LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:
It's time now for John Klinkle of Sierra Vista, Ariz., to share how he stumbled onto his signature song, a song so important it's almost become part of his identity.
JOHN KLINKLE: In 2007, when I was deployed in Germany, I was driving from one meeting to another, and neither meeting was going to be very good.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: At the time, he was tuned into an Armed Forces Network broadcast.
KLINKLE: I wasn't really paying a whole lot of attention until I heard the opening xylophone notes...
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ARE YOU FEELIN' IT?")
TEDDYBEARS: (Singing) OK.
KLINKLE: And I thought wow, that's a really good song. I like that.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Those xylophone tones sent the army officer way back to a much more innocent time.
KLINKLE: I remember that. That's from day care. And that was a signal it's time to wake up or it's time to be quiet, always in a gentle, alerting kind of promise of fun. And that stuck with me.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ARE YOU FEELIN' IT?")
TEDDYBEARS: (Singing) Come on babies. Ay! Party going on throw your hands up. Throw your hands up. Throw your hands up. If you like the party, guys, throw your hands up. Throw your hands up. Throw your hands up. Ay!
KLINKLE: And I remember it had a very weird name to it, not what I was expecting. But the one thing that stuck in my mind was Teddybears.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Klinkle couldn't remember the actual name of the song, so all he could do was just hope to hear it on the radio.
But years later with the help of his first iPhone and an app that told him the song's title, he found it. The song was "Are You Feelin' It?" by, yes, the Teddybears. And Klinkle couldn't stop listening.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ARE YOU FEELIN' IT?")
TEDDYBEARS: (Singing, unintelligible).
GARCIA-NAVARRO: Before he found the Teddybears, Klinkle was a fan of metal, what he calls angry music. He says "Are You Feelin' It?" put him in a better frame of mind, especially when he was deployed to Afghanistan. Driving around Kabul, his team would take turns playing their favorite songs.
KLINKLE: It kind of surprised the other people on my team. They said, wow, we didn't know you like music like that. We thought you were, you know, just kind of coldhearted and focused on the work, but you actually seem to have, you know, something positive and bright in your life, you know, so that's really neat. So it was a good opportunity for me to expose a much more personable side of my personality. But I was glad I finally did that.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ARE YOU FEELIN' IT?")
TEDDYBEARS: (Singing, unintelligible) Yo, cool, you know.
KLINKLE: This song, "Are You Feelin' It?" is still one that more than any other, particularly when I wake up to it because sometimes I'll even set my alarm to play it, it always puts me in a good mood. And there are times, especially now that my older son is becoming a teenager, when I need that little extra bit of pep to both calm me down, center me and put me in a good frame of mind for whatever is going to come during the day. And I would say it's been a touchstone that I've used to find inner - I know it's cheesy as it sounds - inner peace and a calm way to look beyond the things that are troubling me right now to a, hopefully, much more positive experience in the future.
GARCIA-NAVARRO: That was John Klinkle of Sierra Vista, Ariz. His signature song is "Are You Feelin' It?" by the Teddybears.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "ARE YOU FEELIN' IT?")
TEDDYBEARS: (Singing) Party going on throw your hands up. Throw your hands up. Throw your hands up. If you like to party... Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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