Are the 1980s the Big Bang of mix tapes? Here’s an artifact from that era:

I, like a lot of kids that grew up during the Reagan years, put a lot of thought and effort into the making of mix tapes.

Here is a playlist I found in a journal from 8th grade. Actually, the journal was given to me for 8th grade graduation, so I guess you could say I was a freshman. Even after all of these years, I can tell I was in the brainstorming phase for this mix tape; because I could give a damn about some of these songs, for instance the Chuck Berry tune. The theme was song titles that were girls’ names.

Been there (a couple of times), done that. Here’s what was on his track list:

• “Diane” by Husker Du
• “Cecilia” by Simon and Garfunkel
• “Maybelline” by Chuck Berry
• “Vicky Verky” by The Squeeze
• “Lola” by The Kinks
• “Athena” by The Who
• “Michelle” by The Beatles
• “Suzy Q” by Creedence Clearwater Revival
• “Delta Dawn” by the Ray Conniff Singers
• “Rosemary” by The Dickies
• “Roxanne” by The Police

Which reminds me: I need to get started on Major Babes 3.

I’ve already taken a shot at a Valentine’s Day Mix — and, being properly cynical, I did it in October — but I’d hardly consider it definitive, and I’m always delighted to spot a workable alternative.

This compilation by a Michigan law student looks promising enough that I may actually put it together myself, and damn the iTunes expense. It’s more contemporary than mine, which cuts off in the 1970s: the leadoff track is “I’m Gonna Make You Love Me” by the Jayhawks, which is not the song of the same title that every single Motown act seems to have recorded at one time or another.

I’d still never come up with a compilation idea this brilliant:

We’re starting with a thought that actually came to us almost by accident a few weeks ago, that in this 50 year history of pop music no single drumbeat has had the cultural impact of the four-beat Wrecking Crew seconds of intensity that kicks off Pitchfork’s sixth greatest song of the 60s and Rolling Stone’s 22nd best of all time, the Ronettes’ “Be My Baby”. (Alright, “Funky Drummer” has its fans, but that’s more for its intricacy and the fact it’s had the song named after its fill.) It seems resonant of an era, a genre and a possibility all at the same time, and with its comparative simplicity that even the most amateur of garage band skinbeaters can copy it’s no wonder it’s been co-opted so often in much. Once we’d got the obvious in as track one we found a good 35 or so songs that featured the beat in some way, shape or form, eventually cutting down to a trim 21 replicants, all of which feature it in its purest form and use it at the start or near enough.

And that’s exactly what you get: the original Hal Blaine thunder, and re-creations thereof that fit a lot better than you’d think they do.