On the Day You Were Born, People Had Terrible Taste in Music

“On the eve of your birth … the Earth and her creatures with the Sun and the Moon all moved in their places, each ready to greet you the very first moment of the very first day you arrived.”

That’s how Debra Fraiser’s On the Day You Were Born celebrates the arrival of new life.  It’s a popular gift for new babies, as you might imagine.

For those of us who are now twenty or thirty or seventy years past those first birthdays, here is a different kind of “welcome to the world” gift: a new Facebook status game!

Here’s what you do (and even if you don’t use Facebook or post this kind of thing as your status, you can still play along at home):

1. Find the number one single in your country of origin for the week and year of your birth.

2. Find a YouTube video of that song and post it to your Facebook profile.

3. Do this without embarrassment.

Depending on when you were born, that last step may be the trickiest.  If you’re lucky, the song will be embarrassing in an awesome way, like Mike’s: “Afternoon Delight”.  My favorite version, of course, is Ron Burgundy’s.  The original is not bad, either.  I mean, it’s terrible, but in the best way.

I was not so lucky.  For the week of December 16th, 1979, “Escape (the Pina Colada Song)” was number four.  That would have been fun!  Even more terrible and awesome, “Enough is Enough” (a Barbra Streisand / Donna Summer duet that I loved in middle school) came in at number six.  But alas.  The number one song the week of my birth was Styx.  Styx singing “Babe.”  Really, mid-December 1979?  That’s the best (worst) you’ve got?

Oh, well.  When Zoe plays this game in twenty or thirty years, what will she say?  (Here’s her list.)  Will she lament the fact that Lady Gaga didn’t make the number one slot, or will she say, “Who in the world is Lady Gaga?”  Only time will tell, but either way, Mike and I will horrify her with the information that when she was a baby, her father sang “Poker Face” to her while, yes, poking her face.  And she thought it was hilarious.

Want to play?  Share your song in the comments!