I was listening to a Genius mix on iTunes, which I find fascinating. I pick a song and then iTunes puts together a playlist from my other music of 24 other songs that somehow relate to it.

[caption id="attachment_632" align="alignright" width="225" caption="Harry Belafonte"]<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/images.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image-632" title="images" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/images.jpg" alt="" width="225" height="225" /></a>[/caption]

I've got more than 5,000 songs on my computer, so there are some fascinating choices. The particular playlist I had, which started with a Pete Seeger song, also included a couple of Harry Belafonte classics from the '50s -- "Jamaica Farewell" and "Island in the Sun."

I was surprised at my reaction to them. They're both songs I have always loved, but for some reason tonight I got tears in my eyes and started thinking about my dad.

It has been 2 1/2 years since my father died at the age of 82, and I find myself thinking about him more and more as I get older. It is one of the tragedies of my life that I never really connected with him during my childhood, that I rarely appreciated him for what he was and seemed far too willing to criticize him for what he wasn't.

One thing I still remember -- more than 50 years later -- was how our house was always full of good music. I heard all the Harry Belafonte songs I love now when I was 6 or 7 years old. My dad played them, along with Pete Seeger and all sorts of other wonderful stuff I'm sure I have long since forgotten.

When I hear "Jamaica Farewell," it's almost like I'm back in our little house on Harshmanville Road in Huber Heights, Ohio, the first house my parents owned. I remember the art on the walls and the music from the hi-fi. I never heard much '50s rock 'n' roll during the 1950s, although for some reason I do remember "The Purple People Eater."

The first year I remember listening to rock music was 1962, when I was 12 and I had won a small table radio by selling a lot of band candy. By then I was 12 and having all sorts of problems. I think it was a lot simpler when I was 7 and listening to my dad's music.