When Kim Wilde released “Keep Me Hanging On” in 1987 (it went to #1), I was a whopping 13 years old. I had never had a boyfriend, but I had endured endless unrequited crushes over my short life and when I heard this song I thought that surely there was nothing in the entire world that could be more incredibly tragic than having to tell some guy you loved to just “get up, get out of my life” because “you don’t really love me, you just keep me hanging on”.

TRAGIC!

Clearly I had not learned about frivolous things like world hunger, genocide, the blood diamond trade, and whatnot. Oh, to be an innocent boy-crazy 13-year-old self-absorbed girl again. Actually, remembering my distinct lack of fashion sense, inability to do anything remotely decent with my hair, telescope-thick glasses, and confusion over how to properly apply make-up (bright blue eyeliner and bubblegum pink lipstick, woo!), maybe I’d rather not be 13 again.

Also it should be noted that, speaking of hair, I wanted nothing more than to have my hair look like Kim’s did. Or, really to just look like her, period. Now I look at that hair and I laugh at my younger self. But oh, I still love the song.