Songs that make you feel nostalgic?

[VernalLapin]

Man, there are too many to list.
But here’s a few:
When I was 4/5, I loved happy feet so much and watched it over and over a million times, especially my favorite scene, the diving scene because I loved the music!

Another movie I grew up watching a lot was Milo and Otis. Sadly there was a lot of animal cruelty in the filming of it, but the music and scenery are really beautiful. This is my favorite.

Speaking of a beautiful soundtrack, Little Bear probably takes the cake. Absolutely goregous music by Lesley Barber. Especially Hide and Seek, Goodnight Little Bear, and Flying to the Moon. Always makes me break out in goosebumps.

 

[VanitasFan26]

This was the very first song I listened too:

 

[Beanz]

gonna make some of y’all feel old. on the top of my head - like a g6 by the far east movement, some popular lady gaga songs from 2008/09 (pokerface, bad romance), basically anything with that crunchy late 2000’s, early 2010’s synth.

i used to love like a g6 when i was five years old unbeknownst that it was about getting drunk, all those pop songs were wildy inappropriate lmao

also benny and the jets by elton john, it used to play all the time in the car because it was on my dad’s playlist.

 

[Xara]

“how far we’ve come” by matchbox twenty is the first song that came to mind. i don’t remember how i heard it (probably from my parents), but i remember it was one of my first ever favourite songs. i have memories of my mom playing it for me while we were in the car, randomly at home etc, and she even put it on a disc for me so that i could listen to it whenever i wanted. “pocketful of sunshine” by natasha bedingfield was one of my first favourite songs as well, but it doesn’t have the same impact on me now that “how far we’ve come” does. it occasionally plays on the radio still or i’ll hear it in a grocery store, and it stops me in my tracks every time. my stomach almost drops with the nostalgia, but it’s still such a great song!

pretty much every song that came from the 2003 - 2014 era of disney channel makes me nostalgic as well. i’ve been putting on old disney shows from my childhood as background noise when i go to bed, and man… the nostalgia is real. my current rewatch is shake it up, and the songs are so nostalgic for me. i can still remember when i heard them all for the first time, and couldn’t get them on my mp3 player fast enough.

 

[KittenNoir]

The most popular song that makes me feel nostalgic is:

This song would always come on the radio in the car and I remember me and my dad singing and laughing to this song.

 

[nightglow]

Nothing else matters by Metallica. It's always just been a nice so g to listen too whether the version had lyrics or not. It was a song I would listen too at night to unwind with. It is probably one of the few songs from my childhood that has positive feelings.
A few others are wind of change by the scorpions, hotel california by the eagles, and Scarborough Fair.

Scarborough Fair which is an old folk song by an unknown writer, was a song me and my friends discovered at school during music class. Simon and Garfunkel made the song popular in modern day.
And in English class we all studied hotel california's lyrics as it was a song most of us knew that had a lot of symbolism in it.

I chose a hybrid instrument version of these songs to share to change it up since these songs are commonly heard except Scarborough fair (I think). The instrument chosen is a harp guitar.
If you know know the originals, they all have lyrics, you can YouTube them sometime.

Spoiler: Listen to songs :)

The most positive nostalgia songs come from my early adult years, which is mostly like synthwave vaporwave lofi and handpan stuff. And I'm usually doing something like cleaning or computer work rather than trying to sleep or reflect.

Today it's pretty much just lofi most of the time or instrumental music of instruments I like regardless of what the song is because I think it is the instruments more than anything that give me a nostalgia feel and a chill vibe.

 

[Bluelady]

Not gonna link the videos because these are fairly popular songs, even if old.

Elementary and Middle School
Everlong- Foo Fighters
You're Gonna Go Far Kid- The Offspring

College blues
Stressed Out and Car Radio by Twenty One Pilots. My car radio actually did stop working by the last year of college, and Dad didn't want to replace it.

 

[Keeltoll3435]

 

[-Blue-]

Depends if show theme songs count because whenever I hear the themes I think back when I was a kid sitting on my butt and watching the show with a snack or something. Like the Pokemon openings for example.

