From ‘Endless Love’ to ‘I Shot the Sheriff’: Area couples share the soundtracks of their lives

It’s the classic love story.

She was the girl next door. He was 18, she 16, and they were ready to commit for life.

Though both their parents approved of the relationship, few expected this young romance to last for very long. What youthful love ever does?

Shows what the grownups know — Daniel and Angela Tanguay of Lewiston have been married 32 years now and even the biggest of their doubters have come around.

And while Mr. And Mrs. Tanguay continue to celebrate their long and enduring love, one song in particular has come to represent their against-the-odds romance.

“Many said we would never make it,” says Daniel. “Now we sit here on the verge of old age, laughing and singing “In Spite of Ourselves.”

When it comes to couples songs, this one is as fitting as they come.

Described by Daniel as “crude but cute, just like us,” the song was written by John Prine, who sang the duet with many big names, mostly notably the singer Iris DeMent.

The song describes the kind of stubbornness and unyielding perseverance required to make a relationship work over time.

“In spite of ourselves

We’ll end up a-sittin’ on a rainbow

Against all odds

Honey, we’re the big door prize.”

Daniel Tanguay says that he’s always loved music and when he came across Prine’s song, it felt like a perfect fit.

“That just hit as a ‘Wow!'” he says. “This is me an Ang.”

With more than three decades behind them, it’s safe to say that “In Spite of Ourselves” is their song.

GETTING ‘MISTY’: LARRY AND CHRIS LaCHANCE

It seems like every couple — from youngsters whose relationships involve littler more than making out behind the bleachers to geriatrics dancing to the oldies in their living rooms — have a song.

Sometimes that couple will set out specifically to find a song that suits them just right. More often, it seems, the song finds the couple.

Larry LaChance, a nervous kind of fellow back in his dating days, found his one true love while dancing way back in the 1960s. Once things got serious, it didn’t take any time at all for the young couple to decide what would be their song.

“We used to go to the Heathwood in Lisbon,” Larry explains. “They had a live band there during our dating years. They had played ‘Misty’ and we danced to it and we just loved the song. There are a lot of good words in it.”

You can say that again, Larry. The Johnny Mathis version of “Misty” was quite popular as a couples song back in that era. You can understand why. The song lyrics express the giddy, intoxicating feeling of new love. For someone like Larry LaChance, it also expressed the feeling of trepidation that comes with a new romance.

“Look at me: I’m as helpless as a kitten up a tree

And I feel like I’m clinging to a cloud

I can’t understand,

I get misty just holding your hand.”

For the LaChances, of Lewiston, married in 1966, the search for a couples song was brief and ended with Johnny Mathis.

“My wife was my first real love and the song made an impression because I was always a nervous type of guy,” Larry says. “That’s why this song reminds us of me being dizzy; of being misty. It’s a very appropriate song for us, let’s put it that way.”

MORE ‘MISTY’: PAULINE AND ROGER DUPRE

You know who else appreciates Johnny Mathis?

Pauline and Roger Dupre of Lewiston, that’s who.

Following their honeymoon back in 1963, Pauline’s in-laws took the newlyweds to a swank restaurant somewhere in Connecticut.

“It was a beautiful restaurant that had a really great band,” Pauline recalls. “My brother-in-law went up and asked them to play a song for us. They played ‘Misty.'” And so now every time we hear it, we smile. We know all the words.”

The Dupres will celebrate 61 years of marriage in May. Clearly Johnny Mathis’ hit song from 1959 has served a lot of couples very well.

John and Bobbi Frechette’s wedding day in May of 2002. Submitted photo

A SIMPLE KIND OF MAN: JOHN AND BOBBIE FRECHETTE

John Frechette came about his couples song in a more round-about way.

The fact that he was getting married to a wonderful woman, the former Bobbi Stevens, meant a lot to John’s mother. It also seemed to fulfill a prophecy foretold by the band Lynyrd Skynyrd in their song “Simple Man.”

“Troubles will come and they will pass,” a mother tells her song in the classic song. “You’ll find a woman and you’ll find love. And don’t forget, son, there is someone up above.”

John danced with his mother to that song on his wedding day and it felt just right.

“I waved Bobbi over and all three of us hugged to end the song,” he says. “I found a woman. I found love. My mother knew I had done good.”

John and Bobbi Frechette, of Auburn, were married in May of 2002.

GOD SPEED THEIR LOVE: BRENDA AND ROBERT FONTAINE

Brenda and Robert Fontaine of Lewiston eventually settled on The Righteous Brothers’ “Unchained Melody” as their song, but it took them a long time to get there. Twenty years, in fact.

