Memorable Songs Playlist

What's your time machine?

Is it Springsteen or Teenage Dream?

What's your takes you back?

Your first falling in love soundtrack

(A Song for Everything by Maren Morris)

As I was making a playlist of my favourite songs from 2019 that included A Song for Everything by Maren Morris, I was struck by the number of them that had lyrics about memories. Maybe every year it's like that, but I was super aware this year with my Revive55 Project.

Listening to the songs and hearing these lyrics, made me think of making a memories playlist. It's like the memorable photos folder I wrote about a couple of months ago. You can read that post by clicking here.

The new memories playlist includes songs that remind me of a special memory, a person, a place or event.

It's an extension to the playlist I mentioned in my post "Playlist of my Life". In that post, I was talking about my childhood and university days. I had made a playlist of my favourite childhood songs and I could remember where I was when I used to listen to them.

Taking inspiration from another song from my 2019 playlist, I decided to go one step further. What about moments throughout our life?

I'm a record collection, a dedicated section

I'm a memory of everything you've ever seen and ever done

(Record Collection by Kaiser Chiefs)

Our wedding song is an easy one to remember, but with music being a major part of my life, there are countless more.

For example, whenever I hear a song from Lauryn Hill's album "The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill", I am walking on the beach in Jamaica. When we were there in 2000, that album played over and over at our resort. Even twenty years later, the song still takes me back.

In 2003 when Toronto was in a SARS crisis (and events were being cancelled) Coldplay performed at the Molson Amphitheatre. At the end of Clocks, the lyrics were changed to:

Home where I wanted to go

I went home home where I wanted to go

People told us to cancel the show

but how could

yes how could they know

that the one place

that we love to go

is to play-ay-ay in

To-ron-to

That song always reminds me of that night and attending my first Coldplay concert with my sister.

Hearing Katy Perry's Firework takes me back to our daughter's Grade 6 Graduation performance when the whole graduation class sang and performed a choreographed dance.

Whenever I am reminded of a song that is attached to a special memory, I'll add it to my memories playlist.

Another example is to be conscious of a song or piece of music that is playing when you experience a special moment. It's a great time to pause and be in the moment. Two years ago, I took a video when I was struck by the song that was playing while we were having lunch outside at Alpina Hütte in St. Moritz.


We had seen Rodriguez in concert a few years before after seeing the Sugarman documentary. Hearing that song surprised me because it's not a song I would expect to hear anywhere in Canada. Rodriguez was more popular in Euope and Africa than he was in North America.

Research has shown that music, memories and emotion are stored in the same part of the brain and that musical memories are stored in the last part of the brain to atrophy in Alzheimer's patients.

Connecting songs to moments can help us remember them. By making a new playlist (or choosing a song) to listen to while watching a sunset or sitting by a fire or going on a trip, we can be reminded of that moment when we hear the songs in the future.

By making an album of memorable songs, we can keep those memories alive. I don't hear Lauryn Hill or Rodriguez played much anymore, so adding it to a playlist that I will listen to will keep taking me back to those moments in time.