 

[TN4U]

I've got a couple more:

• Little Bear Soundtrack - Lesley Barber
  • VernalLapin mentioned the show earlier in this thread, and I just realized again how nostalgic that show's soundtrack is. Just listening to its theme song brings back a lot of good childhood memories of watching Nick Jr. VHS tapes, even if I don't remember the plots of any episodes I watched.
  • I watched a lot of late '90s-early '00s Nick Jr. growing up, and I'm not afraid to admit that I really want to watch some of those shows again, despite me being a full-grown adult that is definitely no longer in the target demographic. Maybe if I ever have kids of my own, I can show them what I watched when I grew up. Those shows are so much better at teaching children life lessons than some of the schlock that is put out for kids these days.
  • If you really think about it, the show has many Animal Crossing-like qualities to it, such as anthropomorphic animals and humans co-existing and communicating with each other in friendly ways.
• Various Blues Clues songs
  • You know this show did a very good job of having memorable songs stick in your head when even my Mom can still remember how some of them go after last hearing them over two decades ago.
    • A good example is the planet song in one of the Steve episodes, where they sing about the planets and their various qualities.
    • Another one was where they spend most of the episode outside. Steve learned and subsequently taught us via a mother nature-like character about landscapes and how cold/warm they can be. Even though I haven't heard that song in many years, I can still remember the singer's unique, raspy voice.
    • Occasionally even to this day, when my Mom sees the mailman come to our house, she'll do a quick impersonation of Mailbox from the show - "Mail's in! Mail's in!"
    • They even got the late, great Ray Charles to guest star and sing in the direct-to-video Musical Movie. That's amazing.
  • "The So-Long Song" that ends almost every episode - "Now it's time for so long, but we'll sing just one more song. Thanks for doing your part, you sure are smart! You know with me, and you, and my dog Blue, we can do anything that we wanna do!" - I didn't even look up the lyrics. That's how well I remember this song.
  • Even when Joe took over as host, the then-new theme song became memorable for me, despite my disappointment in Steve leaving the show. I still find it funny that that moment was listed in various major lists as one of the saddest TV moments in history. It made a lot of kids cry. That's how good Steve is as a children's actor, and it makes me happy that he still makes occasional appearances in the reboot.
  • You can probably tell this was my favorite show growing up, period. My deepest thanks goes out to Steven Burns, Angela C. Santomero and Traci Paige Johnson for having this show become a permanent place in my childhood.

 

[thatawkwardkid]

Usually video game music or some film music.

Spoiler

 

[Aniko]

Very old French songs, they remind me of my great-grandma and great-aunts.
Or Tom Waits/Jeff Buckley songs, that reminds me of my old friend who passed away at the beginning of the pandemic.
It's his birthday today.
Blue Valentine by Tom Waits makes me feel nostalgic.

 

[moonbyu]

there's a bunch but two that i've really been thinking about is mr scruff - kalimba, one of the sample songs for the windows 7 and levels - avicii but specifically this mario remix. i used to watch those fanmade mario power up videos and this remix was in more than half of those videos.

 

[VernalLapin]

there's a bunch but two that i've really been thinking about is mr scruff - kalimba, one of the sample songs for the windows 7 and levels - avicii but specifically this mario remix. i used to watch those fanmade mario power up videos and this remix was in more than half of those videos.

Levels is one of my fav songs ever!!! I’ve never heard that remix, thank you for sharing!

The pop version of Love Story by Taylor Swift is very nostalgic for me. It sounds like a rainy day in the 2000’s. And it was on my gym teacher’s playlist for our rollerskating unit in elementary school.

 

[Millysaurusrexjr]

Don't Go Chasing Waterfalls by TLC is probably the number 1 nostalgia song for me.. definitely remember hearing it in one of my earliest, vaguest memories

A lot of 90s/00s techno songs give me a ton of nostalgia too, I would put the radio on the techno station and I would dance in my room (probably really terribly because I was a kid but it was fun)

 

[rocketspruggs]

I remember dancing to All Star by Smash Mouth on an old karaoke toy I had, and it recorded a video of me performing the song.

 

[VernalLapin]

I remember dancing to All Star by Smash Mouth on an old karaoke toy I had, and it recorded a video of me performing the song.

I grew up listening to the shrek soundtrack in the car though I’ve never seen the movie lol. All Star was my absolute favorite song. I would play it over and over and over again till my mom got tired. And I would imagine different animals singing each song with an animation in my head, and All Star had all the animals partying together.

 

[Ghost Of Mascevanje]

Just thought of another nostalgic tune: "Bette Davis Eyes" by Kim Carnes. I remember my father blasting this when I was a child. Kim Carnes has a raspy voice that kind of reminds me of Rod Stewart's.

PS: Hadn't seen the official video for this song until now.

 

[Kevinnn]

I still often play this because what a catchy chorus

 

[Goldi Locks]

That one we all used to sing that went like:

"God save ahh grayyy-shuss Queen,
Long live ahh NO-bull Queen,
God saaave the Queeeeen...

SEND ERR VICK-TORR-EE-USS,
'APPY AN GLAW-REE-USS,
LAWNG TOOOO RAAAYYYYN OH-VA USS..
GOD
SAAAAAAVE
THEEEEEEEEEE
QUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEN!"

But then Her Majesty died, so we don't sing that one no more.