Graduation song
Posted by Direct-Dish1779@reddit | GenX | View on Reddit | 62 comments
Anyone think about a song that reminds them of graduation? This song takes me back. Especially the part, "and now I'm walking again..."
Katiecake80@reddit
One of my favorite songs. It is just hauntingly beautiful.
ogliog@reddit
It's a good song, just feels so goddamn sad somehow. So many of the great songs from the 80s just feel very melancholy to me, but maybe that was just my state of mind.
Katiecake80@reddit
I get that…. I’m just a fan of Crowded House.
shawncollins512@reddit
I looked up the definition of deluge back when this song came out - Crowded House was very educational.
Roboticus_Aquarius@reddit
Nothing official, but damn, man, it was 1985, and for the first time in my life I knew 40 or 50 people I was comfortable with, had a great year, lots of parties and beach trips and plenty of stupid hijinks - but also we all knew we were splitting up soon, chasing our futures. Most of my closest friends were in honors classes with me, and we all applied to well known colleges. “Everybody Wants To Rule The World” sent me into a reverie every time it played. I hated knowing that everything was coming to an end, but was super excited about starting university. Then, of course, Real Genius comes out in August. Overwhelming.
Can’t ever hear that song without those feelings, hopeful anticipation and wistful regret, descending on me simultaneously.
This-Explanation4366@reddit
We voted for "Just Like Heaven" (Cure) for our prom theme song, hoping the nuns wouldn't notice the darker lyrics LOL 😆 Ended up with "Just You and I" (Eddie Rabbit and Juice Newton). Guess we didn't get one over on anybody! Context: 1988, all girls Catholic high school in a big city
No-Temperature-5944@reddit
McCauley?
This-Explanation4366@reddit
Nope, it closed in the 90s!
filmguy71@reddit
Class of '89. "Forever Young," by Alphaville. Can't get more '80s than this.
Phobos1982@reddit
Yep! It was mine too 89.
Inkblots2000@reddit
Ours was End of the Road? I think? Geez, don’t make me go pull out my yearbook.
darkofnight916@reddit
I think ours was “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye” though a lot of us wanted “Save the Best for Last”
starksfergie@reddit
We chose Welcome To The Jungle, but they wouldn't let us have it and chose an old Cars song, Let The Good Times Roll (which I don't mind as a song, but it didn't fit for class of 88 either). I didn't vote for GnR as I didn't like them (but had seen them live already by then), and I voted for R.E.M.s, It's The End Of The World As We Know It - and I don't recall the Cars song even on the list that we could vote on, but somehow it ended up as the class song, sigh
Davakar_Taceen@reddit
"The Dance" by Garth Brooks, never was a country fan but that song was good.
jwh_43@reddit
My high school graduating class's song was Mariah Carey's "Hero." I only remember that because we had one teacher who made us learn the lyrics and come up with reasons why each person in that class was a hero.
PoisonMind@reddit
Ours was the lame and predictable 1999.
sobuffalo@reddit
I don't think it was an "official song" but I remember them playing Lets get drunk and screw by Jimmy Buffet. I assume it was some senior prank thing but they played the entire song.
Apawling_Behavior@reddit
We sang Memories from Cats, and ‘It’s so hard to say goodbye to yesterday’. Class of 86.
MandyLee77@reddit
Wait are you saying you graduated in 86 and you sang a Boyz to men song for graduation?
Apawling_Behavior@reddit
That song was the theme song in the 1975 movie, Cooley High. Sung by GC Cameron. Cooley High is a cult classic.
Boyz to Men’s version is a cover from ‘91.
Direct-Dish1779@reddit (OP)
Boyz to men. Yep great song
formerflautist57@reddit
We had some Michael W. Smith song. Ugh. But when I graduated college, I decided my song was The Taste of Ink by The Used.
WheelsOnFire1973@reddit
Friends Forever?
formerflautist57@reddit
I don't remember. We didn't vote on it. Some of the popular kids decided that was going to be our song and they sang it at graduation.
