The second of the Remember Then series, which covers the period 1954 to 1963, with another Belle-Sharmeer babe from here down adorning the cover.

Track listing for 111101-2:

1. The Duprees: Have You Heard
2. Ray Charles: What’d I Say
3. Bobby Vee: Take Good Care of My Baby
4. Dion and the Belmonts: I Wonder Why
5. Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over
6. James Darren: Goodbye Cruel World
7. The Rays: Silhouettes
8. Miss Toni Fisher: The Big Hurt
9. The “5″ Royales: Dedicated to the One I Love
10. The Pips: Every Beat of My Heart
11. The Turbans: When You Dance
12. Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers: I Want You to Be My Girl
13. The Drifters: Save the Last Dance for Me
14. Maurice Williams and the Zodiacs: Stay
15. Dee Dee Sharp: Mashed Potato Time
16. The Marathons: Peanut Butter
17. The Orlons: South Street
18. Elvis Presley: Don’t
19. The El Dorados: I’ll Be Forever Loving You
20. The Shirelles: Foolish Little Girl
21. Bobby Helms: My Special Angel
22. Duane Eddy: Some Kind-a Earthquake
23. The Willows: Church Bells May Ring
24. Bobby Freeman: Do You Wanna Dance
25. Billy Bland: Let the Little Girl Dance
26. Eddie Cochran: Summertime Blues
27. Kathy Young and the Innocents: A Thousand Stars
28. The Channels: The Closer You Are
29. Little Willie John: Leave My Kitten Alone
30. The Flamingos: Lovers Never Say Goodbye

Two dozen songs about rain — there are plenty more out there — plus “Riders on the Storm” for some reason. The photo comes from some Linux/Gnome wallpaper.

Track listing for 111100-2:

1. The Cascades: Rhythm of the Rain
2. The Fortunes: Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again
3. Jay and the Americans: Walkin’ in the Rain
4. Carole King: It Might As Well Rain Until September
5. Brooklyn Bridge: Blessed Is the Rain
6. Dee Clark: Raindrops
7. The Lovin’ Spoonful: Rain on the Roof
8. The Beatles: Rain
9. The Move: Flowers in the Rain
10. The Cowsills: The Rain, the Park and Other Things
11. Creedence Clearwater Revival: Have You Ever Seen the Rain
12. The Temptations: I Wish It Would Rain
13. The 4 Seasons: Tell It to the Rain
14. Brook Benton: Rainy Night in Georgia
15. Johnny Rivers: Summer Rain
16. Carpenters: Rainy Days and Mondays
17. Lou Christie: Rhapsody in the Rain
18. Elvis Presley: Kentucky Rain
19. Sir Douglas Quintet: The Rains Came
20. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band: Buy for Me the Rain
21. The Serendipity Singers: Don’t Let the Rain Come Down (Crooked Little Man)
22. Glenn Yarbrough: Baby, the Rain Must Fall
23. Albert Hammond: It Never Rains in Southern California
24. B. J. Thomas: Raindrops Keep Fallin’ on My Head
25. The Doors: Riders on the Storm

The ninth in a series that isn’t even starting to slow down. The cover art (from Belle-Sharmeer) is slightly anachronistic, but not by much, and the appeal, of course, is timeless — much like these tunes. I wrote a piece on the compilation of this very disc, which you can read here.

Track listing for 111099-2:

1. The Beatles: I Feel Fine
2. Martha and the Vandellas: Quicksand
3. Jewel Akens: The Birds and the Bees
4. The Ronettes: Walking in the Rain
5. The Outsiders: Time Won’t Let Me
6. Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders: Game of Love
7. The Shangri-Las: Remember (Walkin’ in the Sand)
8. Terry Stafford: Suspicion
9. The Royal Guardsmen: Snoopy vs. the Red Baron
10. James Brown: Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag
11. The Byrds: Turn! Turn! Turn!
12. The Rose Garden: Next Plane to London
13. Jefferson Airplane: White Rabbit
14. Marvin Gaye: I’ll Be Doggone
15. The Yardbirds: Heart Full of Soul
16. Crispian St. Peters: The Pied Piper
17. Peter and Gordon: I Don’t Want to See You Again
18. The Doors: Hello, I Love You
19. Freddie and the Dreamers: Do the Freddie
20. The Toys: A Lover’s Concerto
21. The Standells: Dirty Water
22. Brenda Holloway: Every Little Bit Hurts
23. The Cowsills: The Rain, the Park and Other Things
24. The Strangeloves: I Want Candy
25. Jackie Ross: Selfish One
26. The Vogues: You’re the One
27. The Rascals: A Beautiful Morning
28. Scott McKenzie: San Francisco (Wear Flowers in Your Hair)
29. The Buckinghams: Kind of a Drag
30. The Association: Windy

