For some crazy reason, Last.FM thinks that I love the song “Top o’ the Morning to Ya” by House of Pain.  According to my stats, I’ve listened to it 6 times; which is odd because I could swear that starting last month, it’s been served up almost daily.  What’s even more weird is the songs that Last.FM chooses to flank it with (this time it was Brett Dennen’s “Ain’t No Reason” and Death Cab’s “No Joy in Mudville”). Crazier still is that I’m really starting to like the song. It’s like Last.FM is telling me that I should like it, so I do.

Which brings me, albeit indirectly, to the fact that I have a memorable incident from my childhood in which House of Pain played a very important role. In middle school (shout out to all my Pioneer Middle School Eagles), I was a huge fan of school dances and luckily, there was no shortage of them at Pioneer. Every year, in addition to the many run-of-the-mill rec center dances, the school would host a Sweetheart Dance and a Wild Video Dance Party (you haven’t lived until you’ve gone to one of these).

In sixth grade, I was still crushing on the same guy I’d crushed on in the fifth grade - we’ll call him M - and I was excited to find out that he was going to be at the Sweetheart Dance. I got there and hung out with a group of my friends, not really dancing, and just generally trying not to make a fool of myself.  But then House of Pain’s “Jump Around” came on and all bets were off. I was jumping up and down like a nut; as was everyone else in the re-purposed cafeteria. After the song was over, I felt a boost of confidence and decided I would go ::gasp:: talk to my crush.

I looked around, but couldn’t find him, so I walked up to a mutual friend and asked her if she’d seen him. “You didn’t hear?” That’s when I took a better look at her face and realized she’d been crying.  Apparently, when “Jump Around” came on, M thought it would be awesome to sit on his significantly taller friend’s shoulders. And I’m sure the sight of that guy jumping around with another kid on his shoulders looked totally awesome; right up until the point when M fell off and cracked his head on the floor.

M survived with a few stitches, a mild concussion, and a lesson learned the hard way; and I came away from the ordeal with a weird nostalgia for House of Pain.