Today John Lennon would have been 75 years old. By pure coincidence, I was sitting around a few nights ago listening to Pandora when “(Just Like) Starting Over” came on. I’ve never been a huge John Lennon fan, but I had forgotten how much I love that song. I was seven years old when it came out. It was 1980. I would dance and sing along to it on the radio. It’s kind of hard not to really—it’s a happy song. That was the same year my mother died. I don’t remember much else about that year, but in the same way a smell or a taste can instantly bring you back to a time in your life, this song does it for me.

Before I knew it, it was 2 o’clock in the morning and I was deep down the John-Lennon-discography-rabbit-hole, and remembering just how many excellent songs he had. Here are my top five…

Happy Birthday to you in heaven, John Lennon! I hope you and my mom have bumped into each other.

[Note: I was trying to find videos that were more exciting than static album covers, yet less exciting than sex scenes with Yoko Ono or horrific war scenes…but those proved few and far between (although I did manage to find an okay video for Happy Xmas). Then again no need to watch, really. Just listen…]