Welcome back to The Music of My Life, where I feature ten songs from each year of my life.  In most cases, the ten songs I choose will be ones I like personally (unless I explain otherwise). The songs will be selected from Billboard’s Year-end Hot 100 Chart, Acclaimed Music, and will all be released in the featured year

In 2008, I turned 38. I was now a father of two boys, one with special needs. I was working in country radio at the time. Still grieving my mom’s passing, my emotions were heightened. Happiness was extra happy, sadness was extra sad, if that makes sense. So let’s get into 2008 and feel all the emotions…..

The first tune was released in January of 2008 and it struck me like a brick to the head. It was a song that really made me stop to realize how I had to take in all the little moments that were going on with my boys, even when I was too upset to do so.

I’ve written about this song before on here. It meant a lot then, and even more now. You’re Gonna Miss This by Trace Adkins blew me away the first time I heard it. It is all about how the things that aggravate you now, are the same things that you will miss in the years to come.

The song written by Ashley Gorley and Lee Thomas Miller. When they first worked on the song, they were so busy writing it and getting it recorded that they didn’t get into the emotion of it. It was only when Adkins recorded it that the duo realized its depth. If you have children, young or old, it hits home.

You’re Gonna Miss This

Natasha Bedingfield’s Pocketful of Sunshine is a song that kind of jumped out of the radio at me. It was one of seven songs that were recorded for her Unwritten album that were included to be “radio friendly” to American audiences. It was a good choice, as it was a Top 5 record for her.

Outside of the rhythm of the song, and the cadence of the vocal, the only other reason I can think of for liking the song is the chorus. The idea of having a bit of sunshine in your pocket, that struck me. On crappy days, you always carry sunshine with you to help you get through. I guess I needed to think about life that way. I had a lot of good going on in my life, and I needed to start focusing on that.

Pocketful of Sunshine

Brad Paisley is not only a fantastic guitar player, he is an amazing songwriter! He can write some of the most beautiful love songs and at the same time a “raise your beer at the bar and get drunk” song. The ones I really like are those where he finds those male vs female angles. That’s the next song, I’m Still A Guy.

The lyrics of this one are just great. Male perspective vs female perspective come verse after verse. “When you see a deer, you see Bambi, and I see antlers up on the wall” is just one example of the fantastic writing of Paisley.

From songfacts.com:

Brad Paisley explained to Great American Country: “I just wanted to capture this struggle a little bit between men and women in a playful way, which is ‘Why don’t you get a little cosmopolitan here and feminize up for me just a bit?’ [laughs] We’re fighting that every step of the way, some of us guys, and ironically in talking to the radio guys, they say the majority of the calls for it come from women, and I think the same thing happened with ‘I’m Gonna Miss Her.’ These women want their men to hear it, and by golly, that is the best way to get a man to hear something is to play it for their significant other. They’re gonna be forced to listen to it. It’s got that nudge-your-partner-with-your-elbow factor to it.”

I’m Still a Guy

“Kid Rock on a country station?!”

Those were the words of more than one country program director when All Summer Long came out. It was one of those songs that hit the Top 40 Chart for both Modern Rock and Country! Because Kid is from Michigan, it made sense for us to play it, but the rest of the country?

Kid Rock explained to MTV News why the song was so big:

“I knew the track was solid – it’s got two of the best songs of all time mashed up together [‘Sweet Home Alabama’ and ‘Werewolves of London’], it’s got great melodies, so really, my work was done. I knew people would hear it and know I wrote it. They’d know it was real, and there’d be that connection. And that’s what’s missing in music today. I think people don’t believe half the s–t they hear some rapper or some pop girl singing about… but with me, they do. And that’s why people have reacted the way they have to the song.”

All Summer Long

The next song is on my list for a weird reason. I can nail the drum line!

Pink told the story of this song: “‘So What’ was a joke. I heard this beat from Max Martin. It’s such a fun beat, so fun. And I was actually kidding when I said, ‘I guess I just lost my husband, I don’t know where he went.’ Ha ha, that’s really funny. Let’s keep it and it just kind of went from there. And it just got more and more wrong. The more lines we wrote, the wronger it was. And we kept it because I don’t really care. I don’t think about the consequences when I write songs and now I am regretting every second of it. No, I’m not.”

At one of our family Christmas parties, one of the brothers-in-law had brought over their Playstation or X-Box with Rock Band on it. He had the guitars, the drum kit and whatever else they needed for the game. So What was a cut on there. I had never even heard the song at the time. I couldn’t do squat on those guitars, but the drums … we’ll I did ok!

