It seems like only yesterday

I think it must happen when you pass 60 years old.

You'll see a published list of memorable events or movies or whatever, and you think, I lived through that!

One good thing about hanging out with people my own age is that we all remember the same things, even the stuff we'd like to forget. Like pink shirts and black knit ties. Or truly dreadful lyrics, like "Julie, Julie, Julie, do ya love me?"

(For the record, the title of the song was "Julie, Do Ya Love Me." It was by Bobby Sherman, and it made it to No. 5 on the Top Ten list in 1970. You can listen to it by clicking here. Remember, you've been warned.)

But I digress. I'd rather talk about good memories.

I was reminded of how long I've walked the planet this week when the Library of Congress announced that it was adding 25 more songs, albums and other audio recordings to the National Recording Registry for preservation.

I'm familiar with a lot of the new entries -- not all, though, since some predate even me. But two of them stuck out: "The Twist" by Chubby Checker and "The Sounds of Silence" by Simon and Garfunkle.

Both have sticking power. If you're at least a teenager today, you probably know them. One was memorable because it made a dance form de rigueur with young people in the early 1960s, and the other was memorable for the artistry of its music and the poignancy of its lyrics at a time when the 1960s were becoming the Sixties.

It was "The Twist" (1960) that was responsible for the dance craze that bears its name. People danced the twist at fraternity parties, in church basements and at country club soirees for several years. My memories of the twist originated at Phi Delta Theta parties at the University of Richmond. The carefree exuberance with which we threw ourselves into this simple dance was fueled by warm nights, perhaps too much bourbon, and sheer youthful enthusiasm.

On a Saturday evening, you could walk the length of Fraternity Row and see people in every house dancing the twist with wild abandon. It was a young person's dance. Older people just couldn't seem to let go of their inhibitions. "The Twist" deserves to be remembered, if only because of its brief but pervasive influence on party culture.

"The Sounds of Silence" (1966) couldn't provide more of a contrast. It was originally released by Simon and Garfunkle in a purely acoustic version on their first album, which didn't sell so well. A Columbia Records producer, without telling the artists, took another listen to the song and overdubbed the acoustic version with drums, electric guitar and electric bass.

The title of the remixed song was changed to "The Sound of Silence," and it was released as a single. It was a surprise hit. You couldn't listen to radio without hearing it.

The two songs illustrate the dramatic shift that took place in popular music between the early 1960s and the mid-1960s. The bubble-gum sounds and lyrics of those earlier times were replaced by lyrics that spoke to a frustrated generation that was beginning to recognize itself as an instrument of change.

It was the difference between "We're gonna twisty, twisty, twisty, till we tear the house down" and these lyrics written by Paul Simon and Art Garfunkle:

And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon god they made
And the sign flashed out its warning
In the words that it was forming ...

Both songs say so much about their times, and they tell us about a generation that was at times dissolute and at times courageous.

By the way, this week also marked the 50th anniversary of the U.K. release of the Beatles' first album, "Please Please Me," in 1963. I remember it well.

Like the hits, the recollections just keep on coming. And they keep reminding me that what seems to me to be current events is really history.