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Previously (here) we talked about various songs that transport you to different times and places in your life. As soon as the previous post went live, my brain turned on and another four songs immediately came to mind. I believe the term is ‘Sods Law’.
All these great songs have been grabbed from YouTube – just in case the embeds stop working!
Craig David – What’s your flava
The year is 2002 and my uniform is a red polo short with navy blue trim. Woolworths was, and will always be a superior business to anything on the High Street right now. Between the ages of 16 and 18 I worked in two areas of this fine store. From 6pm to midnight on a weekday, I would restock the kitchen section which often resulted in knife throwing upstairs. There were so many cardboard boxes and loose knives in the warehouse it just kind of made sense to have a knife range. At weekends, I was on the best area of the store: the entertainment desk. I can still remember the drawer upon drawer of cardboard sleeves holding individual CDs and the shelving full of VHS.
When the store closed, the entertainment areas CD player was almost always controlled by two, late teens employees who only wanted to listen to R&B. Rarely did we get a chance to put on Metallica and listen to more than one track. Anyway. It was around this time that Craig David released ‘What’s your flava’ and those pesky teens would play it non-stop. Smokey Bacon rung out across the store, each and every time Craig asked what our flavour was.
The Cranberries – Zombie
What’s in your head? In your head? This bloody song was in my head but it is an absolute banger. Included on self recorded cassette tapes, burnt CDs and Minidiscs, Zombie often made it on to these compilations that got carried around through College and walking to work.
If you’re from the United Kingdom, you’ll be well aware of the music compilation series ‘Now, that’s what I call Music’. I’m not sure but I think there might be a Summer and Winter release (it would make sense as we are on number 114 right now).
Two other things happened in 1994 – The Cranberries released this song and Games Workshop opened in my home town of St Albans. ‘Now, that’s what I call music 29’ was released and remained on loop in store which is where I heard it first. Fun fact about Games Workshop, St Albans – 11 year old me was the first person in store when it opened at 9am.
The B52s – Love Shack
There isn’t much to say on this song that wasn’t spoken about under ‘The Cranberries by Zombie’. Alternating between Now 29 and a mystery compilation, Love Shack was burnt in to my brain. One of the beautiful things about Games Workshop, St Albans was the painting table. The stores staff would happily let you sit and paint the figurines you purchased and even gave hints on how to improve.
The Macarena
Would you have guessed that I wasn’t a cool kid or teenager? If this site has taught you anything then you should all be nodding your head.
Being a geek in the late 90s allowed my friends and I to participate in a wonderous thing: LAN parties. A LAN party, to put it simply, is a group of friends and their computers playing games. As a group, we tried to do this as often as we could. One friends parents were kind enough to let us take over the bottom floor of their house and feed us. Beer and smoking Pro Plus (a store for another time) were staples of these parties, along with seemingly unlimited sausages in hot dog rolls.
How then, does the Macarena feature on this list of songs? 1998 New Year saw us do one of the biggest and longest parties and an impromptu visit to Woolworths, got us some music. I picked a terrible compilation CD that was aimed at New Year Parties.. It was crap and this song was the opener.
Just like before, feel free to message us over on Social Media and fill us in on the songs that transport you.