WatermelonMachete43@reddit
We sang it at Baccalaureate
Status-Effort-9380@reddit
You Gotta Fight For Your Right to Party. Not the official song, but a group of guys sang it at our final party (we were too cool to have a prom) and I always think of that moment when it comes on the radio.
geekgirly@reddit
Our grad class voted and a Motley Crew song won. The Grad Class Executive called for another vote as there was “something wrong” with the first vote. “This is the time to Remember” by Billy Joel won the second vote - which is what they wanted in the first place. 🤬 I suggested “It’s the end of the World as we know it” by R.E.M. I hated our Grad Class Executive 🤦🏼♀️
User47B@reddit
“This is the Time” was our class song. I was a big Billy Joel fan, so I was happy. I mean … it still sort of chokes me up if I’m in a melancholy mood.
This is the time to remember ‘Cause it will not last forever
These are the days to hold on to ‘Cause we won’t, although we’ll want to
This is the time, but time is gonna change
tandem_kayak@reddit
Our class (87) voted for Bon Jovi's Never Say Goodbye, but the school vetoed it because of a line "you lost more than that in my backseat" and substituted some other song. I don't even remember what the other song was. The controversy, and the fact that they overrode the song we chose, has always stuck with me.
geekgirly@reddit
Same with the veto of the Motley Crew song.
Automatic-Unit-8307@reddit
That’s the ny jets song
Aware-Strength8989@reddit
Ours was Green Day’s Good Riddance
phogue2010@reddit
Class of 86. We voted. Wasted Time by the Eagles was our class song.
dsannes@reddit
Ours was Alphaville, Forever Young. 1987. That song makes me sad now. I don't listen to it anymore.
mduncanavl@reddit
Ours in 1989
FreeThinkerFran@reddit
That was ours, too
Direct-Dish1779@reddit (OP)
It's so relevant again. The miniseries "the day after" scared the shit out of me and a kid.
Here we go again...
Bandag5150@reddit
End of the Road by Boyz 2 Men was ours.
CommunicationNew3745@reddit
Doesn't remind me of graduation; in retrospect, HS was 4 short yrs of my life that were, as far as HS went, insignificant compared to my life that came after - but, I do remember the very first time I heard this, where I was and what I was doing; I can go right back there in my mind like it was just this morning . . .
Flaky-Act-659@reddit
Ours was Prince - 1999….no surprise to say I have 21 years in sobriety today…
puppylovenyc@reddit
We did “Long and Winding Road,” early 80s. I don’t know why.
Polarfan@reddit
Eye of the Tiger…. Because we were tigers. The song is actually appropriate not many Ivy Leaguers came out of that school so survival was a thing.
RandomBeverly@reddit
Our song was Right Now Van Halen.. haven’t listened to that in years!
EveryExplanation8084@reddit
Great song
plasteroid@reddit
That’s a good one. Came out while I was in college though b
ahntonioh@reddit
Our student body voted for Too Drunk to Fuck by Dead Kennedys, but we somehow ended up with Tomorrow People by Ziggy Marley.
sleepypossumster@reddit
Ours was "Forever Young" by Rod Stewart, a song I have been hating for nearly 40 years...
Mediocre-Proposal686@reddit
Ugh so was ours lol 😂
pemart22@reddit
Effing love that song. Ours was “ Right Now”.
Clear-Calligrapher69@reddit
We did Top of the World.
marcduberge@reddit
Forty fucking years. Damn I’m old
curiousleen@reddit
We had “Don’t you forget about me”
LaceyBloomers@reddit
Thanks for the award!
LaceyBloomers@reddit
We did too. Class of ‘87.
Clear-Calligrapher69@reddit
Top of the World - Van Halen
Howcanitbeeeeeeenow@reddit
The last song I heard on the radio before I saw my mother for the final time.
onebeard1975@reddit
Led Zeppelin- Ramble On. Wasn’t a fan of our student gov, but they chose a good song.
spargel_gesicht@reddit
Bridge Over Troubled Water. We’re “sang” it at graduation. Really, we just mouthed it. I don’t know whose idea it was for us to sing, but we did not cooperate!
aran_maybe@reddit
That was the theme to my sophomore homecoming and the dj spent an hour setting up her system and used that song as her test every frickin time. I have hated crowded house ever since and YOU TOO Marlene!
FreeThinkerFran@reddit
I LOVED this song. Still do.
Insightseekertoo@reddit
I think ours was, "I've had the time of our lives." Cringy, for sure.
freakdageek@reddit
Ours was Aerosmith’s “Dream on.”