I grew up in pretty run of the mill suburban town in Connecticut. I happened to have the luck of growing up on a street that marked the end of one school district while the street behind me designated to beginning of another. Other than the handful of elementary schools we had two junior high schools and one high school. There were kids that lived on the street behind mine, kids I would hear playing outside in the summers who I didn’t know at all.

When I started going to high school I met those kids. One girl that I would meet became a close friend of mine through most of high school, and who would play a big role in my musical tastes later on. She literally lived two doors down from me my entire life but because she lived on a cross street that was mapped for the other schools we never met until then.

But we’ll talk about her another time and we’ll get to high school stuff later. This week I want to share a playlist inspired by junior high. I was inspired to start this series because I couldn’t get the song “Rock You Like A Hurricane” by The Scorpions out of my head last week.

So let’s go back in time…

I was in junior high school (grades 7, 8, and 9) from 1986 to 1989. Everything has changed since I was there. Now the jr. high is a middle school with grades 6, 7, 8. Grades 9 -12 are at the high school. I’m feeling so old!

In jr. high we had monthly school dances held in the gym of one of the elementary schools near downtown. The reason these dances were there was because this elementary school used to be the high school and had a really big gym. Those dances were open to students from together both jr. highs but I never really met anyone from because I was really shy (still kind of am).

At these dances the DJ would play different kinds of music. I don’t know about your town if you grew up in the 80s but we had a lot of rock and metal fans in our town. We had our top 40 radio fans but it seemed there was always an overwhelming amount of slightly baggy jeans and black t-shirts at these dances.

I really don’t remember En Vogue and Tiffany being playing at those dances, though I know they were. What I do distinctly remember was Def Leppard, Poison, Cinderella, and Twisted Sister. I have a very vivid memory of “I Remember You” by Skid Row being played after I had a fight with somebody. Ah, teen drama.

I remember always hearing “Rock You Like A Hurricane” there. Now when I hear it all I can really think of is a scene from the movie Jawbreaker where Marilyn Manson is having sex with Rose McGowan and there’s a dead body under the bed.

When I was 15, in the summer 1990, I got my first job working at an amusement park. There was a concert area there, like a real concert stage for big shows. I saw Poison, Cinderella, Billy Idol, Alice In Chains, Slayer, Anthrax, White Snake, Slaughter, and Faith No More (but I also saw New Kids on the Block, Tiffany, Sinead O’Connor, Milli Vanilli…so it was a mixed bag).

These days I love listening to glam rock, hair metal, and thrash bands from the 80s and 90s because of all the memories I have with them. For this week’s first actual playlist I dedicated it to my favorite songs from those jr. high dances, the songs that I distinctly remember hearing and the songs that would pop up around me all the time from ages of 12 – 15.

Does this one take you down memory lane? What were your school dances like and what were your favorites songs and memories from them?

(Spotify has been having embedding issues so rather than embedding the playlist here is a link to it!)

Listen to My Weekend Playlist: Jr High Dance!