I was never really embarrassed for liking NKOTB, for it was completely age-appropriate. The Bon Jovi love I can defend by my karaoke obsession. But they're also not pinnacles of artistic achievement.

I already have Uncle Tupelo's cover of the Stooges song "I Wanna Be Your Dog," which is amazing....

ooooOoooooOOOOooo....

except you weren't entirely sure you still like it so much for mostly sentimental reasons?

Appetite For Destruction. Which is only about half a good album, but there you go.

So. Was there some album that you liked when you were in high school, but then you went to college and got into alternative music and then you were embarrassed for liking that album and you didn't listen to it for a long time, and then after many years you went to iTunes and downloaded the album just for the hell of it, and then you were amazed at how good the album was, except you weren't entirely sure you still like it so much for mostly sentimental reasons?

No, but that's because I got into alternative music when I was 13, pretty much right when I got into music, period, and thus failed to discover the joys of goofy pop crap until much later in life. (We shall not speak of my senior year in high school, when the local scene broke big, my friends and I wept bitterly, and I drowned my sorrows in country music. Although it does allow me to date My First Break Up with a high degree of accuracy, as it was the day after the Nevermind release party at Peaches.)

The only shit I'm even slightly embarrassed to like/admit I own is shit I've bought in the last 7 years.

I went the other way. College was when I discovered big band jazz, Tin Pan Alley, and old-fashioned pop vocalists. So instead of the B-52s ("Rock Lobster" era), Talking Heads, and the like, I was into Glenn Miller, Frank Sinatra, and Harry James.

I do wonder whether the soundtrack to Grease would hold up. Not so much the big production numbers, but some of the songs that played in the background while the plot was going on -- songs like "Those Magic Changes" and "It's Raining on Prom Night."

It's Raining on Prom Night."

I still love this song. Didn't help that it DID rain for K-Bug's Junior Prom.

They do for me, but mostly because they are perfect for Grease.

Man, I'm so glad I got annoyed at the continuing OOPness of the Them catalog and the attendant prices and found a blog where I could suck The Story of Them through the interpipe.

Because young Van Morrison is just an outstanding blues, R&B and folk singer.

I already knew his versions of "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" and "Richard Cory" were awesome but there's so much good shit here. Lots of songs I'd never heard, like "Don't You Know" or his Nina Simone inspired version of "I Put A Spell On You."

Back on to the current topic I'm not too embarrassed by my teen taste. Freaks and Geeks allowed me to own up to Styx and "Come Sail Away."

Styx is another band I loved as a kid that I've slowly been getting back into....

Styx is another band I loved as a kid that I've slowly been getting back into....

Romance Tip: Do not corner your girlfriend in the basement and croon "Lady" to her.

I've never been ashamed of my Queen, Pink Floyd or Styx love.

MJ's Thriller is another story.