Rock Hits Plenty Of Boomer Moms Know By Heart

Boomer moms were lucky enough to grow up during the rise of rock and roll. They watched this new music form creep into the more subdued pop music they were used to and take over the radio, the record store, and television — sometimes all at once, as the MTV age came into play. Having witnessed rock music at every phase of its pop culture development, boomer moms gathered a huge collection of signature tunes that they memorized and sang along with, songs that never left their hearts or their playlists.

What qualifies as a song boomer moms would know by heart? Since boomers span the start of rock and roll and go pretty far into the modern age, we think the hip-swiveling teeny bopper music of rock's early heroes is a safe bet. Songs moms would have listened to while coming of age and even developing a rebellious streak qualify as well. And because boomer moms didn't ditch their rock and roll ways when they reached adulthood, we think some grown-up rock definitely lent an air of maturity to their grown-up years.

From the early days of rock with Elvis to the counterculture rumble of Steppenwolf to the refined, artful strains of Fleetwood Mac, boomer moms can still belt every lyric to these five timeless rock songs. It's a playlist that reads like a history lesson in the evolution of modern music, one that keeps boomer moms belting and bouncing whenever they hit the airwaves.

There's no chance you could start "Jailhouse Rock" playing in front of a boomer mom and not have her kick in her own version of, "Everybody in the whole cell block was dancin' to the jailhouse rock!" It's a requirement of her membership in her generation, a signal that she still recalls the electrifying thrill of seeing this bold young man from Tupelo, Mississippi breaking all the rules of propriety for the entertainment of a new generation. His charged performance helped send the single to No. 1 for seven weeks in 1957, propelled by future boomer moms who couldn't get enough of their favorite teen idol.

What boomer mom doesn't remember her initial response at seeing Elvis at his most vital, hip-swiveling and pole-sliding in the film of the same name as the song ramped up to a frenzy? It was the height of pearl-clutching hedonism, at least to the more provincial parents in charge of boomer teens, and it suited young boomer women looking for something fiery and anti-parental to a T. It also introduced them into a phase of musical development that matched their spirited adolescent energy.

It would be years before the dark side of Elvis Presley became known, altering his image and leading to his untimely death. But the tunes that started it all are locked in the boomer mom experience like a page from a diary. There's no doubt this scorcher is one they won't forget no matter how many decades have passed.

There must be countless boomer moms who took a spin around the dance floor to Van Morrison crooning "Brown Eyed Girl," all imagining he was singing to them directly. And when boomer dads were wooing them pre-parenthood, there were undoubtedly crooning moments where they sang to their own brown-eyed girl and won her heart. Overall, Morrison captivated the boomer romantics with a song destined to become their everlasting love theme.

The song is nothing more than Morrison reminiscing with his beloved about all the simple, silly times they had. "Hey, where did we go? Days when the rains came, down in the hollow, playing a new game?" he sings, recalling the honey-glow days of getting to know his "brown-eyed girl." But by the end, he's lamenting the fact that they aren't together anymore, still stuck in the recollection of how good it was. Boomer moms with lost loves could relate to the regret, even as they hit the sunny joy of the "sha-la-la" chorus.

It's easy to imagine boomer moms being boomer brides first, spinning on their wedding reception dance floor to this high-stepping hopper with their dashing boomer grooms. There's little question that the indelible mark Morrison and his sprightly song left on their hearts still lingers on today.

Not every boomer mom jumped into the fray of the youthful counterculture movements that defined their generation. Sometimes, it was enough to sing along with the soundtrack that accompanied the wild times. A song like "Born to be Wild" by Steppenwolf let rebellious boomers show their parents they had their own sensibilities without needing to join a motorcycle gang — though plenty of young boomers did that, too. For the less-adventurous boomer youngsters, tapping into a song celebrating that sense of freedom was rebellion enough.

When young boomer women became boomer moms and felt the pull to throw off their grown-up responsibilities, "Born to be Wild" was likely to be playing in their heads, if not on their stereos and cassette decks. Just hearing "Get your motor runnin', head out on the highway, looking for adventure in whatever comes our way" is enough to get the staid boomer mom singing at the top of her lungs. And step aside when the "Born to be wiiiii-iiild" chorus kicks in; you're likely to lose an eardrum when boomer moms in the vicinity team up for a full-blown rock choir sing-along.

Boomers in general aged into a more elevated notion of what rebellion means, dropping a small fortune on Harley-Davidsons to keep the dreams of their youth revving. With boomer moms keeping a firm hold on that youthful freedom in musical form, there's no chance of losing this vintage tune to the passage of time.

What boomer mom wouldn't have imagined herself as dreamy rock princess Stevie Nicks singing about a powerful Welsh witch commanding her own romance in "Rhiannon"? The Fleetwood Mac classic showed up in 1975 to give the feminist movement a witchy, supernatural anthem that encouraged the generation's females to seize their own power. The compelling force of the character is summed up in the line, "All your life you've never seen a woman taken by the wind; would you stay if she promised to heaven — will you ever win?" What a heady, poetic way of seeing the power lies with her, not her suitor, sung in that whisper-to-a-scream siren call that no one but Nicks could muster.

Boomer moms didn't just latch onto the song, which remains ultimately singable. They also became enamored of Nicks and her mystical presence, symbolizing the feminine strength that followed a path forged by the feminists who came before. To this crowd, Nicks is Rhiannon, especially when she spins in her chiffon gowns on stage and transforms into a more magical version of herself.

There's a good reason this is the song Fleetwood Mac has played most often in their illustrious career. Nicks gives boomer moms a powerful yet romantic feminist hero to exalt as they raise their voices and sing along. Sometimes it's at a live show, and sometimes it's in their Hyundai Palisade. Wherever it happens, they never miss a chance to chime in.

This "little ditty" showed up as boomer women were becoming boomer moms, reminding them of the heartfelt teenage love that started them down the road to marriage and parenthood in the first place. It created an image that boomers in general could identify with, that there was a moment when all that mattered was your true love. Just canoodling behind the local hangout doing nothing was a peak experience for a couple in love, and boomer moms were a prime demographic for that sort of bittersweet nostalgia.

Mellencamp, before he distanced himself from his Johnny Cougar persona, created a simple yet effective musical portrait of "two American kids growing up in the heartland" that reminded aging boomers that "life goes on long after the thrill of living is gone," a prediction that they wouldn't always be in the throes of young love. The heart-aching sensation of realizing you can't go back seized something essential in boomer moms who still had those early-love feelings but knew it couldn't last forever.

All it takes for boomer moms to latch onto Mellencamp's guitar-laden Americana rock is the opening line, "A little ditty about Jack and Diane," and suddenly they're transported to a simpler time and place. Who wouldn't be thrilled to fall back into those years and sing along with the story of these two tragically romantic characters, especially the boomer mom who lived those moments, too?