Mailbox

“Amarillo by Morning” sung by Dennis Ivey & The Waymen at Lakeview Dance Hall before they sold the song to George Strait. Although George did a fine job with it, too!

Ginny Porrata ’79
New Braunfels, Texas

Actually, “Amarillo by Morning” was written by a local Bryan guy name Dennis Ivy. His band, Dennis Ivey & the Waymen, played that song each time they played at Lakeview Dance Hall or the Texas Hall of Fame Dance Hall. My understanding is that he sold the song to George Strait.

My favorite songs run the gamut and include: “Pop a Top” by Jim Ed Brown, “Blinded by the Light” by Manfred Mann’s Earth Band, “Hotel California” by the Eagles, “Don’t the Girls All Get Prettier at Closing Time” by Mickey Gilley, “Last Exit for Love” by Wood Newton, “Lookin’ for Love” by Johnny Lee and “On the Road Again” by Willie Nelson. Just to name a few!

Dave Russell ’80
Modesto, California

Every time I hear George Strait sing “Amarillo by Morning,” it takes me back to the great times we had at Lakeview Dance Hall every Thursday night.

Mary Lou (Williams) Shelton ’78
Onalaska, Texas

When “Amarillo by Morning” by George Strait plays on the radio or as background music in a doctor’s office or H-E-B, I’m immediately taken back to Sparkey’s (circa 1977-78) when taking a bite of a meatball sub would cease, a quick swig of beer was downed, and booths would empty to the dance floor. It’s hard for me not to break into a two-step! 

(Fun fact: I’m still dancing with the same BQ 45 years later, Rodney ’78.)

Ann Doyle Boehm ’79
College Station, Texas

Anything by Lyle Lovett or Robert Earl Keen takes me back to the days circa 1980 when they played at the Backstreet Cafe or just jammed on the porch at their house north of The Dixie Chicken! Oh, what memories we made, although we didn’t know it then!

Cary Honganen ’82
Jersey Village, Texas

"California Dreamin' by The Mamas & The Papas. It was always playing, it seems, from Dorm 1 on the Quad as I went back to Dorm 5 after class.

Tommy Edgar ’67
Whitney, Texas

Every time I hear it, it takes me back to Fish Camp in the summers of 1995 through 1998.

Rachel Kelly-Taylor ’99
Dallas, Texas

This will forever bring back those nights at the Chicken. Sitting on the front bar with my bestie, singing our cares away at the top of our lungs. Great times.

Maria McAlpin ‘87
League City, Texas

Every time I hear “Friends in Low Places” by Garth Brooks, I am transported back to The Dixie Chicken or another bar in College Station playing pool or dominoes and having a few cool libations.  It takes me right back to that unique time of hanging out with friends and talking about classes, Aggie football and where the next party would be. I really miss those days and nights!

Steven Martinez ’92
Boerne, Texas

I remember “Friends in Low Places” by Garth Brooks playing on the radio when I rode the bus from my apartment to campus in the early 1990s.

Mary (Gimon) Kinsel ’91 ’96
Carbondale, Illinois

“Friends in Low Places” by Garth Brooks. I didn’t listen to country music before arriving in Aggieland in fall 1990. At some point, I saw Garth Brooks perform at G. Rollie White Coliseum, and the energy of Aggies during this song was so unique.

Sara (Graalum) Carroll ’95 ’97
Redmond, Washington

“Goodnight, Irene” by Leon Russell. It was the last song played every night at The Dixie Chicken as the lights came on, the bar closed and everybody stumbled out happier than when they went in.

Sam Gillespie ’81
Dallas, Texas

It was the closing song played at The Dixie Chicken.

Scott Swenson ’85
Lakeway, Texas

I recall camping out to pull Cotton Bowl tickets at G. Rollie White Coliseum when we played the Auburn Tigers for the win in 1985! I remember playing my trusty Tears for Fears album, the Big Chair, on cassette and specifically listening to their smash single “Head Over Heels” the night we pitched our tent. I was seeing an Aggie student model at the time, an upperclassman from San Antonio, and my infatuation for her was off the charts. She took me to the Riverwalk for the first time and there she introduced me to awesome Tex-Mex foods, crazy fun and fiesta!

