Austin had woken over one hour earlier than usual Friday morning and he could not fall back to sleep. The result is what most parents might expect from a 5-year-old: an emotionally unstable mess. We barely made it to the diner that Friday morning between the tears over being too tired and the indecisiveness when selecting what shirt he was to wear to school that day; even once we were there he was not quite himself.
After about five minutes, however, a song came over the radio that changed his mood almost instantly. Historically, music can pull him out of a funk, but it is usually a song that is already familiar to him, one of his favorites. This song was something that he had not heard before, yet after only 90 seconds, he was smiling and bouncing to the beat. “Daddy, do you like this song too?” he asked. “Today I do,” I responded.
Not only has this song been used in advertisements, it has also been featured in one of my favorite films as well as one of my favorite television series. Despite being only 6 years old when it was released, I still know the lyrics word for word. According to Wikipedia, Katrina and the Kinks continue to earn one million dollars per year on royalties from airplay and advertisements for this song, originally released in twenty years ago.
That morning, it earned every penny.