Day 24: My Bottle Cap Souvenir (Song-a-day January)

Day 24: My Bottle-cap Souvenir

By Todd Hawkins & David Coile 

Part of my daily songwriting project for January 2025 

Lyrics: 

Just left the soda shop 

Got a kick in my step and a hop 

Can't help but shake my hips 

I can still taste her on my lips 

It's a big campus, but it feels so small 

And I'm walking tall to my residence hall 

Flying as high as a rocket 

A catalyst in my pocket 

My bottle cap souvenir 

My bottle cap souvenir 

Means that she's always here 

My bottle cap souvenir 

The tingle on my tongue is still fizzy 

That girl has left my mind in a tizzy 

It's hard to go to sleep at this hour 

Not until I take my cold shower 

My bottle cap souvenir 

My bottle cap souvenir 

Means that she's always here 

My bottle cap souvenir 

Alarm goes off, I roll out of bed 

Can't seem to get her out of my head 

But she's not there at the lecture 

All I can do is recollect her with 

My bottle cap souvenir 

My bottle cap souvenir 

Feels like she's always near 

My bottle cap souvenir 

*** 

It's Neil Diamond's birthday! And what better way to celebrate than with the biggest Neil Diamond fan I've ever met, Todd Hawkins? 

Todd and I are good friends, and I believe this is the 5th song we've written together. When we met up and he mentioned it was Neil Diamond's birthday, I knew we had to do something in his spirit. That was perfect after yesterday's song; I needed a break from being super serious. Todd felt that Neil Diamond's greatness was in writing simple and catchy pop songs, so that's what we set out to write. 

Neil Diamond has a pretty distinctive guitar style, and we ran through a couple different riffs, then set off to write something in the vein of "Cherry Cherry". Just made it a simple story about a student excited after a date with a co-ed at a soda shop. 

We wrote and recorded this sucker in a little under 2 hours. It's light and breezy, but it was exactly the kind of song I needed today.