AILSA CHANG, HOST:
To celebrate this show's 50th birthday, listeners are telling us about favorite stories they heard on our air.
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
Eddy Parker of Raleigh, N.C., has one. It's about how a song beloved by a father and loathed by a daughter inevitably became theirs.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WEREWOLVES OF LONDON")
WARREN ZEVON: (Singing) Doin' the werewolves of London, I saw a werewolf drinkin' a pina colada...
EDDY PARKER: I was driving in the car with my daughter, and the story came on about a father and daughter who had this long-running, epic-length dad joke where they disagreed on the quality of the song "Werewolves Of London."
CHANG: Christina Pappas, the daughter from that story, endlessly needled her dad about his choice in music.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
CHRISTINA PAPPAS: I would hear it on the radio, or my dad would play it on the CD player. And I would go on these very long, elaborate rants about this song and how it's what's wrong with the world today. And, you know, if our parents are listening to songs with this kind of nonsensical lyrics, then how could we ever hope to inherit a better world from them? - very melodramatic rants.
SHAPIRO: This went on for years. All was fun and games until a big decision came for Christina Pappas - what she and her dad would dance to on her wedding day.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
PAPPAS: I was all set to dance with him to "What A Wonderful World." And I couldn't see us dancing to "What A Wonderful World." So on my wedding day, as my dad and I are standing in, you know, the center of the dance floor, kind of waiting for the song to - queued up, once that opening line - that opening kind of bass line to the song started playing, my dad froze. And he looked at me, and I just smiled and said, this is the only song we could ever dance to. And he started crying, and I started crying. And I can honestly say that's probably only the second time in my entire life I've seen my father tear up.
CHANG: And as we said, it stuck with Eddy Parker and his teenage daughter Sarah.
PARKER: I was listening to Spotify, and the radio kept cutting into "Werewolves Of London." And I saw my daughter the next day. She was going to school. And I said, the weirdest thing happened in my radio. And she goes - she just started laughing. She goes, I know. I was doing that. So she punked me a couple more times when I'd be listening to Spotify driving down the road until I finally learned that when "Werewolves Of London" played, it was time for me to call my daughter.
SHAPIRO: So Warren Zevon's "Werewolves Of London" brought together a father and daughter and created a lasting connection for another father and daughter. What a 50th birthday present for this show.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WEREWOLVES OF LONDON")
ZEVON: (Singing) I saw a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand walking through the streets of SoHo in the rain. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
