A Song For All Seasons

Certain songs are undoubtedly associated with Christmas. Other holidays have less obvious accompanying tracks. My recent return from Copenhagen has had me thinking about songs that remind me of previous getaways.

Earliest memories generally stretch back to family holidays. Multiple trips to France listening to Paddington Bear story tapes as we drove through country roads surrounded by sunflowers or driving around The Isle of Wight singing along to The Carpenters or The Nolans.

Later as a teen, I remember holidays to Turkey in the days when Scatman John dominated the charts and the poolside bar's sound system. In the resort's nightclub, The Cranberries' Zombie and The Moody Blues' Nights In White Satin seemed to feature nightly on the DJ's set list.

Years later finally able to fly without parental supervision, I recall my first holiday with The Boy in Cyprus nearly being driven mad by DJ Ötzi's version of Hey Baby – a 60s song by Bruce Channel I was already more than familiar with from its inclusion on The Dirty Dancing soundtrack and had previously liked.

During our year on the road travelling, The Kings Of Leon's Sex On Fire was continuously played all around New Zealand/Australia and Ozzie radio station, Triple J, first introduced us to Florence + The Machine's Dog Days Are over.

In Copenhagen a rather familiar-sounding song was played in bars and restaurants all over the city. Although I no longer really follow the UK's Top 40 chart, I was already familiar with Gotye's Somebody That I Used To Know from an amazing YouTube version of the song by Walk Off The Earth, performed by five band members on one guitar:

Currently still at number one, Gotye is an interesting artist with a pretty eclectic back catalogue, both as a solo artist and drummer of The Basics. Although he's made it back to number one again, I'm sure the latest talentless manufactured-sounding reality TV show product will shortly take-over.

While Olympic news dominates and Marks & Spencer's push Gary Barlow's remake of George Harrison's Here Comes The Sun as the UK's summer number one, I look forward to seeing what my song of the summer vacation becomes and can only hope it's more of a Gotye than a Ötzi.