You don't need money, don't take fame

On the way home from dropping the girls at school, glorious school, I actually had a moment to listen to some music not sung by Laurie Berkner or involving overuse of the word cookie ("That good enough for me!") when I hit the oldies station. After recovering from the shock that a song I listened to as a preteen was considered an oldie, I rocked it out to Huey Lewis and the News' Power of Love. Shut up. You love it too.

First of all, it was part of the soundtrack to one of the best eighties movies ever Back to the Future. Oooh, who didn't love Michael J. Fox in his tighty whities? Of course, that was after you got over the gross-out factor that it was his future mother ogling him and the fact that she was a total trashy whore. And didn't you love how, at the end, his life is totally changed, his family is rich and the jerk-guy from his dad's past is now, like, their house boy? Love. It.

Second, I have very fond memories of performing this little ditty with the seventh grade chorus in 1985. I remember the night of the performance so well. I was wearing the drop-waisted, Peter Pan-collared, Jessica McClintock knock-off dress my mother had bought me to wear on Christmas, but I had badgered her into letting me wear to the chorus performance with my new white flats. The auditorium was abuzz because word had leaked there was a surprise to come during the show and only the chorus members and the director knew about it. We slogged our way through the usual line-up of holiday favorites and then our director, Mrs. Gradowitz, introduced a "special number the kids are really excited about". Then, who walks out to play with us? Drum roll please....the janitor (!) comes out dressed in a suit and he, on his electric guitar, and Mrs. G, on her keyboard, rocked out those famous first notes. The place went wild! We sang our hearts out (Seventh graders singing the lyrics "stronger and harder than a bad girl's dream"? Very appropriate!) and my God did the janitor rock that solo. Sadly, I can not remember his name, but he lives on in my memory.

So, yes, I ran to iTunes and downloaded it right away. And, yes, I will be playing it again and again in the next few weeks. And, yes, I still think that dress was the bomb.