As a birthday gift for my wife, I created a mix CD of all forty of the top forty hits on her birthday. Just to make it more special, I got the playlist from the Top Forty station in her home town(it was a bit different from the Billboard Chart)--

It was a lot of work gathering all that stuff up, but I was excited at her response to this "blast from the past"--and, of course, I was delighted to be listening to many songs that I had not heard since I was a child--

Number One, her birthweek, was Sheb Wooley"s "The Purple People Eater". "Witch Doctor" fell in at Number Six. A droll and little remembered instrumental, "Cha Cha Hua Hua", fell in at two or three, fighting it out with the teen death ballad, "Endless Sleep". Renato Corazone's "Torrero", which, if you don't remember, you can probably imagine, was in there, along with The Champs follow up to "Tequila", "El Rancho Rock". The Four Preps "Big Man", and "Yackity YaK" were in there as well.

My wife, who was expecting something romantic, was totally appalled.

She did not remember, and may never have even heard most of this stuff, because it was popular only during the first waking moments of her life. I am older, and, now at least, a bit wiser.

In retrospect, I should have gone with my first impulse, which was to collect the top forty from the week she graduated high school--at least she would have recognized the songs.