Need your best 'this song is so dated...' references

April 11, 2022 12:06 PM

How dated is it? ...I think I had this on cassingle. ...it's on Now That's What I Call Music #1. ...I bet this was really big on Pandora. Etc.

This is an exercise in continuing a riff we just did, after I had to explain an 'AM Gold' (compilation album of songs popular when AM-band radio was big) reference.
...I had this as a custom ringtone on my Nokia
...I found the 45 rpm in with my Mom's old yearbooks
...it sounds like a Eurovision entry -- from Yugoslavia
...this was my favorite song back when I thought I was straight
...I think I pirated this over dialup
Etc.
Mefites, whatcha got?

posted by bartleby to Society & Culture (49 answers total)

was this 12 for a penny from Columbia House?
was this #1 on Napster when you downloaded it?
did you hear this one on Myspace?
did you have this on 8-track?
posted by fingersandtoes at 12:15 PM on April 11, 2022 [9 favorites]

I remember taping this off the radio.
They used this song in buggy whip commercials (Too specialized?)
posted by Adridne at 12:16 PM on April 11, 2022 [3 favorites]

It was my profile song on MySpace.
I used the lyrics in my screenname on MSN.
posted by Balthamos at 12:17 PM on April 11, 2022 [3 favorites]

Anything that was used in a commercial.
posted by Gray Duck at 12:19 PM on April 11, 2022

I had this on a Flexi Disc from Life magazine.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 12:19 PM on April 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

I got this album for free with a Columbia House sticker.
I had a copy of this, but the wax melted.
In what magazine did you find this flexi disc?
Have you heard the piano roll version?
Hey, this version includes notes not on the diatonic scale!
This must have been before they dropped the "& roll."
This shit cost $2 on The Box, but now it's free.
posted by eotvos at 12:20 PM on April 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

It was on Casey Kasem's American Top 40
posted by metahawk at 12:21 PM on April 11, 2022 [11 favorites]

Didn't Alan Lomax record this?
posted by eotvos at 12:23 PM on April 11, 2022 [9 favorites]

I had that song on minidisc
I listened to it on my walkman / diskman / ipod / zune
I had it on reel-to-reel tape / 8-track
posted by hydra77 at 12:25 PM on April 11, 2022 [5 favorites]

This song is so dated that the singer says, "Been to Yokohama, been fightin' in the war." Except it's Chuck Berry, so is not dated and never will be.
posted by scratch at 12:27 PM on April 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

"It's got a great beat and you can dance to it."
posted by Rock Steady at 12:29 PM on April 11, 2022 [5 favorites]

it's only popular because of Payola
posted by jazon at 12:34 PM on April 11, 2022 [4 favorites]

Response by poster: [I have been scolded for seemingly restricting it to _formats_ by omitting the 'things I was doing at the time' and 'other dated songs' parts of the riff, like
- this song sounds like Aqua Net and maxi pads
- I haven't heard this since you could smoke on planes
and
- I had this on a mix CD, in between Steal My Sunshine and The Ketchup Song
- the radio always used to pair this up with 'Free Nelson Mandela']
posted by bartleby at 12:39 PM on April 11, 2022

Wasn't this song a HitClip?
posted by Fuego at 12:41 PM on April 11, 2022 [4 favorites]

"I heard this on a K-Tel compilation."
posted by straw at 12:44 PM on April 11, 2022 [6 favorites]

"Operator, now could you help me place this call?"
posted by jenfullmoon at 1:11 PM on April 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

I remember Mel Allen introducing the band on Saturday Night Swing Club on the Columbia Broadcasting Network

I remember Walter Winchell talking about it
posted by TimHare at 1:11 PM on April 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

This was my prom song!
My high school boy/girl friend made me listen to this/burned it on a mix CD for me
I downloaded this on LimeWire but I thought it was a different band because the file name was wrong
I downloaded this from an MP3 blog
I think I heard this in a Hot Topic
I saw the video for this on Pop Up Videos when I was a kid!
My parents made us play this at our wedding
posted by MadamM at 1:12 PM on April 11, 2022 [7 favorites]

I, and a lot of people I used to know, used song lyrics as away messages on AOL Instant Messenger.
posted by kevinbelt at 1:15 PM on April 11, 2022 [3 favorites]

Are these all supposed to be digs?

I got this (Weezer Buddy Holly music video) with my Windows 95 computer.
I got this song (FastBall The Way) on my RealPlayer CD sampler.
I got this song (Donna Lewis I Love You Always and Forever) on an AOL floppy disk.
Rolling Stone sent my dad this song on CD as a thank you for subscribing.
This song is so old they won't play on the biggest hits of the '70s '80s & '90s radio station anymore.