She and I went boot-scootin’ together, two-stepping and jitterbug swing dancing to George Strait’s “Marina del Rey,” “Amarillo by Morning,” and “The Chair” out at the Texas Hall of Fame Dance Hall. We went in large groups back then, so you ended up dancing with more people than you can shake a stick at before the night was over. It was just the right kind of fun, and some nice cardio too. Good times, good times! 

Shawn Edwards ’88
Boone, North Carolina

When I hear Rod Stewart’s “Maggie May,” I’m taken back to my third-floor corner room in Spence Hall (Dorm 1). As a non-reg living on the Quad, I recall seeing a gathering near the arches: the 20-year reunion of the Class of 1957. My thought: “Those guys are OLD!” I laugh as this spring marks 45 years since I earned my bachelor’s in journalism! I can only imagine how old current students think I am!

Peggy Machol-Bassett ’79
Kemah, Texas

I arrived at school by commercial bus with two suitcases. No parents, no car, just a wide-eyed country boy looking to grow up. The bus stop was at Sparky’s Pizza across from the main entrance on Texas Avenue. It was a long and lonely walk to Law Hall. As I got to know my dorm mates, I discovered two of them were great guitarists. In 1976, Boston became a hit band and we adopted “More Than a Feeling” as our anthem. On Saturdays, my dorm mates would sit in their windows and play rifts from this song to the Quad as we played washers under the trees.

I played water polo and swam for Texas A&M while pursuing an industrial engineering degree. I worked in Sbisa Dining Hall and bartended to help pay for books and tuition. My last year, I was a co-op student with Lone Star Steel in northeast Texas. Every drive to and from there on weekends, I wore out my cassette tape with that song. I still catch it on the radio now and then and on Spotify.   

Every day when I put on my Aggie ring, it’s “More Than a Feeling!”

Tim Hale ’77
Kenner, Louisiana

“Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana. People didn’t like this song at first, but it grew on them, and we heard it over and over along with other grunge music at parties and at Duddley’s Draw.

Philipp Zeissig ’93
Lynn, Massachusetts

It played in the mess hall at evening meals before home games in the late 1960s.

Don Linnen ’69
Dallas, Texas

In 1968, the Corps of Cadets had assembled on the Quad for evening chow. I was with the Aggie Band all the way down at Dorm 11 when suddenly out of a window about mid-Quad came floating out the song "Teach Me Tiger" by April Stevens. If you have never heard it, you can’t imagine the sensuous delivery she had...and what a warm reaction we all had to the incident!

Richard Keen '69
Concord, North Carolina

“Texas our Texas” by the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band. We sung it at every home game. We were probably the only young men who knew the words to the state song in the state.

Mike Bishop ’69
Spartanburg, SC

So many songs take me back! Alabama’s “Mountain Music” reminds me of Thursday nights at the Texas Hall of Fame Dance Hall. Prince’s “1999” reminds me of dancing with my friends from Walton Hall on my 19th birthday when we changed the words to “party like you’re 19.” And The Clash’s “Rock the Casbah” reminds me of passing out candy with my roommate in Neeley Hall on Halloween when several students dressed as sheiks in white robes passed by carrying a boom box that blared the catchy song. I’m sure virtually every Aggie remembers singing David Allan Coe’s “You Never Even Called Me by My Name” at The Dixie Chicken. And of course, enjoying performances by Willie Nelson and George Strait in G. Rollie White Coliseum cemented my love of country music. 

But perhaps the most memorable moment was actually a music video. MTV was in its infancy and the same videos seemed to play ad nauseam. But in fall 1983, I think the entire third floor of Neeley Hall crowded into our room because my roommate had one of the only (very small) color televisions in the dorm. As we eagerly began to watch the premiere of the iconic “Thriller” video, everyone in the room was initially silent with anticipation but burst into screams when Michael Jackson turned into a werewolf, and then stared mesmerized when he and the zombies began to dance. That’s a moment I will never forget!

