Side A
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Give It Away
snippet of The Trammps' "Disco Inferno"
BLACKstreet-No Diggity
Red Hot Chili Peppers-Love Rollercoaster
Spice Girls-2 Become 1
snippet of Blues Traveler's "Hook"
Warren G-What's Love Got To Do With It?
slight snippet of OMC's "How Bizarre"
Boyzone-Words
En Vogue-Don't Let Go (Love)
Everclear-Santa Monica
New Edition-I'm Still In Love
Side B
New Edition-I'm Still In Love With You (continued)
snippet of Smashing Pumpkins' "Zero"
Joan Osbourne-One Of Us
Bush-Swallowed
Merril Bainbridge-Mouth
Spice Girls-Say You'll Be There
Jamiroquai-Virtual Insanity
snippet of 4 Non Blondes' "What's Up?"
Gloria Gaynor-I Will Survive
Smashing Pumpkins-Eye
snippet of Soundgarden's "Blow Up The Outside World"
snippet of Pearl Jam's "Black"
I actually have two of these tapes, which I both received from my brother who had used them back when he was a teenager in the 80s. This was another step towards going into the world of cassettes that were strictly for recording. These two tapes were a blessing for a kid with hardly any allowance and no job. The only way you can tell the difference between the two is that I replaced the pressure pad on this one with a piece of cardboard, which you can spot if you look closely at the second picture above. It wasn't the only time I had to play MacGyver with my tape collection, but I certainly can't remember having have to do that with this one. It was slightly puzzling to see that little piece of cardboard there when I dug this one up.
I associate this mixtape more with the World Chart Show than any of the other ones. Half of the songs on here came directly from that show. As I mentioned in a previous entry, The World Chart Show was how I discovered artists like Jamiroquai and the Spice Girls months before the American audience. While I adored "Wannabe" something fierce, "Say You'll Be There" was where I truly fell in love with them. "2 Become 1" also has an appearance on here and the fact that there are two songs from them on here shows just how excited I was about them at the time. I still feel that "Say You'll Be There" is an easy song to fall in love with.
Between "Say You'll Be There" and "Virtual Insanity," I probably played those two tracks more than anything on this mixtape. It was very fresh at the time to hear someone evoke Stevie Wonder and in such a funky way. Usually the images that I have in my head never measure up when I finally see the video, but the clip from "Virtual Insanity" was more imaginative than I expected and it played a big part in the song's success in the States. I recorded over a few songs during the lifespan of this tape (condolences to "How Bizarre" and "Blow Up The Outside World"), but this song earned untouchable status. I actually recorded over another song just to have it.
One of my other favorite discoveries from The World Chart Show was "Mouth" by Merril Bainbridge, which was actually a minor hit in America during fall. It's one of the less heralded one-hit wonders of the decade and an unabashedly sweet song. Adopting a hip hop beat was the thing to do in pop songs around this time.
I spent a lot of time with this mixtape not only because of the exclusive imported songs, but it also includes some of my favorite tunes ever, such as "Give It Away," "Zero," and the first two songs I posted. The inclusion of En Vogue's "Don't Let Go (Love)" made it that more of an epic listening experience at the time. I still hold it in high regard as I feel it's one of the best songs to come out of the 90s, regardless of genre.
Along with the Chili Peppers and the Spice Girls, Smashing Pumpkins also made it on here twice. While I'm sure mostly everyone has heard "Zero," "Eye" was not one of their most popular songs, but it is still beloved. It goes without saying that I was a Pumpkins mark at this time and they were another band who I felt could do no wrong.
I honestly don't have anything special to add about "Santa Monica" by Everclear except that it took me by surprise how well it held up. When's the last time you listened to it?
With this tape, there was a noticeable improvement as far capturing songs. If there were any traces of a DJ's voice or the next song on the radio, they were very brief. I'm assuming that after repeatedly hearing the sloppiness of the previous mixtapes, I finally keyed in on how to make a more pleasurable listening experience.
Despite that accomplishment, there were still some gaffes to be found. I know that my intention was to get as much of New Edition's "I'm Still In Love With You" as I possibly could, but it just seems amateurish now to continue a song on the next side. The song snippets at this point can be forgiven because of my lack of funds, but all it does is make me want to listen to the entire song. Although, the fractured songs probably hurt more on this one because I really do wish I had all of "What's Up?" and "How Bizarre" since I rarely hear them nowadays. There was also an unbelievable amount of static while I was recording "One Of Us" to the point where I wanted to fast forward revisiting it. I tried to adjust the antenna and the dial in hopes of a clearer sound, but it was hopeless, with even a few seconds of another station interrupting the middle of the song. Overall, this is probably one of my favorite early mixtapes to listen because there are few songs I'd replace and the improved quality makes it easier to replay.
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