Side A
Sarah McLachlan-Adia
Veruca Salt-Volcano Girls
snippet of Curtis Mayfield's "Pusherman"
Jimi Hendrix-Crosstown Traffic
Dishwalla-Counting Blue Cars
Vonda Shepard-Searchin' My Soul
Beastie Boys- (You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party)
White Zombie-More Human Than Human
Sublime-What I Got
Pras feat. Mya and Ol' Dirty Bastard-Ghetto Supastar (That Is What You Are)
Usher-My Way
Aaliyah-Are You That Somebody
Marcy Playground-Saint Joe on The School Bus
Side B
Smash Mouth-Can't Get Enough Of You Baby
Smashing Pumpkins-Perfect
Prince-When Doves Cry
Billie Myers-Kiss The Rain
Red Hot Chili Peppers-Breaking The Girl
Foo Fighters-Walking After You
Big Punisher feat. Joe-Still Not A Player
Beastie Boys-Paul Revere
Beastie Boya-Intergalactic
Nirvana-Smells Like Teen Spirit
The Urge-Jump Right In
Sheryl Crow-All I Wanna Do
My expectations for music seem to always increase whenever it comes to summer. With it being the warmest season of the year, it's deliberate on the part of execs and artists to make sure that their most accessible and sunniest records are available for mass consumption. Due to the time off I had for summer vacation, I always associate the summers of my youth with good music since I had nothing but free time to indulge. All of these factors added up to my favorite mixtape of 1998.
I remember Vol. 6 held classification as "one of the really good ones" in the early days of The Collection and it began a streak of mixtapes that I found highly favorable if I can recall correctly. I wish I could say that the solid, but underwhelming, Vol. 5 was the catalyst for that improvement, but the truth is that I often recorded volumes so soon after one another that I never put much thought into how I could make the next one better. It was all about the thrill of capturing songs from the radio at this point.
Aside from me just really liking most of these songs a lot, I think Vol. 6 was above the usual standard because it encapsulated my love of different genres and spanned from current songs to those that were a few years old to those made before I was even born. I was rarely biased in my listening habits and I think that came across stronger here than with any of the 90-minute mixtapes I had done up until this point. Add the summer to that and I was one ecstatic kid.
Before I get into Vol. 6, you might notice that "Breaking The Girl" was also on Vol. 5. Much like the case with Nine Inch Nails' "The Perfect Drug" being on both that volume and 4, I didn't record "Breaking The Girl" exactly at the beginning on Vol. 5, so when I had the opportunity to do so properly, I couldn't help myself and put it on here as well.
Song that gave me the urge to break dance the most during the summer of 1998: Beastie Boys - Intergalatic
Speaking of multiple appearances, this is probably one of the few times where I've had an artist appear on a volume of The Collection three times or more. Two songs by the same artist on one volume is not that big of an achievement considering how long some songs stayed in rotation and follow-up singles being released soon after. In the case of the Beastie Boys, their catalogue dated all the way back to 1986, so it wouldn't be unusual to come across multiple songs of theirs in a day. When you add a new album to the mix—their upcoming Hello Nasty—the odds of hearing the Beasties on Q101 increased during the summer of '98. They've always been one of my favorite groups, but I remember going absolutely nuts when I heard "Intergalactic" for the first because it was one of the hardest and most straightforward hip hop singles that they'd done in a long time. As soon as I'd heard the opening lines, "Well, now don't you tell me to smile/You stick around I'll make it worth your while," I could feel that it was going to be a more aggressive effort.
Song that instantly made you feel that a star had been born: Big Punisher feat. Joe - Still Not A Player
Even though WGCI never played the Beastie Boys unless it was "Paul Revere" during an old school set, it was a still a great time for the hip hop at the station. The entire year saw fantastic albums released from both the mainstream and underground worlds, which created a healthy competition to create the best product. One of the more enduring singles from this period was "Still Not A Player," which had a combination of verbosity and accessibility that now seems rare instead of commonplace on today's Hot 100. Aside from all of the memorable bars Pun dropped on this song, I mostly remember "Still Not A Player" for being refreshing at the time with its mixture of Latin music incorporated into hip hop.
Song that was probably the apex of my Fugee standom: Pras feat. Mya & Ol' Dirty Bastard - Ghetto Supastar
At this time, I still thought that The Fugees were one of the best things going. The Score was still one of the few albums that I owned and the singles from Wyclef Jean's The Carnival were enough to keep me satisfied until their follow-up. I think Pras was probably everyone's least favorite member of the group, but it was still exciting to hear anything coming from that camp. Despite no appearances from Wyclef (although he did produce it) or Lauryn Hill, "Ghetto Superstar" turned out to be one of my favorite songs of the year, mostly because of ODB's verses and how delicate Mya sounded crooning the hook. It also sounded different than anything that was going on at the time. I'm not too sure anyone has interpolated a Dolly Parton song into a chorus since then.
Song that became the soundtrack to any scenarios I imagined involving my crushes: Foo Fighters - Walking After You
If you've looked at some of the tracklists for my previous mixtapes, you're more than likely to spot a love song or two. I have no shame in admitting that I've always had a soft spot in my heart for songs about yearning, even to this day. One of my favorite tracks ever about an object of desire being out of reach is "Walking After You." I don't associate this song with any faces, so I may not have had a crush on anyone at the time that made me relate even more to the song, but I felt the sentiment of it all and in true pop music fashion, it transported me to a place where I did pine for someone, even if they didn't exist. This was one of those songs that I always had to rewind whenever I played this volume.
Mandatory minor hit that I have to put the highlight on for this post: The Urge - Jump Right In
One of the things I've enjoyed about doing this blog is the chance to highlight songs that were minor hits in their format and now seem completely forgotten. "Jump Right In" by The Urge takes the honor for this volume and it still sounds good to this day. Anything that was a hybrid of ska and rock at this time would at least get you a small amount of airplay and for that reason I'm grateful that this little gem was a part of my teenage years.
Song that made me proud to be a Chicagoan, which there was plenty of during the mid-'90s: Veruca Salt - Volacno Girls
On the other side of the airplay spectrum, it was pretty hard to escape "Volcano Girls" on Q101. I'm sure that with Veruca Salt hailing from Chicago that they would have been on the station's playlist regardless, but it was encouraging to know that it was also a national hit as well. I liked how it felt relentless, but the melody still felt soft underneath it all.
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