This Is Revealing

I was recently asked by my friend David what song was at the top of my iTunes play count. "No bullshit," he said. And dudes, of course I have nothing to hide: reigning over my play count is Neil Diamond's "Forever in Blue Jeans".

There's really no explanation behind it other than Neil Diamond's Greatest Hits is one of those albums so central to my youth that I will never be able to shake it (others include Mariah Carey's Music Box, Rubber Soul, Thriller and Roy Orbison's Greatest). It reminds me of the sunniest of days, carefree and zooming around my neighborhood on my neon yellow bike in the afternoons, blonde hair flying in the wind; coping with waiting till my parents finished cooking dinner by dancing in the living room and singing my 8-year-old lungs out pretending I was on stage under lights. It was back when I thought a two-week Christmas vacation seemed like two years, my favorite movie was "The Wizard" and I actually liked McDonald's.

Yet, it's evolved into this lionized anthem, a song I would play at my wedding or funeral. It's a vivid ray of memory into the way I once was: little, new, excited. The song is honest and simple, celebrating love only the way the Diamond can. It unwinds on an easy guitar lick and steady bass drum, punctuated by trios of triumphant vibraphone notes carrying lines like: "Money talks, but it don't sing and dance and it don't walk"-----Yeah, Neil. Sing it.

What's atop your iTunes play count?