“Our wedding song was the theme song in ‘Love Story,'” Brenda says. “I liked it but it wasn’t our song.”

That was 52 years ago, by the way. Brenda doesn’t explain how they settled on the classic love song, but for inspiring longevity, The Righteous Brothers are a good choice.

ALL IN ‘VOGUES’: JOHN AND LINDY WOOD

Why settle for one couples song when you can have a collection?

“Lindy and I used to ride around in my 1972 Chevrolet pickup,” John says. “I had an 8-track player and our favorite songs were anything by The Vogues.

They particularly liked the songs “My Special Angel,” “Turn Around, Look At Me,” “Five O’clock World,” and “See That Girl.”

The couple, who live in Turner, were married Oct. 11, 1975.

FOREVER LIKE THAT: CASEY AND JONATHAN LEBRUN

Casey Lebrun, formerly of Sumner, and her husband, Jonathan, have a couples song that seems to fit them perfectly.

In “Forever Like That,” Ben Rector sings of a love that is patient.

“Well, I wanna love you forever, I do

I wanna spend all of my days with you

I’ll carry your burden and be the wind at your back

I wanna spend my forever

Forever like that.”

Perfectly appropriate for two people who had to wait a while to find their way back together.

“We knew each other as kids,” Casey explains. “His mom babysat me. Then after marriages, kids, we met again and have been together four years.”

When they got married, Casey walked to the Ben Rictor song that fits them so well.

OLD-FASHION LOVE SONG: LISE AND JEFF LOTHROP

Lise LaFontaine Lothrop, of Auburn, and her husband, Jeff, went with the Three Dog Night ’70s classic “An Old Fashioned Love Song.”

What’s fitting about this is that Three Dog Night themselves seem to be singing about couples songs.

“Just an old fashioned love song

One I’m sure they wrote for you and me…”

The song has served the Lothrops well. They’ll be celebrating 46 years this coming June.

Dale and Barbara Stevens of Bethel. Submitted photo

DALE AND BARBARA STEVENS OF BETHEL

“This may seem like an odd choice for a couple who have been happily married for 55 years, but our favorite dance tune is “The Last Cheater’s Waltz,” writes Dale Stevens of Bethel. “It is a beautiful three-quarter-time song that is just nice to dance to.

“I am sending along a picture of us so that you can give us lots of room should you see us out on the dance floor somewhere.”

IT’S NOT LOVE WITHOUT JOHN DENVER: TERRY AND BETH KARKOS

Terry Karkos and his wife, Beth, were married in an Irish pub in Worcester, Mass., and yet somehow the John Denver tune “Perhaps Love” became their song.

Don’t worry, there’s a reason for that.

“We met on a John Denver chat line,” says Terry Karkos, formally of Oxford County. “Met on Valentine’s Day 1999, married April 17, 1999, will be 25 years married this year. Soulmates.”

YOU FILL UP MY SENSES: SALLY AND RON THERIAULT

John Denver also fit the bill for Sally Townsend Theriault and her husband, Ron, of Rumford, who consider “Annie’s Song” theirs.

You can kind of see why. Denver’s classic is one of those romantic songs that seem to fit all kinds of romantic occasions.

“You fill up my senses

Like a night in a forest

Like the mountains in springtime

Like a walk in the rain.”

“It was sung at our wedding,” says Sally, “almost 4 years ago now.”

EVEN THOUGH WE AIN’T GOT MONEY

Sometimes it’s not the content of the song for a couple so much as the association of it.

Steve Triggs of North Windham met the woman who would be his wife at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, back in 1973.

At that point, Kenny Loggins’ tune “Danny’s Song,” from the album “Sittin’ In,” by Loggins and Jim Messina, was still pretty fresh. It was the kind of song that’s hard not to sing along with.

“And even though we ain’t got money

I’m so in love with you, honey

And everything will bring a chain of love, oh, oh, oh

In the mornin’, when I rise

You bring a tear of joy to my eyes

And tell me everything is gonna be alright.”

According to Triggs, the song became a kind of soundtrack for his young love.

“Wore out the ‘Sitting In’ 8-track in my lime green 1971 Datsun 1200 as I drove my future wife from college in Hartford to Florida for spring break,” he recalls. “Fifty-one years later, we’re still going strong. Saw Jim Messina at Vinegar Hill in November, and it all came flooding back. OK, I’m a sentimental old fool.”

Triggs and his wife will celebrate 47 years in May.

AT LAST, MY LOVE HAS COME ALONG

Rachel Rodrigue Nadeau and her husband, of Lewiston, went with “At Last,” by Etta James, and for good reason.

