15 Albums That Changed My Life, Not That You Asked

1. Soundtrack to Disney’s feature length animation, “101 Dalmations,” played on my red portable record player/briefcase — Cruella De Vil rocked. The chorus sings how she made her husband take her last name. What a woman! Too bad about her puppy-skin coat fetish. (And that fat ugly husband.)


2. Debbie Boone’s “You Light Up My Life” — For a third grader who enjoyed singing herself to sleep with sad tunes like “Leaving On a Jet Plane” and “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald,” this was I-T, in feathered hair.


3. My younger brother’s musical selections — These included classics by Donald Duck, Alvin & the Chipmunks, and Wonder Woman’s theme song. I admired his musical maturity and confidence, especially with the 8-track tapes.


4. Cory Hart, “Boy In the Box” — He wore sunglasses at night.


5. ABC, “How To Be a Zillionaire” — How do I?


6. That K-Tel one with “My Boyfriend’s Back,” “Leader of the Pack,” and “It’s My Party (and I’ll Cry If I Want To)” on it — I find my niche! Alas, I was born 20 years too late for my niche.


7. The B-52’s, “The B-52’s” — Bouffant rock lobster dancing joy.


8. Vintage 1980s The Cure — Long live teenage depression.


9. Roxy Music something or other


10. That first Enya CD


11. Smithsonian recordings of early American jazz — Now that’s music. (Modern jazz: you suck.)


12. Various trance and electronica


13. Coldplay, “Parachutes”


14. Ruben González, “Introducing... Ruben González” — The Buena Vista Social Club pianist puts music between the notes, right in the silences, and has the wherewithal for red slacks.


15. Jonathan Richman everything — “She don’t act like no bad breakfast cereal, waitin’ to wilt in the milk,” woe, woe, woe.

There was also the decades-long forced Classical music listening administered by the Parental Unit, of which we must never, ever speak.

Ported over from Facebook.