The Sound Salvation Army, who describe themselves as “a few crazy Canadians who think we know what’s best for rock and roll”, have kicked off their inaugural mix tape with four songs on the subject of radio, a phenomenon that you may remember used to be carried on actual radio waves.

They lead off with Elvis Costello’s “Radio Radio,” which makes sense, and eventually they will have 13 tracks.

This was originally a tape series, and a very long one: sixteen C-90s, which is twenty-four hours of music, all from the period December ‘63 to May ‘69, with no repeats. The last tape, Volume 16, was completed in 2000. CD conversion started shortly thereafter and has proceeded at a spectacularly slow pace: Volume 15 was a year ago. And the fact that CDs contain 80 minutes, maybe, while I used to cram 91, even 92 minutes onto a cassette, has never really been dealt with — five tracks from the tape don’t appear here — hasn’t bothered me as much as I thought it would.

The next volume, though, won’t be a version of a tape: it will be constructed from scratch. Not that I’m worried about having enough material. I just hope it won’t take me another year to do.

Track listing for 111136-2:

1. Del Shannon: Stranger in Town
2. The Beach Boys: Don’t Worry Baby
3. Dionne Warwick: Reach Out for Me
4. The Yardbirds: Shapes of Things
5. Elvis Presley: U. S. Male
6. The Seekers: I’ll Never Find Another You
7. Stevie Wonder: A Place in the Sun
8. Gary Lewis and the Playboys: She’s Just My Style
9. The Animals: Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood
10. The Arbors: The Letter
11. Jackie Wilson: Whispers (Gettin’ Louder)
12. The Beatles: Love Me Do
13. Petula Clark: Don’t Give Up
14. Percy Sledge: Take Time to Know Her
15. The Easybeats: Friday on My Mind
16. Dusty Springfield: Stay Awhile
17. Edwin Starr: Agent Double-O-Soul
18. The Newbeats: Run, Baby, Run (Back into My Arms)
19. Brenda and the Tabulations: Dry Your Eyes
20. The Hollies: On a Carousel
21. Jay and the Techniques: Apples, Peaches, Pumpkin Pie
22. The 5th Dimension: Stoned Soul Picnic
23. The Bee Gees: Words
24. Creedence Clearwater Revival: I Put a Spell on You
25. The Turtles: It Ain’t Me Babe
26. Bob Dylan: Subterranean Homesick Blues
27. The Temptations: Ain’t Too Proud to Beg
28. The Lovin’ Spoonful: Darling Be Home Soon