Nicole feels

Polly-esther encouraged her readers to list their top-5 if they hadn't already. I had to really think about it. Here they are, in no particular order, with brief explanation (drum roll please):

Crazy 4 U (Madonna)

Yeah, I know. But this is one of the songs that takes me back in time and reminds me of high school dances when they'd turn down the lights and that disco ball thingie would spin and you'd hope that cute guy you had a crush on would ask you to dance. Teen-angst nostaligia at it's finest.

This is "the" summer song for me. Ever since 1983. It never quite felt like summer had arrived until Mar and I heard this song on the radio. Even after we lived in different states, we've called each other and played it for our respective answering machines/voice mails when one of us heard it for the first time at the advent of that year's sweltering season.

This was Rob's and my wedding song. It has to be the Karla Bonoff version; I do not like the later version that Ronstadt and Neville did.

This is the first song I remember singing. I'd sit on a bar stool in our basement and my dad would play the guitar and I would belt it out in my preschool, off-tune warble. It was also the cause of years of good natured teasing at the hands of my godmother, who I believe still has a tape recorded version of my singing debut.

Yes, it's incredible corny, but I can still sing every "rama lama lama" and "ke ding a de dinga dong". And it just makes me feel happy. So there.