My First 80s' MixTape (Sort of....)
I have in my music memories this specific cassette tape from the late-80s ... it was a mixtape featuring pre-recorded songs which I'd selected, and the music shop (in Coronation Plaza, Bukit Timah Road) would find the songs and literally record them into the tape for me.
The only way to know about songs back in the mid-80s was listening to the radio. And if you are "lucky", the DJ would mentioned the name of the song, and the title of the song - which sometimes could be confusing, especially when the DJ speaks quickly, or does it "cleverly" so names are inevitably missed - and as well I'd collected music magazines then too ("Top Hits" etc), which were very often used to confirm said song titles and names of performers. Imagine a name like "Scritti Politti" being said on radio, and totally fly past my feeble teenage-brains (#truestorybro).
I remembered "struggling" with my decision then to use a "normal" cassette tape, versus a much more expensive "metal" tape, but decided to go with the cheaper option ... The cost of the mixtape would be priced a certain amount per song (20cents? 50cents? I honestly cannot remember :p), plus the price of the cassette tape itself. So literally you could afford only so much songs per mixtape...
... and the thing is, I do not remember the exact songs I'd chosen (most of them where heard on the radio then), and quite frankly I feel now I had been bamboozled into paying for a mixtape which had SOME of the songs I'd chosen, but mixed in with a whole list of OTHER SONGS I'd not ask for! Thankfully, these too opened me up to songs I'd never had a chance to hear then, so in the end, my memories of it was a WIN/WIN.
THIS blogpost features the songs that I'd remember to have chosen, mixed up with some select favs during that era, and quite frankly includes some duds I did not ask for (YOU figure out what they were in the list :p), but had remembered! In the end, this tape would be the only mixtape I had paid for someone else to record for me, when after this I (or my parents did) bought a sound system where I could dub tape to tape...!
SIDE A:
1. Sweet Dreams - Eurythmics
2. I Heard A Rumor - Bananarama
3. Somebody's Watching Me - Rockwell
4. 99 Red Balloons - NENA
5. Hungry Like A Wolf - Duran Duran
6. Everybody Wants To Rule The World - Tears for Fears
7. I Think We're Alone Now - Tiffany
8. In The Air Tonight - Phil Collins
SIDE B:
1. Wishful Thinking - China Crisis
2. Feels Like Heaven - Fiction Factory
3. Hold Me Now - The Thompson Twins
4. Life In A Northern Town - The Dream Academy
5. The Living Years - Mike and The Mechanics
6. Africa - TOTO
7. Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go - WHAM!
8. Relax - Frankie Goes To Hollywood
The only way to know about songs back in the mid-80s was listening to the radio. And if you are "lucky", the DJ would mentioned the name of the song, and the title of the song - which sometimes could be confusing, especially when the DJ speaks quickly, or does it "cleverly" so names are inevitably missed - and as well I'd collected music magazines then too ("Top Hits" etc), which were very often used to confirm said song titles and names of performers. Imagine a name like "Scritti Politti" being said on radio, and totally fly past my feeble teenage-brains (#truestorybro).
I remembered "struggling" with my decision then to use a "normal" cassette tape, versus a much more expensive "metal" tape, but decided to go with the cheaper option ... The cost of the mixtape would be priced a certain amount per song (20cents? 50cents? I honestly cannot remember :p), plus the price of the cassette tape itself. So literally you could afford only so much songs per mixtape...
... and the thing is, I do not remember the exact songs I'd chosen (most of them where heard on the radio then), and quite frankly I feel now I had been bamboozled into paying for a mixtape which had SOME of the songs I'd chosen, but mixed in with a whole list of OTHER SONGS I'd not ask for! Thankfully, these too opened me up to songs I'd never had a chance to hear then, so in the end, my memories of it was a WIN/WIN.
THIS blogpost features the songs that I'd remember to have chosen, mixed up with some select favs during that era, and quite frankly includes some duds I did not ask for (YOU figure out what they were in the list :p), but had remembered! In the end, this tape would be the only mixtape I had paid for someone else to record for me, when after this I (or my parents did) bought a sound system where I could dub tape to tape...!
SIDE A:
1. Sweet Dreams - Eurythmics
2. I Heard A Rumor - Bananarama
3. Somebody's Watching Me - Rockwell
4. 99 Red Balloons - NENA
5. Hungry Like A Wolf - Duran Duran
6. Everybody Wants To Rule The World - Tears for Fears
7. I Think We're Alone Now - Tiffany
8. In The Air Tonight - Phil Collins
SIDE B:
1. Wishful Thinking - China Crisis
2. Feels Like Heaven - Fiction Factory
3. Hold Me Now - The Thompson Twins
4. Life In A Northern Town - The Dream Academy
5. The Living Years - Mike and The Mechanics
6. Africa - TOTO
7. Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go - WHAM!
8. Relax - Frankie Goes To Hollywood
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