Beth’s Personal Pandemic Playlist: 19 COVID-related Song Titles

Trainers at the Seeing Eye school encourage us to talk to our dogs as they guide us. “Remind them you’re there,” they say. “It keeps them focused.” Since the pandemic hit, I’ve been taking one, and sometimes two, hour long walks with Luna every day. What happens when I run out of things to talk to her about? I sing to her instead. This blog idea came up on one of those sing-along walks. I narrowed the titles down to songs I listened to as a child and in my young adulthood, and my focus here is on the title of the song, not the lyrics. Here goes:

1. Every Breath You Take (The Police) Before 2020, I took breathing for granted. Not anymore.
2. Fever (written by Otis Blackwell and Eddie Cooley, performed by everyone from Peggy Lee to Beyoncé) High fevers are a common symptom of COVID, and when Mike took sick on March 17, his fever spiked at 103 ° and stayed there.
3. I Can’t Get Next to you (The Temptations) Mike and I separated into what he referred to as our “two kingdoms” at home for a week before he collapsed from fever and was taken to the ER.
4. Gimme Shelter (Rolling Stones) Sheltering in place became the norm.
5. We’re All Alone (Boz Scaggs) With Mike in the hospital, new Seeing Eye dog Luna and I were at home alone for ten days.
6. Puppy Love (Donny Osmond) See above.
7. And I Miss You (Everything but the Girl) I missed Mike.
8. Telephone Line (Electric Light Orchestra) I worked on my skills with VoiceOver (the speech synthesizer that comes with every iPhone) to text and answer the phone when Mike called, or when caring doctors, social workers, friends and family contacted me to see how Mike was doing.
9. Don’t Stand So Close to me (The Police) Determining just how far away six feet is without being able to see is not easy. I give it my best guess when out alone with Luna.
10. Signed, Sealed Delivered (Stevie Wonder) Mike still in the hospital. Friends and family members signed me up for gift cards at small local establishments, restaurants sealed hot meals into to-go bags, nearby friends picked them up and delivered them to our lobby. You know who you are, my friends: thank you.
11. Does Anybody Really Know What Time it Is? (Chicago) Is it just me? I have a hard time keeping track of what day it is, too.
12. Only a Fool Would Say that (Steely Dan) January 24: “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China and we have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.” March 6: “The tests are beautiful. Anybody that needs a test, gets a test.” May 21: “So when we have a lot of cases, I don’t look at that as a bad thing. I look at that as, in a certain respect, as being a good thing because it means our testing is much better. So I view it as a badge of honour. Really, it’s a badge of honor.”
13. Makes Me Wanna Holler (Marvin Gaye) Chicago Tribune columnist Heidi Stevens quoted Mike in a column when he was still hospitalized and I was waiting to be approved for a COVID test. He told her it was frustrating to watch the news from his hospital bed and hear President Donald Trump deny that the United States lacks sufficient tests. “Setting aside partisanship,” Mike said, “That’s really insulting. It’s insulting to be lying here and hearing that. It’s insulting to me, but also to all the people working here so hard and having to figure out who to give tests to and who not to, because they don’t have enough of them.”
14. Here We Are (James Taylor) Mike gets released from hospital, spends three nights at a COVID Hotel, and finally comes home COVID-free.
15. Dizzy (Tommy Roe) COVID-free doesn’t necessarily mean symptom-free. A “longhauler” now, Mike still gets dizzy while taking walks.
16. We’re Gonna Zoom, Zoom Zoom The theme song from a 1970s PBS children’s show becomes my theme song for the memoir-writing classes I lead.
17. Long Ago and Far Away (Joni Mitchell) Running into old friends out and about, giving them hugs, traveling to visit out-of-town family and friends, having people in for dinner, visiting elementary schools to give presentations…Seems like decades ago now.
18. So Far Away (Carole King) See above.
19. Happy Together (The Turtles) Neighbors start bringing chairs down to local park, and on hot days little kids bring sprinklers, too. While wearing masks and social distancing we catch up with each other. Temperatures are falling now, but hey, we all own warm winter coats! We pledge to continue meeting outside this winter.

Have a song title to add to the list? Leave your suggestions in the comments!