Whether you’re 15 or 50, there’s a list of songs that evokes someone in your group to yell, “Turn it up!” And then no one talks until the song ends.---

Many of these songs are universal, a few others are personal for you and your crew. Before the advent of the personal computer, you would buy an album just for that one song.

After yelling at your friends to turn it up, they either became believers of the song or start to anticipate the dance that’s coming.

Here’s my personal list:

“Godzilla” – Blue Oyster Cult

“Hair of the Dog” – Nazareth

“Nighttrain” – Guns and Roses

“Fat Bottomed Girls” – Queen

“Never Been Any Reason” – Head East

Anything off of Back in Black – AC/DC

“Road Cases” – Drive-by Truckers

“Communication Breakdown” – Led Zeppelin

“Bitch” & “Honky Tonk Women” – Rolling Stones

Anything from the first Clash album.

“C’mon C’mon” – The Von Bondies (the theme song from Rescue Me)

“Are You Gonna Be My Girl” & “Cold Hard Bitch” – Jet

“Alex Chilton” – The Replacements

“Even Flow” – Pearl Jam

“On the Way Out” – Freedy Johnston

“Beds are Burning” – Midnight Oil

“You Really Got Me” – Van Halen version

“Otherside” – Red Hot Chili Peppers

“Hey Hey My My (Into the Black) – Neil Young

“Brickhouse” – Commodores

That’s basically my list, naked to the world.

In 1979, my senior year of high school, I had a good friend who worked in one of the most popular night clubs in the Sugar House area. For some reason, a rich patron became good friends with my buddy. Friday nights he would loan us one of his expensive cars (BMWs, Mercedes, etc.) to take skiing the next day. The best place to listen to one of these “turn it up” songs was on the road between Big and Little Cottonwood Canyon … at 140 m.p.h.

What’s on your “Turn it up!” list?