Ann (Cervenka) Pask ’86
Dallas, Texas

I was commissioned upon my graduation from Texas A&M and volunteered for the U.S. Special Forces, becoming a Green Beret. Returning from Vietnam after serving a tour with the 5th Special Forces Group, I attended the 1968 Cotton Bowl Classic featuring Texas A&M vs. Alabama (Gene Stallings ’57 vs. Bear Bryant). At halftime, the Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band played “The Ballad of the Green Berets.” Texas A&M won that game, the Bear hugged Gene Stallings at the end, and I will never forget that song and that particular Aggie moment! I’ve never been so proud to be an Aggie and a Green Beret!

Col. John Erskine ’60 (Ret.)
The Villages, Florida

The lyrics take me back to what I was going through in life at the time.

Fernando Urrutia ’83
Flower Mound, Texas

Despite being sung only when the Aggies are outscored, the song that takes me back is “The Twelfth Man” by The Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band. I can usually be heard over the crowd of 100,000-plus belting out: “Texas Aggies down in Aggieland, we’ve got Aggie Spirit to a man...”

Maj. Don Constantine ’80
Kennewick, Washington

I was in the Texas A&M Singing Cadets from 1969 to 1973, and we regularly sang “The Twelfth Man.” While dozens of songs take me back to my days in Aggieland, that song reminds me of what it means to be an Aggie—not only in the lyrics, but also in the feelings produced while singing it.

Rev. Robert Cooper ’73
Clyde, North Carolina

It played frequently as my fish “Ol’ Lady” and I studied our assignments for the next day’s classes.

Steve Filipowicz ’80
Bonham, Texas

I entered Texas A&M in summer 1978 and lived in Mosher Hall. My group of friends would hang out in our dorm rooms and sing along to songs on the local AM radio station. One of our favorite songs was “Three Times a Lady” by the Commodores. We took turns calling the radio station requesting that song. Sometimes we’d call multiple times and try and disguise our voices. It always reminds me of the best summer of my life and my Mosher dorm friends.

Anna Daniels ’80
Victoria, Texas

It played daily at midnight to conclude the day’s WTAW radio broadcast. Most engineering students of that era, including myself, were still up, often somewhat beyond midnight!

Fred Hudspeth ’61
Tyler, Texas

When it played on the radio, my dorm room phone would start ringing because my friends knew I loved that song.

Claude Roberts ’83
Tulsa, Oklahoma

What can I say? It was fish year in the Corps.

Charlie Eads ’69
Albany, Oregon

“We Gotta Get Out of This Place” by The Animals. We’d blast this song from Corps dorm windows as the end of the school year approached. Another good one was “Big Man” by The Four Preps. The Butts would play this song to the Zips as the year ended, signifying “you guys are leaving and will start at the bottom and we’re now in charge.” Great memories!

Col. Rick Fitzhugh ’70
Fairhope, Alabama

“You Never Even Called Me by My Name” by David Allan Coe. I cannot hear this song without thinking of The Dixie Chicken and fun times playing dominoes and visiting with friends, everyone singing along! 

Amy Benson Hopkins ’90
San Antonio, Texas

We used to sing “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling” by The Righteous Brothers on the balcony of Fowler Hall when it was female-only residents!

Tiffany Larsson ’94
Gilmer, Texas

“Time in a Bottle” by Jim Croce
Vicki Wharton ’76
Hondo, Texas

“Hey Ya!” by OutKast
Carlie Dorshaw-Moe ’07
Carrollton, Texas

“Crank That (Soulja Boy)” by Soulja Boy 
Sarah Elliott ’09
Fort Worth, Texas

“The Noble Men of Kyle” by Col. Joe. T. Haney
Robert Quinn ’88
Boerne, Texas

“You Never Even Called Me by My Name” by David Allan Coe
Ryan Grogman ’95
Dallas, Texas

“The Noble Men of Kyle” by Col. Joe. T. Haney
Charles Mireur ’70
Spring, Texas

“Amarillo by Morning” by George Strait
Rise McDaniel ’79
San Antonio, Texas

“The Noble Men of Kyle” by Col. Joe. T. Haney
Joe Warren ’72
Houston, Texas

“Ballad of the Green Berets” by The Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band and “Joy to the World” by Three Dog Night
Daniel (Dan) Huddleston ’71
Falls Church, Virginia

“The Spirit of Aggieland” by Marvin Mimms ’26 & Col. Richard Dunn
Kenneth Fulk ’79
Allen, Texas