Harsh/macabre:
This song is so old the singer's son has also died.
posted by The_Vegetables at 1:17 PM on April 11, 2022 [7 favorites]

The original lyrics were in Latin.
My first iPod came with this song pre-installed.
posted by blob at 1:26 PM on April 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

- I had this on a mix CD, in between Steal My Sunshine and The Ketchup Song
Mix TAAAAPE
posted by bink at 1:39 PM on April 11, 2022 [3 favorites]

The mono version of the LP was $2.99 and the stereo version was $3.99.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 1:41 PM on April 11, 2022

I watched this music video a million times on The Box.
posted by ActionPopulated at 1:42 PM on April 11, 2022

I used to hear the Muzak version at Gimbels.
posted by box at 1:50 PM on April 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

I had to put a nickel on the tone arm to keep the record from skipping.

It was used in a TV cigarette commercial.
posted by FencingGal at 1:57 PM on April 11, 2022 [3 favorites]

“Hey man, is that Freedom Rock? Well turn it up!”
posted by oxisos at 1:58 PM on April 11, 2022 [8 favorites]

I remember this from Tony Hawk Pro Skater.
posted by Grandysaur at 2:05 PM on April 11, 2022 [3 favorites]

Didn't Meatloaf break into showbiz covering this?

I had the MIDI from a BBS.

They put this on the spare disc for the radio station in Liberty City.

This one was playing in the first week of pirate radio station Radio Caroline.
posted by k3ninho at 2:16 PM on April 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

I remember watching this on TRL

I remember when this premiered on Making the Video
posted by radioamy at 2:48 PM on April 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

I heard it played live at a CMJ showcase.
posted by saladin at 3:01 PM on April 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

It passed the Old Grey Whistle Test.
posted by k3ninho at 3:27 PM on April 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

They played it as a video on MTV.
posted by signal at 3:30 PM on April 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

I haven't heard that since it was on American Bandstand.
posted by wierdo at 3:33 PM on April 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

That album got stuck in the tape deck of my Intrepid.
posted by Seeking Direction at 3:38 PM on April 11, 2022 [1 favorite]

Played the Red Hot Chili Peppers Under the Bridge on Walkman with external speakers while walking around the city. (Actual memory of mine from the mid 1990s)

For venues/formats:
Lollapalooza or Lilith Fair.
Pop Up Video (VH1)
Ordered it from the classified section of Maximum Rock and Roll.
Saw them at CBGBs.
posted by spamandkimchi at 3:41 PM on April 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

I used to have that as my answering machine message.
Last time I heard this someone was lip syncing to it on Puttin' on the Hits!
I think Kids Incorporated did a version of that.
posted by ApathyGirl at 4:03 PM on April 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

I mean, it would have sounded so much better with a real castrato.
posted by Hypatia at 4:50 PM on April 11, 2022 [8 favorites]

Response by poster: Great now I'm imagining Hypatia as some cross between immortal vampire and persnickety audiophile: "Ever since they stopped using real catgut, the violins just don't sound the saaame".
Saxophone? Bah. Now the shawm, THAT was an instrument! And the girls!? They'd lift their houppelandes for any cittern player that came along.
posted by bartleby at 5:29 PM on April 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

I remember hearing that done by Kidz Bop

I haven't heard that since they sang it on Up With People

Wasn't that the free single you got when you traded in a book of green stamps to get a toaster?
posted by Mchelly at 5:35 PM on April 11, 2022 [6 favorites]

That song is so old that I had it on an Edison Cylinder!
posted by wierdo at 5:50 PM on April 11, 2022 [3 favorites]

Isn't this the song that would play when the Fonz hit the jukebox?
posted by The Underpants Monster at 6:17 PM on April 11, 2022 [3 favorites]

I still have some 78s that we played on the Victrola with sharpened nails.
posted by a humble nudibranch at 8:07 PM on April 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

"This song used to be the hold music when you called someone collect!"
posted by carlypennylane at 8:12 PM on April 11, 2022 [3 favorites]

That was the second-to-last song the band played on the Titanic
posted by Mchelly at 8:56 PM on April 11, 2022 [2 favorites]

I used lyrics from this in my .plan.
posted by praemunire at 10:23 PM on April 11, 2022 [4 favorites]

I saw the Solid Gold dancers do a routine to this song.
posted by domino at 7:00 AM on April 12, 2022 [4 favorites]

Didn't they dance to this in the Soul Train Line?

Wasn't this one of the bonus songs in Guitar Hero?

This song was so hard to pass in DDR!
posted by sigmagalator at 11:00 PM on April 12, 2022 [5 favorites]

…it was written on the posterior of a damned human in The Garden of Earthly Delights.

(If interested, feel free to listen to the choral version of the song!)

Lyrics:
Butt song from hell
This is the butt song from hell
We sing from our asses while burning in purgatory
The butt song from hell
The butt song from hell
posted by beastelyse at 9:59 PM on April 13, 2022 [3 favorites]