'spaw, I've got one that'll probably top you on the "I should be embarrassed to say this, but..."

Mine, hands down, is the theme music to "Disneyland's Main Street Electrical Parade".

Yup. Nearly ten minutes of hideous mid-70's synthesizer retakes of fairly bland Disney classics rolled together into one great big "Baroque Hoedown" (that's what it's called. No. Seriously.).

See... I'm an Orange County California brat, born and bred. I've lived in and around OC my whole life, and from birth, Disneyland was my big 'thrill' as a kid. And on top of it all was that damned parade, a christmas lights display on steroids with ELO on ecstasy to boot. *sniff*

Other than that? The Vandals. Almost anything by 'em off their first two albums. Orange County punk band. "Parting Glass", the version done by CA band "The Poxy Boggards", because it's... well, sentimental.

Heck, there are a ton of them. It's not the songs that cheer me up. No matter how well (or poorly) done they are, it's the memories they invoke every time the strains hit my depression blackened brain.

I think that's the universal key. No matter who did the song, or what it is - it's what it meant to you earlier in your life.

M