“The Road Goes on Forever” by Robert Earl Keen
Laura Binneboese ’02
St. Louis, Missouri

“Amarillo by Morning” by George Strait
Shelly Brenckman ’79
Bryan, Texas

“Friends in Low Places” by Garth Brooks
Holly Thompson ’92
Santa Clarita, California

“The Spirit of Aggieland” by Marvin Mimms ’26 & Col. Richard Dunn
Mike Herring ’89
Aledo, Texas

“The Reflex” by Duran Duran
Oscar Andrino-Barbier '86
Vancouver, Washington

“The Road Goes on Forever” by Robert Earl Keen
Sorrell Long ’03
Tomball, Texas

“Goodnight, Irene” by Leon Russell
Lindsey Edwards ’00
Aledo, Texas

“The Aggie War Hymn” by J.V. “Pinky” Wilson ’20 and then many others like “Wave on Wave” by Pat Green.
Justin Perkins ’02
Callahan, Florida

“Fishin’ in the Dark” by Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
Dawn Greiner ’95
Dallas, Texas

“The Road Goes on Forever” by Robert Earl Keen
Ryan Workman ’99
Little Rock, Arkansas

“We Bleed Maroon” by Granger Smith
Stacy Fanning ’92
Canton, Texas

“Hold on Loosely” by 38 Special
George Cardenas ’86
San Antonio, Texas

“The Road Goes on Forever” by Robert Earl Keen
Landon Middleton ’04
San Antonio, Texas

“She’s No Lady” by Lyle Lovett
Ken Waldie ’88

“Oh, Pretty Woman” by Roy Orbison
Mike Hoffman ’68
Windcrest, Texas

“The Aggie War Hymn” by J.V. “Pinky” Wilson ’20
Norman York ’57
Houston, Texas

“The Aggie War Hymn” by J.V. “Pinky” Wilson ’20
Teresa Baevich ’81
Keller, Texas

“Honky-Tonk Man” by Johnny Horton
Charley Echols ’60
Sugar Land, Texas

“The Twelfth Man” by The Fightin’ Texas Aggie Band
Bob Conn ’51
San Antonio, Texas

“The Aggie War Hymn” by J.V. “Pinky” Wilson ’20
Ed Hall ’60
Spartanburg, South Carolina

“The Aggie War Hymn” by J.V. “Pinky” Wilson ’20
Ken Livingston ’56
Houston, Texas                        

“The Aggie War Hymn” by J.V. “Pinky” Wilson ’20
Albert Menn ’67
Seguin, Texas

“Up Against the Wall, Red Neck” by Jerry Jeff Walker, which played in The Dixie Chicken.
Mike Stallings ’87
New Braunfels, Texas

Either “Africa” by Toto walking toward Northgate or “Feels So Right” by Alabama at the Texas Hall of Fame Dance Hall.
Kellie (Risk) Stallings ’85
New Braunfels, Texas

“Goodnight, Irene” by Leon Russell
Kathy Gregory ’84
College Station, Texas

“The Front Porch Song” by Robert Earl Keen
Martin Howell ’98
Alexandria, Virginia

“Miracles” by Jefferson Starship
Debra Cook ’77
Dallas, Texas

“You Never Even Called Me by My Name” by David Allan Coe
Rusty Spannagel ’90 
Devine, Texas

“Sultans of Swing” by Dire Straits
Jeff Jenkins ’82
West Lake Hills, Texas

“500 Miles Away from Home” by Bobby Bare
Acension Fierro ’79
Smithville, Texas

“The Aggie War Hymn” by J.V. “Pinky” Wilson ’20
Kawas Kawas ’92
San Pedro Sula, Honduras

“Not Fragile” by Bachman-Turner Overdrive
Wayne Smith ’84
Maryland Heights, Missouri

“Dust on the Bottle” by David Lee Murphy
Kimberly Garnett ’99
Oak Park, Illinois

“Friends in Low Places” by Garth Brooks
Sandra Schneider ’94
Dallas, Texas

"I Love A Rainy Night" by Eddie Rabbitt
Rosa "Rosie" Gonzalez ’82
Wellborn, Texas

"Silver Wings" by Merle Haggard
Joseph "Joey" Mondrik ’81
Cameron, Texas