Mother's Day Reflections from the KLH Audio Team

Music is a form of inheritance. It passes between people the way old recipes do, or a peculiar laugh that echoes down a bloodline. Strangely enough, our tastes are sometimes shaped by people we have never met. A weird genetic osmosis. How it happens, we cannot say for certain. Perhaps a melody absorbed from the back seat of a car, or a record played every Sunday morning, or a song that momentarily resurrects something long since gone. In time, it becomes ours. And in some subtle, poetic way, it shapes who comes after us.

This Mother's Day, to celebrate the ritual of music passing down generations, we asked the KLH Audio team to share the music that reminds them of their mothers and mother figures—and on the flipside, we asked KLH Audio moms what music reminded them of their kids. What we received in response were beautiful stories transcending decades and genres, each one different, all of them with similar sentiments at their core. Music doesn't just mark a moment in time; it preserves it. It tethers us to the people who made us who we are.

"She'd smash the replay button and run it back."

Andrew, our Director of Music & Content, lost his mother in 2025 after a battle with Alzheimer's. What he carries with him is a very specific memory: the front seat of a Plymouth Voyager, a CD burning before most people knew what a CD-R was and the unmistakable voice of Michael McDonald drifting through the speakers.

“My mom passed away in 2025 after a long battle with Alzheimer's and its knockdown effects. It was devastating, and sad, and ultimately a poignant event: It brought my dad, my sister, and I (and our own families) closer together, as we all bonded over the grief we felt for a woman who literally made us.

My mom was famous amongst my cousins who rode with my dad and her--she never had a license, always a co-pilot--for being a maker of mix CDs before most people were doing that: My folks bought an expensive CD burner before anyone I knew even knew about CD-Rs. Those mixes ran the typical '90s mom-rock canon—Taylor Dayne, Simply Red, Eric Clapton's ‘Cocaine,’ Lyle Lovett—but their one constant was the ever-present Michael McDonald, and more specifically, his Doobie Brothers era, who my mom was proud to say she saw on their first farewell tour in the early '80s. No matter the CD theme–Christmas, road trip, Michigan cabin vacation, Toronto Finn Fest vacation, work commute mix–he was there, like a fifth member of the family.

Whenever I hear the song, I think of my mom, finger dancing in the front seat of the Plymouth Voyager, saying ‘They don't make songs like this anymore.’ And if she was really feeling it, smashing the replay button on the CD Walkman and running it back.”

He misses her every day—and more, he says, every time he hears the Doobies.

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"It's one of my last memories of us spending time together."

For Jamie, our VP of Marketing, the song is "Zombie" by The Cranberries, and the memory is precise: 1995, SNL, sitting in the dark with her mom, both of them pulled in by Dolores O'Riordan's voice. "It's one of my last memories of us spending time together, just simply sitting in silence, in the dark, both gripped by the performance."

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"It felt like permission to graduate into a new level of music."

Allie, our Sr. Manager of Channel Marketing, still lights up thinking about morning drives to school with her mom. The soundtrack? Madonna's American Life, blasting from the car speakers when Allie was around eleven.

"My mom is the coolest. I used to look forward to our drives to school each day because she always played the most fun music... it felt like permission to graduate into a new level of music."

(For the record, Allie adds: "Did you see her appearance at Coachella? FIRE. Forever the queen.")

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"They don't make songs like this anymore."

Amy, our Marketing Director of Customer Experience, goes back even further—to a 45 of "Runaround Sue" by Dion playing on a full-size furniture console, her mom and her brother all dancing around the living room together.

"When the backup singers did the 'aaawwwwww' part, we'd crouch down to the floor and spring up into the air. To this day I have to fight the urge to crouch when I hear this song."

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“Phil Collins- In the Air tonight, Cyndi Lauper - Girls just wanna have fun, Meatloaf- Bat out of Hell.”

