"play those oldies mister deejay"

Title: untitled ("enjoy.....classic")
Format: cassette tape (90 min)
Date: early january 2006
Packaging: several unique designs, of which this was my favorite (with the words typed on the construction paper):

enjoy

classic

[hey mr. dj...]
1. play those oldies, mr. dj - anthony and the sophomores
2. baby doll - chuck berry
[it's ray charles!]
3. ooh! my soul - little richard
4. soldier boy - the shirelles
5. soldier of love - arthur alexander
6. is it true? - brenda lee
[gladys knight + the pips with a soul full of coca-cola]
7. poor jenny - everly brothers
8. foolin' 'round - patsy cline
9. oh no not my baby - maxine brown
10. walkin' the dog - rufus thomas
[the who drink coke after coke after coke]
11. ain't that peculiar - marvin gaye
12. i'll do a little bit more - the olympics
13. look through any window - the hollies
14. love me til the sun shines - the kinks
[it's summer swingin' with the everly brothers]
15. itsy bitsy p'tit bikini - johnny halliday
16. i don' care if the sun don't shine - elvis presley
17. rain on the roof - the lovin' spoonful
[the boxtops would like to buy the pretty girls a coke]
18. baby it's cold outside - jimmy 'n' wes
19. it's cold outside - the choir
20. don't think twice - the wonder who
21. little boy blue - bobby "blue" bland
22. the fat man - fats domino
[the real thing: jerry lee lewis for coca cola]
23. movie magg - carl perkins
24. saturday night at the movies - the drifters
25. don't sleep in the subway - petula clark
26. elenore - the turtles
27. comic strip - serge gainsbourg
28. sunday morning - margo guryan
[the supremes ask: "want another, honey? another glass of coke?"]
29. south street - the orlons
30. l.s.d. - the pretty things
31. my uncle - flying burrito brothers
32. the boat that i row - lulu
33. teenage blues - barbara lynn
34. every little thing - the beatles
35. stand by me - ben e. king
36. go cry on somebody else's shoulder - f.z. and the mothers of invention (excerpt)

so this was the mix i made a year and almost a month ago, of which the mix i made yesterday is sort of the little sibling, or perhaps child. (you'll notice it inherited two of the same songs - that's allowed, in the family.) it is labelled as follows:

vol. 1
'50s/'60s vs. '05/'06
ageless pop from the soda fountain of youth
jerked by ross of love
insp. by a. a. biggs

inspired specifically by angela's '50s/'60s american/french mix which we listened to driving back from wnkn new years, and made specifically for the three ladies in the car with me. but also obv. also insp. by my childhood oldies radio days (hence "youth"), even though i only remember a handful of these tunes actually being played by WKLX (4, 11, 13, 20, 35; possibly 22 and 25.) i tried to make it seem a bit like a radio broadcast by including selections from this lp i have of coke commercials ("things go better with...") performed by everybody, often in the style or lifting the melody from one of their own hits, sometimes constituting entirely new little mini-songs in their own right. (best punning use of that record since i didn't actually intersperse it while djing the "pop/art" party in kitao.)

meanwhile, the musical selections are probably too widely ranging in both style and date for this to be an accurate portrayal of a '60s-era radio station - but i don't think it's that far off. i did overexaggerate the range of styles, to include country, "hard rock", folk-rock, blues, and even jazz, on top of all manner of soul and pop. i think my favorite thing about the mix is how
nicely that balance comes off - despite the variety, everything seems to relate and coexist naturally. i feel like it would be difficult to achieve that in an encapsulation of the pop-musical world of 2006 with a similarly wide-ranging (albeit admittedly skewed) selection. i also like (and contributing to the radio-effect, for me) the balance between fairly recognizable songs and more obscure ones.

it does stray a little farther into the late '60s than i had really wanted (there's an imprecise but distinct chronological drift to the whole thing) - the thought being that vol. 2 ('60s-'70s vs. '06/'07, presumably) could cover something like 65-76, where this one does roughly 54-66 - mostly to accomodate some recent acquisitions i was excited about.

about the other day's minimix, by the way - which i want to be perhaps the first installment in a monthly (ish?) podcast series - it draws primarily and deliberately on the vein of male vocal pop which i talked about here (pts. 5 and 6) as being underrecognized. also, i hadn't realized this when i made it, but perhaps the opening mamas and papas snippet and title reference can serve as tribute to papa denny (r.i.p.), who died last week. (if you missed it, those are from "california dreamin'", which i decided against actually including despite that absolutely rippin' flute break.)