“At last, my love has come along,” Jones sings. “My lonely days are over, and life is like a song…”

“(It’s) the song my husband and I danced to at our wedding,” Nadeau explains, “because we met in first grade, but didn’t start dating until after our 20th class reunion.”

The couple celebrated their 13th anniversary on Oct. 2.

I SWEAR IT WAS IN SELF-DEFENSE

Some couples songs are sentimental, others are purely incidental.

“My husband and I never had a song until our wedding day,” writes Jessica Irish of Auburn. “While saying our vows, Eric Clapton’s ‘I Shot the Sheriff’ came on the radio. This was 10 years ago.”

Hey, as couples songs go, you can’t go wrong with Eric Clapton, even if Clapton is singing about a sordid crime rather than romance.

I mean, it’s Eric Clapton singing a song written by Bob Marley!

LOVE IS IN THE AIR: MARK AND COREY LaFLAMME, LEWISTON

“In 2002, I was a young reporter eagerly pursuing a pretty co-worker at the paper. Every chance I got, I’d take a break from the news and strike up a conversation with the lass. One afternoon, for reasons I don’t recall, we got on the topic of music and how it was so easily available to download these days through services like Napster.

“‘I keep a running list of songs I want to nab,’ I told the object of my heart’s desire. “Why, look! I have a scrap of paper in my pocket as we speak with a song title I’m after.”

“It was true. I plucked out that scrap of paper to show my lady and what was scribbled upon it was ‘Love is in The Air,’ the title of that jaunty little tune from the late 1970s.

“Talk about prophecy. That prosaic newsroom conversation morphed into more in-depth discourse between the young news clerk and I to the point where we were chatting deep into the night about a whole range of things. Love, as John Paul Young had told us back in 1978, really was in the air.

“About a year after that momentous newsroom encounter, Corey Dina and I were married, and forevermore we’d think of “Love is in the Air” as our song.

“You know. Whatever THAT means.”

CRAZY FOR LOVING YOU

And speaking of couples songs that seem inappropriate but which somehow work. Pam Carrier’s couples song is the classic “Crazy” by Patsy Cline.

“My husband and I, second marriage for both, considered ourselves a little crazy,” Webber, of Lisbon, writes. “Plus it was a great song to dance to.”

THANK YOU . . . FOR TAKING ME HOME TONIGHT

Like some couples, Sandy Mathieu Paine of Lewiston isn’t going to settle for just one song to celebrate her love.

“‘Let Me Take You Home Tonight,’ by Boston, while we were dating,” she writes, “and ‘Thank You’ by Led Zeppelin for our wedding song.”

FOREVER AND FOR ALWAYS

“When my wife and I were dating, ‘Secret of Life’ by James Taylor became ‘our song,'” writes “Still in Love” in Auburn. “I know, nothing over-the-top romantic on first hearing it, but the “opening up your heart” was what both of us were doing, so it worked.

“Then, we got to the wedding day and the DJ is playing the song for our first dance and no one was taking to the dance floor after the first verse, like we intended. Well, except for one of the invited kids, who was really enjoying dancing to it by himself. So we went over to the DJ and that’s how ‘Forever And For Always’ by Shania Twain became ‘our song.'”

IT WAS GOOD WHILE IT LASTED?

Some people not only have couples songs to embrace the beginning of a beautiful relationship, they also have one to mark the end of that relationship.

“‘Angel Eyes’ (by the Jeff Healey Band) when we first got together,” writes Jessie Laughton of Litchfield. “That turned into the Shaggy song ‘Wasn’t Me’ when we divorced.”

Jessie didn’t offer any more to the story when she responded to the Sun Journal’s query, so we don’t know anything about what led to the divorce, but a quick look at Shaggy’s lyrics paints a grim scene.

“Honey came in and she caught me red-handed,” Shaggy croons, “creeping with the girl next door . . .”

HOW ABOUT SOME BONUS TRACKS?

Lots of people weighed in on our query by listing their own couples song without explanation. That’s perfectly OK, too. The more songs the better. Below are some bonus couples songs for young fry to consider as they make their way out into the world of romance.

Jon and Diane Groleau-Lizotte of Lewiston

“‘You Are the Love of My Life’ by Sammy Kershaw, our wedding song.”

Melanie Stinson Newton-Burgess of Sabattus

“Keep on Loving You” by REO Speedwagon

Sheila Marie (no town listed)

“Doin’ Things Right” by Billy Strings.

Liza M. Gray of Canton

“Good Directions” by Billy Currington

Serae Hemond of Minot

“Endless Love,” by Lionel Richie and Diana Ross

Lynn Carmichael of Lewiston

“‘My best friend,’ by Tim McGraw, as it was our wedding song.”