They linger in the middle-age memory like invisible friends from childhood--a wisp of melody, an easy rhythm, a naive lyric that sounded like poetry then and rings with poignance today. You hear the old pop songs, and suddenly it's 1960; you are yanked back to the spot where they first assaulted you in all their potent mystery. "When I first heard Ray Charles' Hit the Road, Jack," says Tom Hanks, who was five in the summer of '61, "I literally thought it was about some guy hitting the road with his fist. I remember sitting out in front of my house,...
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