My Mom’s CD Collection

When nostalgia finds new meaning

By Gianna Ucci

Photograph by Carina McCallum

Since I was young, I’ve always been fascinated by the way music can connect to memory. I’ll be on my way to class, and my Spotify will randomly shuffle a song I hadn’t heard since my sophomore year of high school. A rush of nostalgia flows over me: certain tastes, smells, feelings come to my mind as the song plays for just three minutes. Music has found its way into some of the greatest, worst and most formative parts of my life, and I know I’m not the only one.

I’m in the car with my mom on a Sunday morning, helping her run a few errands. I had just turned eight years old, and it was the first time I got to ride in the passenger seat. She turned on the radio, quickly spinning the dial until “Semi-Charmed Life” by Third Eye Blind came on, and for a woman who hated singing, she knew every word. 

“I remember hearing this song after picking up my rental car in Atlanta,” she said smiling, “I went out the next day to buy their CD.” The next song plays: “Livin’ la Vida Loca” by Ricky Martin, a song she had heard for the first time at a store in Malaysia. My mom traveled for most of her adult life, and I always loved hearing her stories about all the places she had been, but what stuck with me the most was how one song could unlock a whole moment in time. What intrigues me more now is the way my mom still tells these stories every time we hear these songs on the radio. 

After that day, I remember rummaging through the old bureau in the living room and pulling out all of her old CDs. I always loved the feeling of holding real music in my hands, and I still remember some of the album covers: Maroon 5’s “Songs about Jane,” Christina Aguilera's “Stripped” and of course Third Eye Blind’s 1997 self-titled album. It was what inspired me to curate my own collection of physical music. 

I asked for a record player that year for Christmas, and spent my late childhood collecting different vinyl records; I, too, accumulated them from everywhere I went. My copy of “Revolver” by the Beatles came from a school trip to Abbey Road studios, and my pressing of “Norman F*****g Rockwell” by Lana Del Rey from a store in LA. I’ve found ways to incorporate music into my nostalgic catalog just as my mom had. 

Feeling reminiscent one day, I told my friends this story, and to my surprise, they all had their own musical memories, too — songs their dads used to play on repeat, songs their mothers used to sing at the top of their lungs and albums they discovered within their grandparents’ dusty record collections. 

So, I made a playlist — a little time capsule of all those memories. And I can’t help but wonder: what songs will make us nostalgic one day? Which albums will come on in 20-30 years and transport us back into the great times of our youth. How will we define the soundtrack of our own nostalgia?

“My Mom’s CD Collection”

• Semi-Charmed Life - Third Eye Blind

• Short Skirt/Long Jacket - CAKE

• Doin’ Time - Sublime

• SOS - ABBA

• Pennies from Heaven - Louis Prima

• Clocks - Coldplay

• Escape (The Pina Colada Song) - Rupert Holmes

• Pinball Wizard - The Who

• Sparks Fly - Taylor Swift

• La Flaca - Jarabe de Palo

• This Love - Maroon 5

• Rosanna - TOTO

• Moon River - Audrey Hepburn

• Yesterday Once More - Carpenters

• Ring of Fire - Johnny Cash

• Fifteen - Taylor Swift

• It’s The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine) - REM

• Don’t Speak - No Doubt

• Head Over Heels - Tears for Fears