"Theme from A Summer Place" (Percy Faith)

When I was maybe 3 or 4 years old, our local TV station would play old movies on Saturday afternoons.  The tune it used for the opening titles of its so-called Saturday Matinee was arranger/conductor Percy Faith's rendition of "Theme from A Summer Place."
To most people, the song evokes mental images of waves crashing on a beach and white sails against crystalline water, which is completely understandable.  But, for me, the tune is associated with weekends, when my dad wasn't having to run to work and my mom had time to tinker in the kitchen.  Hearing even the first few notes brings to mind Dad lounging on the sofa, religiously flipping through his monthly copy of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers' Journal and only half paying attention to the plight of Sandra Dee or Tippi Hedren or whatever former starlet was on the T.V. screen, while the smell of warm cinnamon or chocolate wafted in from the next room.
Thing is, even though it appears in the 1959 film A Summer Place, the song is not actually the title theme.  Composer Max Steiner, who also created memorable scores for the films Casablanca and Gone with the Wind, wrote the song for a brief scene between the film's two teenage protagonists to evoke the feel of young love (which explains why it was originally known as "Molly and Johnny Theme").  It came to be known as the "Theme from A Summer Place" when the Toronto-born Faith re-recorded it and turned it into one of the biggest songs of 1960.
Sure, it's a little cheesy.  But there's also something irresistible about Faith's recording—the lush, layered strings set against the reverb-heavy drums, playing a triplet pattern that's culled from 50s rock.  It's both of its time yet timeless.  And it's perfectly crafted to evoke nostalgia, be it summer crushes or lazy Saturday afternoons.