The teleporter song: the track that instantly drops you into one exact moment

[Harper84]

Everyone owns at least one, the song that does not just remind you of a time but physically deposits you there, the kitchen, the car, the terrible dance floor, the hospital corridor, three seconds of intro and you have travelled. This thread collects the teleporter songs and their destinations

The format, name the song, name the exact moment it returns you to with whatever detail you are comfortable sharing, and the interesting third question, do you play it on purpose or does it have to ambush you for the teleport to work

The science underneath is real, music and memory wire together tighter than almost anything else the brain does, which is why a chorus can retrieve a summer that a photograph cannot. But the stories beat the science, so lead with the story

One warning from previous runs of this thread, somebody always gets got, you will be reading along cheerfully and someone's destination will hit you sideways. It is a feature, bring tissues

[DeepCourier]

A cheesy 90s dance track and the destination is my mum's kitchen on a Saturday morning, radio on, her singing the wrong words with total confidence. It only works as an ambush, on purpose it is just a song, from nowhere it is a time machine

[Sam92]

The wrong words with total confidence detail teleported me to a different kitchen entirely, this thread is already dangerous

[Velvet Connor]

Mine drops me into the passenger seat of my first car with my best mate driving, windows down after our last exam. We drifted apart years back and the song is now the only place we still hang out

[Wandering Matt]

Third question answer, strictly ambush only and I actively avoid playing mine, a teleporter used deliberately wears out, some destinations you have to protect from overuse

[StringTheory32]

The overuse point is real and slightly heartbreaking, I played my teleporter daily one bad winter and now it goes nowhere at all, the batteries do not recharge

[Cheeky Kernel]

Counterview, mine has survived thirty years of deliberate playing and delivers every single time, maybe the durable ones are welded to a person rather than a period. People proof, eras fade

[Quiet Forge]

Hospital corridor answer as the opening post predicted, the song that was playing in the car park the night my daughter arrived. It ambushed me in a supermarket last month and I stood in the cereal aisle grinning like a fool

[WWEPete45]

The supermarket ambush is the teleporter in its natural habitat, these songs always strike in the most unpoetic locations available

[ParallelSelf34]

A slow one from my nan's radio station, destination is her front room, the smell of the gas fire included, which I did not know memory could store. Whoever said a chorus retrieves what photographs cannot was underselling it

[QuantumKnight]

Got got at the gas fire, the opening post warned us and I read on anyway

[Wizard35]

Pattern across the whole thread, not one teleporter song is anyone's favourite song, the heart apparently files significance and quality in completely different cabinets