The
"Our Song" Phenomenon in Popular Culture
"Music
is Magic"
By Doug Boilesen, 2004
This 1945 magazine advertisement for
the Crosley Radio-Phonograph is an example of how songs can
become attached to an event, a place, or a person because of a significant
memory. When that special song is part of a shared experience it's
often designated as an "Our Song."
The emotions
attached to a memory triggered by a song are relative to how an
individual remembers its context and significance. Hearing an "Out
Song" and its associated response is therefore unique. But
an "Our Song" is also unique since the other member of
the "our" is also remembering and experiencing special
memories because of that song.
"This is "Our Tune...Remember?"
This "Our Song"
phenomenon presents two questions to readers of this article.
First, do you have an Our
Song? And if so, how special is it, i.e., is it number
1 on your playlist, or is it another memory triggered by hearing
the music like the theme song of a favorite movie or TV show
with its own associations?
Either way an "Our
Song" supports the theme and phrase that "music is
magic."
"...melodies
will linger to stir priceless memories of the time, the place,
and the friends who helped you celebrate."
When it's just "you
two" and you're listening to the song that first brought you
together..." Columbia Phonographs, 1960.
This CD cover for the
three CD set by TIME LIFE. "They're Playing Our Song"
featuring 36 hits by various artists playing "great romantic
standards."
THEY'RE PLAYING
OUR SONG - Original Cast LP.
Music and lyrics by
Marvin Hamlisch, Carole Bayer Sager. Original Cast stars Robert
Klein and Lucie Arnaz. Casablanca NBLP7141 stereo 12" LP record
album. Released 1979.
Our Song,
Taylor Swift.
"These Were Our Songs
-- The Early '40s" 7 Record Set, Reader's Digest Collector's Edition.
RCA RB4-084.
"They're Playing
Our Song", Reader's Digest 7 Record, Box Set LPs.
Jack Jones "Our Song,"
Kapp Records, LP, Stereo, 1966.
Little Anthony "Our
Song" / Take Me Back, DCP Records, 45 RPM, 1965.
Al Hirt "They're
Playing Our Song, RCA Dynagroove Stereo LSP-3492, 1966.
Jan Garber Orchestra
They're Playing Our Song, Decca 74543 Stereo Vinyl LP Record.
The World of Jughead,
1963.
1967 United Airlines: Our
Song, "Take Me Along" print ad.
Jughead's "Our Song,"
August 1968.
Our Song by Jordanna
Fraiberg, Publication Year: 2013 ISBN: 9781595142689.
Play Our Song Again
by Lynsey Stevens - Harlequin #2488 (Paperback, 1982).
Our Song - DVD courtesy
MGM 2000.
Copyright 2016 Griffyn
Ink (Kindle edition).
An "Our Song"
as a "Proustian trigger that sets you adrift on memory bliss."
"Music is conventionally regarded
as the soundtrack to a life: the favorite song as commemoration,
a Proustian trigger that sets you adrift on memory bliss."
- p. 102, Retromania: Pop Culture's Addiction to Its Own Past,
by Simon Reynolds, Faber and Faber, Inc. ©2011.
Source: The New Yorker
by Peter C. Vey (Available
for giclee purchase).
An "Our Song"
by Chris Wildt - This image and many other Our Song cartoons are available
from Cartoonstock.com.
"Something"
(and the Our Song phenomenon)
Lincoln
Journal, Gary Trudeau, 1994 .
"That's it! That's
our Song!" October 2 1999, Lincoln Journal.
Phonographia
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