In the girl’s locker room, way back when at the Middle School I attended in Gainesville, Florida is a name scrawled on the wall. Tom Petty. I hope they haven’t erased in. I hope they haven’t touched it. It’s a piece of history, iconic musical history. Before he was Tom Petty the star. Before he was Tom Petty the rocker. Before he was Tom Petty of the Heartbreakers, or the Traveling Wilburys. He was just, Tom Petty.
Free Fallin’ was my favorite song of his as it was for many people.
My son started his senior year of high school today. It’s a bittersweet day for me. He’s my youngest. So, this will be the last time we have a year together like this. He plans to go to college here in Charlotte and won’t be moving out for a while, but there is a difference between the first day of the last year and the first day of the first year.
And in that vein, I thought I’d see what the #1 song was on the first Monday of my senior year in high school… Richard Marx’s Right Here Waiting. He held the #1 spot on the Billboard Music charts for 3 weeks in August of 1989.
What was the #1 song on the last Monday you started your senior year in high school?
He has always been about music that moves him and touches him. No one he goes to school with listens to what he does, be it Imagine Dragons, RED, Chevelle, Breaking Benjamin, etc… He’s always been his own person, with his own mind. He doesn’t follow the crowd. He’s not about what’s popular or the fad of the day.
When you’re a person like that, you don’t fit in. You’re always on the outside. And I’m so proud of him for being strong enough in himself, to stand on the outside and not care that he’s not part of the in…
I’m going to confess something here. I was shocked and amazed and completely speechless after watching Harry Styles’ performance on Saturday Night Live a week or so ago. His song Sign of the Times has been stuck in my head ever since. As I was working on this post and went to grab the clip from SNL for today, I found the following performance from a few days ago and decided to use it instead.
I honestly don’t know what it it is, but I’m in love with this song. I truly am. And his personality on stage singing makes the song that much more addictive to me.
I wasn’t a One Direction fan. I knew some songs, but not many. I liked the ones I knew, but I wouldn’t say I was a fan by any stretch. I can, however, definitely see myself being a Harry Styles fan if the rest of his solo album is as soulful as this particular song.
I’ve been listening to a lot of different music lately. And when I say different, I mean, I’m all over the place. I haven’t gotten crazy, but I’ve been stepping into alternate comfort zones with what I’m listening to and what I’m searching for…
Lady Gaga is one of those alternates and differents for me and I’m really enjoying a lot of her music, the older stuff and her new stuff. Her range, her presence, her personality, her fearlessness, her incredible depth and talent…
There are multiple performances of this song and it was hard to pick just one to share, but I did it… I went with the official video.