Dear LPG, 

I cannot speak for everyone, but as an older pensioner, I believe that most of today’s younger generation wonder how we oldies ever managed to enjoy anything. My grandchildren often allude to the 1950s as the dark ages as they play their computer games and thumb away at those texting buttons on their mobile phones.  

When the subject comes up in conversation, they often tell me that they don’t think they could have survived without a mobile phone. After all, when we eventually became introduced to the really early versions of video games, mobile phones, and other such gadgets, they were more of an occasional distraction rather than the all-engrossing must-haves that they have become today.

Many of those things that were our state-of-the-art luxuries when we were young have evolved into even more state-of-the-art necessities for our young people in so many features of modern living. However, there are a few exceptions to the rule.

For all I have said, how we listen to music and what we listen to has to be one of them.  I suppose 42 does not qualify as being young unless you are talking about your baby’s age and are well into your seventies while doing it. Still, my baby has always been interested in some of the old classics I used to enjoy in my twenties. The world was in its 1960s, and despite the world having moved on to CD, DVDs and streaming, I am as likely to visit him and find something contemporary playing as I am to be listening to his  Alexa playlists of the 70s and 80s.  Even in his twenties and thirties, he was at home with the music of that era as he was with the more contemporary music of the time.

Something else is making a resurgence, such as some of the older ways to listen to them.  I was online recently and could not help but be surprised by the number of record turntables still available for purchase.  

We all know the classics and have our favourites, but I was never really impressed by a CD's perfect hiss-less sound.   There is something about listening to a classic and watching the stylus float over the revolving disk.

Our age group is likely to think of our musical childhood while hearing the Beatles, the Who, the Kinks, or the Rolling Stones go round and round in our heads, or perhaps Cliff or Elvis did it for others. But it is good to know that while all the other more up-to-date ways to listen have their place in history, the vinyl record and its turntable have not been completely forgotten.

We all know the famous hit singles, but I found a list of songs that might jog the memory even though they make up a list of the strangest ever hits to make the UK top ten. Do you remember any of them?

TS, Lewisham. 

TS shares her memories…

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