Once Upon A Time - The Lettermen (1962)

Ideated from: the year in music, 1962

Nostalgia isn’t something you really experience until you get to a certain age. I remember pretty distinctly being in college in the early 90s and thinking it was weird and kind of disorienting to see so many repackagings of ten year old songs, as if the early 80s were anything special.

First off, they were but I didn’t appreciate it. But secondly, I was old enough to recognize a nostalgia move, but too young to be the one it was intended for. As I got older, I got used to people trying to sell me the music of my fondly-remembered youth, or sell me things using the music of my youth. This is one of my all time favorite examples, although I never bought an Odyssey.

Anyway, none of this was new in my generation. In the early 60s you had The Lettermen and a lot of other bands like them. The pleasant sounds of the 40s early 50s doo wop and jazz vocal groups built an imaginary world where a 30-something trying to navigate the fast-changing terrain of 1962 could go and visit. A place where high school never ended and nothing ever got more complicated than first love.