7. Back to Life - Soul II Soul: - Scene3, later renamed JJ's and now a Riley's Snooker Hall. Short leather mini-skirt, black voile shirt and a velvet leopard-skin WonderBra. Big hair and lots of attitude.

8 . Get Here- Oleta Adams: It was the first Iraq Fiasco and Gary R, the first boy I ever kissed and who was always my secret true love even if I did have a brief thing for Jonathan W, was deployed out there for 6 months with the Royal Engineers. We wrote a lot and I'd listen to this late at night, nursing Jack, watching all-night news and praying he'd come back safe. He did. He's now something in IT, married and lives in Southern Suburbia.

9. Forever in Blue Jeans - Neil Diamond: The theme tune of many a cava-fuelled night emoting in Eva's lounge pre-Roger. I swear the Director of Bridget Jone's Diary must have looked through the window one evening.

10. Don't Stop Me Now - Queen: Jack. Singing loudly in the car together. There are some things upon which we will always agree.

So it's traditional to tag others. KJ, Joyce, Dave, Ziggi and Mise, consider yourselves marked but nothing that won't wash out if you'd rather not be tarnished.