Nick, our Financial Analyst for Receivables said, “She has those cassettes in her car growing up and that was the type of music she listened to. I tried not to like it because nobody thinks that their mother is cool, but the music is too good to pretend that it isn't.”

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“Growing up my mom had a Fleetwood Mac Greatest Hits CD in her car.”

Lydia, our SAP Support Manager said, “...whenever she would drive me around to soccer practice or tournaments, we would always listen to that CD together. She also had a CD from our local indie station (SO to 88.9 Radio Milwaukee!) that included early hits from the Head and the Heart, Delta Spirit, and Amos Lee - and it definitely influenced me to be the big indie folk fan I am today!”

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“Two artists that stand out specifically are Cher and Karen Carpenter.”

Santina, our Product Content and Marketing Specialist said, “My mom loved both of them so much and played their music (among so many more) so often when I was young and the memories of singing and jamming together whether in the car or the house are memories that mean a lot to me!”

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“Elvis' Christmas Album”

Mark, our General Manager, said, “For the entire Christmas season, for as long as I can remember, my mom would sing alongside Elvis as they'd belt the classics in unison. My mom passed away in 2021, but the tradition lives on and the album hits my Victrola Stream Sapphire every season and every Christmas morning while we open presents.”

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“1960’s Music”

Stacy, our AR/AP Analyst and Office Admin, said: “My mom had a "Now That's What I Call Music 60s" CD pack and I can remember playing those CDs over and over again and singing our hearts out. Everything from ‘Little Runaway’ by Del Shannon and ‘My Boyfriend's Back’ by The Angels to ‘Good Vibrations’ by The Beach Boys and ‘I Can't Help Myself’ by Four Tops. I was an oldies fan way before I was into boy bands or anything more ‘my age.’ And every time I hear those songs, I still go back to that time and think of her.”

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“The Guess Who, Matchbox Twenty, Elton John and Backstreet Boys” - Nicole, Head of partnerships, collaborations and activations

“Frank Sinatra - It was background music when my parents had parties when I was a kid.” - Andrew, Head of Omni Channel Sales

“We used to play a lot of Queen and Tom Petty on the two week car camping trips we took every summer.” - Jordan, Shipping Lead

“Carole King and James Taylor - Their albums were always on repeat throughout my childhood.” - Noah, Sr. Amazon Operations Specialist

“My mom loves Reba. From an early age, I remember hearing her music playing with my mom singing along - usually as we got ready or cleaned the house. Soundtrack to my childhood!” - Kayla, HR Director

“My mom LOVED Prince! One Mother's Day I was visiting my mom, and she sent me home with my first record player and a handful of Prince albums!” - Lydia, Financial Planning and Analysis

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On the Flipside, KLH Audio Mothers Share the Music that Reminds them of Their Children

We asked the mothers on the KLH team a different question: what music makes you think of your kids? The answers were just as emotionally telling.

Jamie's list is a playlist unto itself: Baba O'Riley, Barbie World, You Wreck Me, Ruby Soho. "My kids live in a thousand songs," she says. "Every song holds a memory, and I get to keep them all."

Amy traces her son's whole arc through Coldplay — from lullabies during his first year of life to a full-circle moment at the Coldplay concert just last year. "Especially Parachutes," she says.

Allie, a new mom, confesses that despite her best efforts to introduce her son to a serious music education early, Imogen Heap's Happy Song may end up as her most-streamed of the year. But she has succeeded on one front: a sleep playlist that reliably knocks him out, anchored by Until We Meet Again by Hermanos Gutiérrez.

And Alison, our Sr. Manager of International Sales & Operations, admits she's deep in the Disney era with her soon-to-be two-year-old—but the one song that gets her every time is Taylor Swift's Never Grow Up. "I play this for her all the time," she says, "and it really tugs at all the emotions of having a young child."

To every mom who ever pressed play, thank you. You gave us more than you know.

Happy Mother's Day from KLH Audio.