XII Q

I got no plans for tomorrow …

“Quality Street,” Van Morrison
“Que Sera Sera,” Pink Martini
“Que Sera Sera,” Sly and the Family Stone
“The Queen and the Soldier,” Suzanne Vega
“Queen Jane Approximately,” Bob Dylan
“Queen of Hearts,” Juice Newton
“Queen of the Supermarket,” Bruce Springsteen
“Queen of the World,” Ida Maria
“Queen’s Tattoos,” Aztec Camera
“Queer,” Garbage
“A Question of Will,” Dondolo
“Questions,” Jack Johnson

When I was a kid I went to camp for one week every summer. (Northern Frontier Boys’ Brigade camp, for the record, beautiful place.) And one summer, I guess when I was 13, the last song I heard on the radio before heading off to the Adirondacks for a week was Juice Newton’s “Queen of Hearts.” It thus got stuck — deeply, deeply stuck — in my head for the whole week. While hiking, canoeing or swimming in the lake, some part of my brain was singing, “Midni-i-ight, and I’m a waitin’ on the 12-o-5 …”

That’s why I will probably always love that song and why I will probably always hate that song.