Songs that Remind me of Gretchen

I just read Christine's post, and then I sat down at my piano with the same old sheet music for Total Eclipse of the Heart that Gretchen always had me play for her when she couldn't sleep. I can barely play the piano anymore. It's been here in my living room for almost a year, but it frustrates me because I can't play remotely as well as I could in high school. I guess that's what happens when you don't play for a decade. I started picking out the notes, lots of missed flats, but then, I came to the chorus, and I stopped looking at the music and it all just came back to me. I must have played it for her one hundred times. I hope Gretchen got to see the movie Bandits. The music of Bonnie Tyler features prominently, and I remember watching it and thinking that I had to call her to tell her to watch it. I'm not sure if I ever did.

So, Gretchen, if you're out there haunting something, go check out Bandits. You'll love Cate Blanchett's character. Really.

Some other Gretchen favorites:

Juice Newton's Angel of the Morning: this is the song to which we were "chair dancing" in the tv stuido

Never Tear Us Apart by INXS: I remember listening to it on repeat during sleepovers

Oh What a Night by Franki Valli: the consummate school dance song, my fondest memory of it is showing up late to some disco dance with Gretchen after a lightning run to the Downingtown Flea Market. In the car on the way back, she decided that we should trade... shoes? entire outfits? that part I don't remember, but I do remember showing up for the dance in some various state of undress due to clothes-trading and convincing the deejay (who thought she was cute) to let us stand on a speaker

Forever Young by Alphaville: Gretchen was one of very few people who realized what this song was actually about, and we loved the irony that it was appropriated as a "romantic" song for school dances

November Rain, Another Brick in the Wall Part II (we started a write-in campaign to make this our prom theme instead of that creepy Live song... Gretchen pointed out that a prom theme shouldn't contain the word "placenta")

I wish I knew what happened to the mix tape she made me.