This disc, which I plan to use to start a series, grew out of a cassette series I had done in the 1990s called “Old Mold,” seven tapes full of pre-Beatles material, plus tapes dedicated to each of the years 1961 through 1963. I have no doubt that I could come up with a dozen such discs easily. And assuming I don’t run out, all of them will have artwork similar to this, drawings done for the Belle-Sharmeer hosiery brand, which presumably expired around the time pantyhose arrived.

Track listing for 111098-2:

1. The Earls: Remember Then
2. Chuck Berry: School Day
3. Don and Juan: What’s Your Name
4. Gene Chandler: Duke of Earl
5. Marty Robbins: A White Sport Coat (and a Pink Carnation)
6. Little Eva: Keep Your Hands Off My Baby
7. The Playmates: Beep Beep
8. Mary Wells: The One Who Really Loves You
9. The Royal Teens: Short Shorts
10. Neil Sedaka: Calendar Girl
11. Lee Andrews and the Hearts: Long Lonely Nights
12. The Shirelles: Tonight’s the Night
13. The Crickets: That’ll Be the Day
14. Barbara Lewis: Hello Stranger
15. Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra: So Rare
16. Bobby Lewis: Tossin’ and Turnin’
17. Joanie Sommers: Johnny Get Angry
18. The Showmen: It Will Stand
19. The Silhouettes: Get a Job
20. The Chantels: Maybe
21. Jimmie Rodgers: Honeycomb
22. James Ray: If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody
23. Thomas Wayne: Tragedy
24. Carole King: Short Mort
25. The Magnificents: Up on the Mountain
26. The Mystics: Hushabye
27. The Sensations: Let Me In
28. Bo Diddley: Say Man
29. Fats Domino: I’m in Love Again
30. Roy Orbison: Only the Lonely
31. Shirley and Lee: Let the Good Times Roll
32. The Capris: There’s a Moon Out Tonight

Deborah Ann Gibson is thirty-five years old. She’s done Broadway, she’s done TV spots, she’s done a Playboy pictorial. So forget that teen-pop princess business, even if that’s where she made her name; it’s only half of this compilation. (Okay, the first half, but still.) I’m not sure where the cover photo came from, though I suspect it was circulated among fan-club members.

Track listing for 111097-2 (all tracks by Debbie/Deborah Gibson):

1. Only in My Dreams
2. Shake Your Love
3. Out of the Blue
4. Foolish Beat
5. Staying Together
6. Lost in Your Eyes
7. Electric Youth
8. No More Rhyme
9. We Can Be Together
10. Anything Is Possible
11. Negative Energy
12. Shock Your Mama
13. Losin’ Myself
14. For Better or Worse
15. Doncha Want Me Now?
16. Only Words
17. Cry Tonight
18. M. Y. O. B.
19. What You Want

Twenty-two thumping hits by the Dave Clark Five. Clark owns his own masters, and doesn’t let them out onto the market very often, so I figured I ought to have a compilation of my own. Rather a lot of these are taken from stereo vinyl in preference to mono CD issues. The plane? Well, it was a big deal when the Five had their own aircraft for a US tour back in the day, though it certainly wasn’t this plane, which is in fact a DC6.

Track listing for 111096-2 (all tracks by the Dave Clark Five):

1. Glad All Over
2. Bits and Pieces
3. Do You Love Me
4. Can’t You See That She’s Mine
5. Because
6. Everybody Knows (I Still Love You)
7. Any Way You Want It
8. Come Home
9. Reelin’ & Rockin’
10. I Like It Like That
11. Catch Us If You Can
12. Having a Wild Weekend
13. Over and Over
14. At the Scene
15. All Night Long
16. Try Too Hard
17. Please Tell Me Why
18. Satisfied with You
19. Nineteen Days
20. I’ve Got to Have a Reason
21. You’ve Got What It Takes
22. Everybody Knows

I never seem to run out of this stuff, although clearly there must be an upper limit somewhere. Our cover girl is brandishing some BVDs, from a period when BVD was trying to establish itself as a manufacturer of hosiery.

