I was just reading a forthcoming book of essays by novelist Michael Chabon, and was particularly taken with one particular piece, on the oldies-radio format. Chabon was trying to understand why he was upset that a favorite local radio station of his had abandoned that format: “It’s hard to see why I should have found that format switch so disturbing. . . . What difference does it make if there’s nowhere on the FM dial to hear Herman’s Hermits sing ‘I’m Into Something Good’?” Chabon inspired me; I hadn’t listened to oldies radio in a long time, so, on an impulse, I went to the website of our local oldies station, WCBS, and tuned in. The song playing at that exact moment was . . . “I’m Into Something Good” by Herman’s Hermits.

I went to college in the early ’80s, a period when the central cultural story was the self-conscious rebellion against the supposedly stifling Western Canon. (You remember: “Hey hey, ho ho, Western Civ has got to go.”) But I think I just got memorable evidence that the formation of canons is absolutely hardwired into human DNA.