Alden Bates' Weblog
Feigning normality since 1973
The first album I ever owned
Filed in: Music.
![[The Hottest Summer on Cassette!]](/g/hottest.gif)
So, back in the mid 80s when I was a young lad, and I realise I'm dating myself here1, my parents gave me a tape deck for Christmas, and an aunt gave me a compilation tape called "The Hottest Summer On Cassette"2. I played it many many times, which probably goes some way toward explaining why I like 80s music so much3.
Surprisingly it has no copyright date on it4, but I would guess by the songs on it that it came out around '86 or '87. I've never seen a CD version, so I guess CBS Records Limited never released one.
Since I'm wallowing in nostalgia at the moment, here's the track listings:
Side 1
- Dr & the Medics, Spirit in the Sky
- Wa Wa Nee5, Stimulation
- Spandau Ballet, Fight for Ourselves
- Pet Shop Boys, Suburbia
- Belinda Carlisle, Mad About You
- Berlin, Take my Breath Away
- Grace Jones, I'm Not Perfect
- Miami Sound Machine, Words Get in the Way
Side 2
- Kenny Loggins, Danger Zone
- Duran Duran, Notorious
- Owen Paul6, My Favourite Waste of Time
- Billy Joel, A Matter of Trust
- Cyndi Lauper, True Colors
- Don Johnson, Heartbeat
- Glass Tiger, Don't Forget Me
- Queen, A Kind of Magic
So when anyone asks what warped my mind, I can truthfully reply "The 80s"!
Posted October 28, 2006 11:07 AM
Comments
... That was me, by the way. I keep forgetting to remember to say who I am. Must get myself a proper blog one of these days...
Posted by: southerndave | October 28, 2006 1:19 PM
Hey, I think my parents had that "album" too... certainly I can remember hearing some of those songs very often, and those two tracks were at the beginning of each side...
(My first album was, I think, Kylie...)
Posted by: Thad | October 30, 2006 9:38 AM
Not a bad mix! I'm the same age as you. My first albums were (on cassette) Hall & Oates (with Maneater), Survivor (with Eye of the Tiger), and the ubiquitous Michael Jackson's Thriller. :)
My first real *vinyl* album was the Muppets version of Saturday Night Fever. ;)
Posted by: Kat | December 2, 2006 4:56 PM
I'd guess it was a production for summer 1985-1986 going by the songs on it. "A Kind of Magic" was definitely 1985 - that year TVNZ got in long dispute with record companies about video royalties with the result that Ready to Roll went completely off the air for... months, it felt like at the time... and Radio with Pictures survived on a diet of staunchly independent stuff. (I remember one abortive attempt at a prime-time music show without big company videos... possibly the first and only time the Tall Dwarfs' "All My Hollowness To You" has played on a "mainstream" music show.) Anyway back to "A Kind of Magic". Because the song was getting a massive promotional push at the time (I remember it prominently featuring in the original Highlander movie, as well), in order to get around the music video stoush and actually get their song promoted on TV, the record company eventually had to pay for three or four minutes of advertising time to play the video...
And you're showing your youth more than showing your age. Back in `85 I had a regular payday routine of going into the EMI shop (as it was called then) and buying whatever was the most interesting LP (never did like cassette tapes) they had actually on sale. Most of them I'd probably think of as forgettable dreck if I ever got around to getting a record player that goes, but there are probably a few gems among them...
Posted by: southerndave | October 28, 2006 1:16 PM