mfw

This is another one of my three letter mixtape picks. I started with one track and then just picked around that one, branching as I saw fit. My starting track was the Paula Yates one. I wish she had recorded more stuff as I like this cover. Considering who she hung out with/married you would think there would be more recordings of her. Unfortunately not and since she's dead there is little chance of that ever happening. Some of the other tracks are similar. Cristina has a few tracks that remind me of her. Anyway, that Nancy Sinatra cover started this journey. One other that I really like is The Fall. I like all the stuff they did, but especially the Brix Smith era. I probably should have included a track of Brix solo, but I didn't. The 12 inch version of her and the Fall was good enough, I guess.

mfw

01 Gun Club - Sex Beat

02 British Electric Foundation featuring Paula Yates - These Boots Are Made For Walking

03 The Creatures - Right Now

04 Sigue Sigue Sputnik - Love Missile F1-11

05 Haysi Fantayzee - Shiny Shiny

06 Cabaret Voltaire - Sensoria (12 mix)

07 Dominatrix - The Dominatrix Sleeps Tonight

08 Wall Of Voodoo - Do It Again

09 Magazine - A Song From Under The Floorboards

10 Vicious Pink - I Confess

11 Human League - I Love You Too Much

12 Book Of Love - Boy (Extended)

13 Disko Junkie - U Spin Me (Extended Mix)

14 Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - Genetic Engineering

15 Tuxedomoon - What Use

16 The Genetic Terrorists - TGT (Anthem) (Remix)

17 Cristina - Is That All There Is (Long Version)

18 The Fall - C.R.E.E.P. (12)

April Fools 3

I have a cousin who was born on April 1. She hated it. But out of all my cousins, I always remember her birthday with no calendar needed. She was a fool for hating the date. To honor her and the date, here is part three of my April Fools connection. If you want to hear part one and two of April Fools click that. I'm pretty sure there are no doubles yet, but there are some covers. And there is a Yacht Rock song and Frank Zappa, some country, some crooners and some new wave. I like that both Elvis tracks landed right next to each other based only on BPM. What a coincidence! I have enough songs about fools to do several more years worth. I do need more joker songs, though.

April Fools 3

42 Lee Hazlewood - When A Fool Loves A Fool

43 Dean Martin - Nobody But A Fool

44 Funkadelic - Old Fool

45 Edgar Winter - Cool Fool

46 Hank Snow - (Now And Then There's) A Fool Such As I

47 Eight to the Bar - Young Man's Fool

48 Frank Sinatra - I'm A Fool To Want You

49 Chris Rea - Fool (If You Think It's Over)

50 Elvis Costello & the Attractions - You Little Fool

51 Elvis Presley - A Fool Such As I

52 Barbra Streisand with Barry Gibb - What Kind Of Fool

53 Matt Bianco - What A Fool Believes

54 Triumph - Fool for Your Love

55 Elvin Bishop - Just Your Fool

56 Carpenters - Ordinary Fool

57 The Cars - Cool Fool

58 Whitesnake - Fool For Your Loving

59 New Order - Nothing But A Fool

60 Love & Rockets - Holy Fool

61 Frank Zappa - Dancin' Fool

62 Beat Farmers - Bigger Fool Than Me

63 New York Dolls - Fool For You Baby

What's The Connection? Walking In 1

This connection is a follow up to previous Walking Connections. There are some duplicates, but this comp is different because each title has Walking In within the title. Inside this are a few versions of the Shangri-Las hit, even though the Go-Go's put the parentheses around the wrong part. Flash and the Pan does a version of another hit that I know most from Grace Jones (who is on one of the other Connections). My favorites are the Blackbyrds and probably Missing Persons. But all are pretty good.

What's The Connection? Walking In 1

01 Millie Jackson - I Feel Like Walking In The Rain

02 Leo Stephens - Walking In My Sleep Crying Over You

03 Glasgow Tiki Shakers - Walking In Space

04 Go-Go's - (Remember) Walking In The Sand

05 Flash And The Pan - Walking In The Rain

06 Jeff Monn - Walking Around In Your Disguise

07 Aerosmith - Remember (Walking In The Sand)

08 The Ronettes - Walking In The Rain

09 Ryan & Rachel O'Donnell - Walking In The Air

10 Central Line - Walking Into Sunshine

11 The Blackbyrds - Walking In Rhythm

12 Ben E. King - Walking In The Footsteps Of A Fool

13 Johnnie Ray - Just Walking In The Rain

14 David Crosby - Walking In The Mountains 2

15 Year 2000 - Walking In Dry Rain

16 Marty Dread - Walking In Kingston

17 Marc Cohn - Walking In Memphis

18 The Shangri-Las - Remember (Walking In The Sand)

19 Erasure - Walking In The Rain

20 Missing Persons - Walking In L.A.

21 Miss Kittin & The Hacker - Walking In The Sunshine

22 Love Unlimited - Walking In The Rain (With The One I Love)

What's The Connection? Jump 2

This is volume two of the Jump connection. A bit more of a certain genre as you will notice. Not much more about this connection, just listen to it. That is all there is. Except for that the cover is the same and the numbering continues.

