you can't go home again

Here's the trouble with time travel: in order to get what you want, you have to DO what you DID. Past choices are the path followed to today, like it or not. Any change in those past choices will affect your present day. Your high school sweetie turns out to be a hound dog, so you choose to NOT sleep with him on your birthday and NOT get knocked up? Congratulations on the loss of the future daughter, and subsequent son, who you love so dearly.
I watched "Peggy Sue Got Married" this afternoon, in lieu of going to a local cinema. Partly I chose to stay home because I didn't want to go into the tire-melting heat of the summer day. But that wasn't the only factor. I've had this movie beside my computer for several days now - maybe even more than a week! - so I could see Nicholas Cage sing.
Mama and I had gone to see the movie when it first came out in 1986, while I was still attending college here. We had both loved it and loved seeing Nicholas Cage and Kathleen Turner. So, I bought the movie when it was released on VHS and she and I watched it again. Then I purchased it -for a final time?- when I was switching over to the dvd format, so we could watch it any time we wanted.
Why the sudden desire to see Cage's performance again? Well, one of my favorite songs on Tom Jones' "the lead and how to swing it" is titled "A Girl Like You". The beat is hypnotic and sensual and rhythmic... well, you get my drift, right? Coupled with that singular Welsh voice, the song makes for great company. I had a copy of the cd quite a few years back, but it was lost along the way; perhaps it was borrowed and never returned? I only know that when one of my friends posted some lyrical phrases from one of Sir Tom's songs, I simply HAD to have that cd once more. The folks at eBay were kind enough to allow me to 'win" it.
Meanwhile, as I was waiting for my "prize" to arrive, I started searching youTube on the off chance that the song had ever had a video... and it did!!! Not by Mr. Jones, no indeed. That would have been quite the find! But, no. Instead, I found several DIFFERENT songs by that title, songs which were good but not THE song. Then, success! I found the actual video by the original group, The Wolfgang Press, a group who so impressed Mr. Jones that he had asked them to write, for him, another song for that same album (cd). They complied, giving him "Show Me", another strong single, to me at least. I don't know that any of the songs ever made it to the radio.
So, what's the connection to the movie??? Well, the lead singer reminded me of Nicholas Cage. Just superficially, mind. Right height, right build, right smoky eyes and smokier voice. Oh, yeah. And I remembered that Cage had sung a couple of songs in the movie, so I wanted to compare, see how well I was remembering. I was SO off! In the movie, his voice was such a kid's voice through much of it, not yet having mellowed with time, smoke, and drink until his later years... but his singing voice was just fine. There was something about the way he looked while singing, while holding the microphone, and THAT was what had triggered the memory while watching the music video.