An attempt at naming my favorite 10 songs

Here's my Top 10 songs (in no order other than their respective decade) with a snippet of where I was when I mentally tagged it as a favorite and other useless facts that I associate with the song. I had to whittle this down from a list of 50 so any song can easily be replaced (I guess that fact alone doesn’t solidify this as a true top 10 – but you can get over it, I did).

80’s-
Journey: Don’t Stop Believin’
Branch Crossing YMCA, The Woodlands, TX. We would pump this through the sound system at our rock climbing gym and make fools of ourselves trying to pull off insane dyno moves.

Wang Chung: Everybody Have Fun Tonight
10467 Pine Grove Street, Rancho San Diego, CA. My girlfriend in fifth grade did a dance to this for our talent show. My siblings and I, along with my cousins, were relegated to a jazzy number from the Chorus Line – red sequin top hats and all. This was the kind of emotional stain that never wipes clean. I start to seize every time I hear the lyrics and break out into a cold sweat when our home movie starts to play. It's the train wreck of family documentaries - truly the stuff only the camcorders of the late 80's can capture. On the flip side, Wang Chung masks that musical scar and that's why I really like it.

Tears for Fears: Everybody Wants to Rule the World Tonight
Park City, UT. Our entire school bus would sing this song when the bus driver would crank up the music. It was usually followed by Karma Chameleon or Shout! Oh the days of the Book Mobile and the Scholastic book orders, 1985 was a good year.

Eurythmics: Sweet Dreams (are Made of This)
Cruising somewhere on the Glendale freeway, CA. As kids we would jam to this while buckled into the back seat of our brown full-size conversion van (the minivan didn't really exists back then). It had an orange racing stripe and I’m told on good authority that it was a bitchin upgrade from the standard soccer mom station wagon of the day. Think of it as the colorblind version of the A-Team van. "Who am I to disagree..."

Jefferson Starship: We Built this City
Rancho San Diego, CA. VH1 may have named this the worst song of all time but my sisters and I would rock out like we were in the bad green screen video with the band. That is, if we weren’t watching the Karate Kid on VHS and turning the family room into the dojo of death. Time to wear the bath robes and start kung-fu kicking the throw pillows on the couch. Hi-yah!

90’s-
Digital Underground: The Humpty Dance
Emerald Junior High, El Cajon, CA. The first big Jr. High dance I busted a move to this and proved to my peers that this skinny white kid could find a beat and throw down some moves.

Seal: Crazy
Villa Espana, Rancho San Diego, CA. My cousin bought the 'single' tape (it's all we could afford with our allowance) and we listened to it over and over. This was, of course, before he turned into a hapless white suburban gangsta. I can look back and see how it all happened – there’s nothing more troubling that a misspent youth in middle-class suburbia with parents that made it rain when called upon to do so. It was a hard-knock life for us (more for him than me judging by where we are today).

Duncan Sheik: Reasons for Living
Resmar Road, La Mesa, CA. Post high-school pseudo-maturity. This song placed me in the universe (as did the Smashing Pumpkins, the Red-Hot Chili Peppers, and my disdain for Hootie and the Blowfish). This one's not a real radio-play song and that's why it's on this list.

Warren G: Regulate
37C Balham Park Road, London SW12. This put living in the ghetto’s of London in perspective while making me laugh at the fact that my roommate from Rose Park, Utah would listen to it every morning to remind him from “the streets” he came from. I would never go back there as a tourist but this song reminds me that I survived living in a place that saw pipe bombs go off and race riots. Brixton, England is not for young white boys from the States.

Big Mountain: Baby, I Love Your Way
Del Mar Fair Race Track, San Diego, CA. This concert was one of the most fun I’ve had (with my family in tow). This song represents the summers of my youth and all of the days spent living on the beach. La Jolla Shores Tennis Club (and the towel service) lives on when this song cycles through my iTunes playlists.