Whenever I hear the song, I always remember jamming on the drums to it.

So What

I remember thinking, “Now that’s a great band name!” when I hear of the All-American Rejects. Gives You Hell didn’t mean much to me back in 2008, however, during my divorce it applied to a lot of people.

The group’s front man, Tyson Ritter, told MTV News:

“It’s kind of this tongue-in-cheek way of looking at someone you hate, whether it’s your mom, for some reason, or it’s your teacher at school, or it’s your boss at work. It’s just someone who makes you struggle, and it’s giving them the finger.”

Now, “hate” is a strong word. I certainly don’t hate some of the folks I think of when I hear this song, but I certainly would give them the finger….

Gives You Hell

“Oh, great, Keith has another Nickelback song on his list!”

I have always tried to live by the mantra, “Live every day as if it were your last, someday, you’ll be right.” That’s what this next song kind of meant to me. If Today Was Your Last Day, what would you do with it? It is a song that makes me wonder every time I hear it.

According to songfacts, the song had been around for awhile without ever being completed. Bass guitarist Mike Kroeger noted on the record label’s website, “Chad (Kroeger) brought it out of the vault and the creative juices started to flow.”

If Today Was Your Last Day

Not Meant to Be by Theory of a Deadman was another song that meant little or nothing to me when it was released. But when I was in therapy prior to my divorce, it started to hit me. Let’s face it, not all relationships are meant to be.

The group’s Tyler Connolly wrote the song with Kara DioGuardi at the American Idol judge’s house. He commented in a press release: “Amazing. I went over to her place, drank some wine and we wrote ‘Not Meant To Be’ in 5 minutes. Our writing styles fit together so perfectly it was almost like it was ‘meant to be.'”

“I remember giving Kara the song title and she said, ‘I like that! I don’t I’ve heard of a song with that title.’ So then I just wrote the chords right there on the spot. From there, she started humming the vocal melody and wrote the lyrics off of that. I took it home and finished the rest. The next day I show up with the finished song and she says, ‘That’s a hit.’ Once I sent Roadrunner Records the demo, they loved it.”

It only went to #55 on the charts, so I’m not sure I’d call it a “hit,” but I liked it.

Not Meant To Be

I believe when I blogged about the Trace Adkins song above, I also included this next one from Darius Rucker. Basically, it is the same song, or at least the same theme.

When Darius put out his Learn to Live album, a lot of folks (myself included) wondered how “Hootie” was going to make it singing country. Well, he showed us! He fit the format like a glove! His country stuff was better than some of the established artists at the time (in my opinion). He took It Won’t Be Like This For Long all the way to #1.

He said, “This is about my two daughters. I’ve got a 13 year old and 7 year old. I wrote it with Ashley Gorley and Chris DuBois, who also have daughters. This song may be my favorite song on the record. I love playing it acoustically. We play it when we visit radio stations, and there wasn’t a day where at least two people didn’t cry. We’d just look and count. It’s absolutely bittersweet. When we were writing it, we were talking about how fast our families were growing up. That first week after the baby is born is awful: you’re up all the time. Then when it’s not like that, you miss those times.”

Last night, my daughter asked me to tuck her in. She asked me to sing our song to her, which I haven’t done in a while. It had me almost in tears. The time goes so fast….

It Won’t Be Like This For Long

After Hey There Delilah, I made sure to listen to more of these Plain White T’s fellas. They packed my interest with their sound. 1,2,3,4 is one of my favorites from the decade.

Plain White T’s Lead singer Tom Higgenson wrote it for his girlfriend at the time, Angie Chavez. In the song, he tells her over and over that he loves her, which she makes as easy as counting. This is something I could easily sing to my wife.

The video is well done, too. It shows Higgenson busking in Chicago on a December day in 2008. As he plays, crowds gather and some people recognize him – nobody in the clip is an actor. Throughout the video, we see couples and groups of families and friends with graphics explaining who they are and how they got together. In the end, Higgenson meets up with Angie, and we learn that they met in Chicago.

What a wonderful little love song!

1, 2, 3, 4

Wow, that’s ten songs already. Ok, which hit from 2008 did I miss that is on your list? Tell me in the comments.

Next week, we move into 2009. My list includes a former sister-in-law’s wedding song, a surprisingly powerful song from a Disney kid, a song that tells how every expecting parent feels, a song from a group I knew would be a success the first time I heard them, and one that just makes you feel good and want to dance.

Thanks for listening and reading. See you next week.