Track listing for 111095-2:

1. The Electric Prunes: I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)
2. Nancy Sinatra: Sugar Town
3. Carla Thomas: B-A-B-Y
4. Neil Diamond: Thank the Lord for the Night Time
5. Herman’s Hermits: Silhouettes
6. The Larks: The Jerk
7. The Four Tops: Bernadette
8. Love: My Little Red Book
9. Bubble Puppy: Hot Smoke and Sasafrass
10. The Left Banke: Walk Away Renee
11. Brenton Wood: Gimme Little Sign
12. Lou Christie: Lightnin’ Strikes
13. Donovan: Sunshine Superman
14. The Marvelettes: Don’t Mess with Bill
15. Syndicate of Sound: Little Girl
16. The Dave Clark Five: At the Scene
17. Dobie Gray: The “In” Crowd
18. Shirley Bassey: Goldfinger
19. The Hollies: I’m Alive
20. Jan and Dean: Dead Man’s Curve
21. The Temptations: I Wish It Would Rain
22. The McCoys: Fever
23. Billy Stewart: Summertime
24. The Beatles: Paperback Writer
25. The Jimi Hendrix Experience: All Along the Watchtower
26. The Searchers: Don’t Throw Your Love Away
27. Fred Hughes: Oo Wee Baby, I Love You
28. The Beach Boys: Wendy
29. The Music Machine: Talk Talk
30. Tommy James and the Shondells: Crimson and Clover

I wrote this up in 2004 as a suggested mix tape, covering both the glorious and the excruciating aspects of romance, but it was more than a year before I got around to committing it to disc. In the process, the list grew by two songs, the better to use up the available space on the now-standard 80-minute CD-R. The fellow falling off the left edge is undoubtedly smitten by the contents of those Cannon stockings.

Track listing for 111094-2:

1. Bobby Darin: Dream Lover
2. Vickie Diaz: For Eternity
3. The Shirelles: Will You Love Me Tomorrow
4. Gene McDaniels: A Hundred Pounds of Clay
5. Shelby Flint: Angel on My Shoulder
6. Chuck Jackson: Any Day Now
7. The Supremes: Let Me Go the Right Way
8. Arthur Alexander: Anna
9. Petula Clark: Chariot
10. Bobby Vinton: There! I’ve Said It Again
11. Jackie DeShannon: When You Walk in the Room
12. The 4 Seasons: Rag Doll
13. Gale Garnett: We’ll Sing in the Sunshine
14. Jackie Ross: Selfish One
15. The Four Tops: Ask the Lonely
16. The Hollies: I’m Alive
17. Evie Sands: Take Me for a Little While
18. The Shangri-Las: Past, Present and Future
19. The Beach Boys: God Only Knows
20. The Association: Cherish
21. The Left Banke: Walk Away Renee
22. The Delfonics: La-La Means I Love You
23. Glen Campbell: Wichita Lineman
24. Nazz: Hello It’s Me
25. Bread: Baby I’m-a Want You
26. The Partridge Family: It’s One of Those Nights
27. Lobo: I’d Love You to Want Me

Still more Seventies tunes; since most of these tracks seem to date from the early Seventies, I threw in a late-1980 track (the Joan Jett) for alleged balance. The cover babe? According to the ad copy, “Nobody does more for legs than Burlington.”

Track listing for 111093-2:

1. Gary Wright: Dream Weaver
2. Carl Douglas: Kung Fu Fighting
3. Nilsson: Without You
4. David Bowie: Suffragette City
5. The Pipkins: Gimme Dat Ding
6. The Dramatics: Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get
7. Joan Jett and the Blackhearts: I Love Rock ‘N Roll
8. Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind
9. Norman Greenbaum: Spirit in the Sky
10. The 5th Dimension: One Less Bell to Answer
11. The O’Jays: Back Stabbers
12. Alive & Kicking: Tighter, Tighter
13. Sugarloaf: Don’t Call Us, We’ll Call You
14. Dobie Gray: Drift Away
15. Billy Ocean: Love Really Hurts Without You
16. The Ides of March: Vehicle
17. Bread: Let Your Love Go
18. Stevie Wonder: Sir Duke
19. Badfinger: Day After Day
20. Elton John: The Bitch Is Back
21. Reunion: Life Is a Rock (But the Radio Rolled Me)
22. 10cc: I’m Not in Love
23. Ramones: I Wanna Be Sedated