I was 13. Every summer, my best friend and I would go sightseeing and to beaches. That summer he announced he was moving away. We went on one last magnificent trip and had the time of our lives, but as the day ended I felt a creeping wave of melancholy begin to overcome me. 1979 came on in the car home, it was the first time I had ever heard it. I didn’t know then – and I don’t know now – just how it did it, but it perfectly captures my spirit that day; that my childhood was drawing to a close, and there’s nothing I can do about it. That song captured an image of a moment in time when I was on top of the world. Soon after, I went and got the album and that, as they say, was that. 

Mellon Collie acted as a teenage survival guide, with a song for every occasion and emotion. I don’t think any album will ever hit me in quite the same way again.