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Melanie Wheeler could always remember hearing her parents singing, either to her and her younger brother Robbie, or to each other. Music was a big part of her memories growing up. Sometimes they were songs from the TV or radio and sometimes they were just silly made-up songs. Singing along with them to Disney musicals were some of her first memories. Of the Disney musicals, Tarzan always a favorite of her parents.
There were some songs that seemed very important to her parents. They weren’t necessarily that popular, but for Mike and El, her parents, they affected them deeply. She didn’t find out why these songs were so important until she finally heard the full story of how her parents met, and the horrible and fantastical things that happened in their teen years, right before she left to go to college.
One of the songs she remembers most was because there was a VHS recording of a karaoke performance from late 2000. After they graduated from university, Mike and El started going to a karaoke bar with the rest of the “Party”. It was one way to make sure they all saw each other at least once a week and avoid the almost inevitable drifting apart as their lives got busy with work and kids.
Mike and El both have very good singing voices and they really got into their performances, almost always singing songs as duets and sometimes coordinating their outfits. According to Uncle Dustin, the Party members were Aunt or Uncle to Melanie, Mike and El had been secretive about this performance, but he knew that they had been working on it for quite a while. Dustin had a new camcorder and brought it to the bar that night to record them. It was a very good camcorder, for the time, so the video was of great quality.
On the tape, Melanie saw her Mom and Dad going up to the podium to select the music. She was wearing a pink dress, and for some unknown reason, was wearing a blonde wig, Her Dad was wearing a dorky sweater and slacks that were probably the height of fashion in the 1980’s.
Once the music started, Strangers Like Me, from the Tarzan soundtrack, El started singing the first verse while facing Mike
Whatever you do, I'll do it too
Show me everything and tell me how
It all means something
And yet nothing to me
I can see there's so much to learn
It's all so close and yet so far
I see myself as people see me
Oh, I just know there's something bigger out there
Mike joined in a beautiful harmony as the chorus started
I wanna know, can you show me?
I wanna know about these strangers like me
Tell me more, please show me
Something's familiar about these strangers like me
As Mike sang the second verse, his eyes never left her Mom’s face.
Every gesture, every move that she makes
Makes me feel like never before
Why do I have
This growing need to be beside her?
Ooh, these emotions I never knew
Of some other world far beyond this place
Beyond the trees, above the clouds
Oh, I see before me a new horizon
Mike and El then sang the chorus again
I wanna know, can you show me?
I wanna know about these strangers like me
Tell me more, please show me
Something's familiar about these strangers like me
The bar patrons in the video, usually loud and raucous, had gone silent and all eyes were on the couple.
For the last verse, her Mom stood behind her Dad, with one of her arms around his waist, almost like riding a bicycle together. As they sang the verse together
Come with me now to see my world
Where there's beauty beyond your dreams
Can you feel the things I feel
Right now, with you?
Take my hand
There's a world I need to know
The key change up a step made the next chorus even more epic.
I wanna know, can you show me?
I wanna know about these strangers like me
Tell me more, please show me
Something's familiar about these strangers like me.
I wanna know
When the music stopped, Mike and El sang the chorus again a cappella. Once they finished, the crowd was silent for a few seconds before erupting into thunderous applause. Her Mom and Dad both looked happy, but both of their eyes were shining with tears. Melanie noticed that when members of the Party were shown, they were all clapping, but they were also crying.
Melanie watched this video hundreds of times as she was growing up, but she could never figure out why a song from an animated movie would have affected them so much, or why they wore their costumes. Once, when Dustin was at their house, she brought up the video and asked him why it was so emotional for the Party. Dustin was usually quite open and direct with Melanie, but that time he had a faraway look and then simply shrugged and said that her parents would tell her why when she was older.
The night her parents told her their full story, she gasped, “I finally know why you were wearing that dress and wig in the Strangers Like Me video!” She was so excited and immediately watched the video again. The words and music finally made sense, and tears began running down her face, just like the Party from years ago.
Not long after, Melanie got the video digitized and uploaded it to YouTube. It became a minor viral hit, mostly because her Dad was now a successful fantasy author. There were a lot of comments asking why they wore their outfits and why they, and so many audience members, were crying after the performance. There were a bunch of theories proposed, some quite crazy, mostly related to his Dad’s books.
Melanie would smile at these comments that were never even close to the unbelievable, and dare she say Stranger Things that had happened.