Daily Newsie

I used to absolutely love “Ally McBeal.” It was just the tonic my weepy-teenaged-drama-queen self needed, and I drank it down like water every Monday night. In one episode, therapist Tracey Clark advised neurotic Ally to come up with a theme song she could sing to herself when she needed a little kick, and suddenly Vonda Shepard burst into The Exciters’ “Tell Him” while Ally bopped down the street. Clearly, I thought, a theme song makes everything awesome — especially if one can get Vonda Shepard to sing it.

For nigh on 15 years I’ve mulled my theme song options and have yet to come up with anything. A former flame once told me he heard “Isn’t She Lovely” when I came into view, which is sweet but I can’t take it seriously because it’s actually about a baby. An online test I took several years ago said my theme song should be “Walkin’ on Sunshine” by Katrina and the Waves, which is kicky but tiresome after too long, and another meme I found said I should walk around to “Groove is in the Heart.” I don’t know — if I’m going to have a theme song, I want it to have actual lyrics that mean something.

If I stretch back to high school, I remember my theme songs being “Happy Girl” by Beth Nielsen Chapman and “Killer Queen” by Queen. Daft Punk’s “Harder Better Faster Stronger” was my theme music while I was charging through my internship and my first job in 2004, then for a while it was “I’m Still Standing” by Elton John. But to be truthful, I can’t really think of any songs that have carried me through my entire life, probably because my taste in music shifts so frequently. I guess the closest thing I have right now to a theme song is “Everyday I Write the Book” by Elvis Costello, just because I can’t stop listening to it.

So, what songs play when you walk down the street?