What's The Connection? Jump 2

23 Dr. Zoot - Jump, Jive, and Shake

24 Joe Hill Louis - Joe's Jump

25 John Worthan - The Cats Were Jumpin'

26 Eight to the Bar - Do You Wanna Jump, Children

27 Cherry Poppin' Daddies - The Joint Is Jumpin'

28 Harry James & His Music Makers - Two O'Clock Jump

29 Brian Setzer Orchestra - Jump, Jive, An' Wail

30 Zulu Lightning - Hol' Up Ya Foot & Jump

31 Steve Lucky & The Rhumba Bums - Jumptown

32 George Shearing Quintet - Jumpin' with Symphony Sid

33 Piano Red - Jump Man Jump

34 Perez Prado - Jumping At The Woodside

35 Louis Jordan - Up Jumped The Devil

36 Jerry Williams - This Joint Is Jumping

37 Stan Kenton - Jump For Joe

38 The Chicago Line - Jump Back

39 Aztec Camera - Jump

40 Elvis Costello - Jump Up [Honky Tonk Demo]

41 Count Basie Orchestra - One O'Clock Jump

42 Big Bad Voodoo Daddy - Jumpin' Jack

43 Tommy Scott & His Ramblers - Jumpin' From 6 To 6

44 The Carnaby - Jump and Dance

45 Wayne Hancock - Juke Joint Jumping

46 Artie Shaw - Hop, Skip And Jump

47 Jools Holland and The Rhythm & Blues Orchestra - Jump For Joy

Devo Pick

From the very beginning I always liked Devo. Seen them in concert several times, even was a devotee. Devo has always been good luck for me. This pick is a sampling of my favorites across the years, including some movie soundtrack songs. It starts off with the song I used to start one of my radio shows and has songs from  the early days up to more devolved later stuff. I know they have tons of compilations, but this is slightly different, mostly because it's my pick of their songs. Put on your energy dome and listen.

Devo Pick

01 Devo - Timing X

02 Devo - Girl U Want

03 Devo - Speed Racer

04 Devo - (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction

05 Devo - What We Do

06 Devo - Jocko Homo

07 Devo - Knock Boots

08 Devo - Post Post-Modern Man

09 Devo - Here To Go (Go Mix Version)

10 Devo - Jerkin' Back 'N' Forth

11 Devo - Freedom Of Choice

12 Devo - Are You Experienced

13 Devo - Don't Be Cruel

14 Devo - Peek-A-Boo!

15 Devo - Mongoloid

16 Devo - Beautiful World

17 Devo - Sumthin'

18 Devo - Step Up

19 Devo - That's Good

20 Devo - Fresh

21 Devo - Through Being Cool

22 Devo - Whip It

23 Devo - Working In The Coalmine

24 Devo - Theme from Doctor Detroit

25 Devo - Supercop

26 Devo - Big Mess

Top Pick Albums 1980

Yesterday I posted the top pick of songs from the year 1980. Today it's the top albums of 1980. Now this is purely subjective. It has nothing to do with charts or plays or anything like that. I had a couple of criteria. One. I had to own the album. I had to like it, of course. And I tried not to pick an album that I had picked a song from for my top twenty of the year. I am posting the top ten albums for me. One through ten is my favorite track at the time from the album. I also picked a second track from each album for side two (these were originally cassettes - mixtapes). Somewhere near the end of the decade instead of the second track I picked songs from my favorite compilations of the year, But that doesn't happen til much later. They aren't in order of my liking them. If it was how much I listened to each album it would be hard to say, but I have to admit it was probably Billy Joel. That was on repeat when I was on a trip to Hawaii that year and kept getting played after I came back. 

Top Pick Albums 1980

01 Pretenders - Precious
02 Kate Bush - Babooshka
03 Talking Heads - Once In A Lifetime
04 Soft Boys - I Wanna Destroy You
05 Billy Joel - It's Still Rock And Roll To Me
06 XTC - Generals and Majors
07 Queen - Crazy Little Thing Called Love
08 U2 - I Will Follow
09 Devo - Whip It
10 Martha And The Muffins - Echo Beach
11 Soft Boys - I Got The Hots
12 Queen - Another One Bites The Dust
13 Talking Heads - Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)
14 XTC - Sgt. Rock (Is Going to Help Me)
15 Pretenders - Space Invader
16 Devo - Freedom Of Choice
17 Kate Bush - Breathing
18 Billy Joel - You May Be Right
19 Martha And The Muffins - Cheesies And Gum
20 U2 - Stories For Boys

Top Pick 1980

Back right around this year I started making my Top Picks at the end of each year. I had a couple of rules, which I will explain. First like every pick on this site, I could only use songs or albums that I owned. I had to like it enough to have it in my collection. I could never keep it to my top ten, so I picked Twenty. I would then make that into a mixtape (later a mix CD). I also made a top ten albums list for the year and mostly no tracks from the album list would be on the tracks list. My albums lists I will post later. They did not have to be released as a single to make it on my Top Picks. But the songs must have been released in that year. I know that some countries release songs at different times. As long as my copy of the released album or single was of that year it qualified for me. So here is my list of picks from 1980. They are not in order of how much I like them. A couple of notes: Klark Kent was on green 10" vinyl and theSplit Enz had laser etching which was a thing for a while. Also, I will be posting one of these per month for now.

Top Pick 1980

01 Klark Kent - Don't Care

02 J Geils Band - Love Stinks

03 Dead Kennedys - California Uber Alles

04 Blondie - Rapture

05 The Fall - How I Wrote 'Elastic Man'

06 Visage - Fade To Grey

07 The Clash - The Magnificent Seven

08 Black Slate - Amigo

09 The Residents - Diskomo

10 Split Enz - I Got You

11 Tuxedomoon - What Use

12 Cars - Touch And Go

13 The B-52's - Quiche Lorraine

14 The Police - Don't Stand So Close To Me

15 UB40 - Madam Medusa

16 Elvis Costello and the Attractions - I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down

17 Dexys Midnight Runners - Seven Days Too Long

18 Joy Division - Isolation

19 Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark - Electricity

20 The Cure - A Forest