Prodded by Both Sides Now, I put together twenty-six songs about fools, of which there have been an abundance during what Mr Kasem calls the Rock Era. The Mothers track is not the original from Freak Out!, but the doo-wop remake from Cruising with Ruben and the Jets. The original photo is “The Pigeon Crowd” by Andrew*, borrowed under Creative Commons.

Track listing for 111140-2:

1. Brenda Lee: Fool #1
2. Dino, Desi and Billy: I’m a Fool
3. The Rolling Stones: Fool to Cry
4. The Shirelles: Foolish Little Girl
5. Elvin Bishop: Fooled Around and Fell in Love
6. Ike and Tina Turner: A Fool in Love
7. The Main Ingredient: Everybody Plays the Fool
8. Freddie and the Dreamers: If You Gotta Make a Fool of Somebody
9. Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers: Why Do Fools Fall in Love
10. Connie Francis: Everybody’s Somebody’s Fool
11. Joe Barry: I’m a Fool to Care
12. The Drifters: Fools Fall in Love
13. Led Zeppelin: Fool in the Rain
14. Aretha Franklin: Chain of Fools
15. The Beatles: The Fool on the Hill
16. The Tams: Be Young, Be Foolish, Be Happy
17. Lesley Gore: She’s a Fool
18. Bobby “Blue” Bland: I Pity the Fool
19. The Bobby Fuller Four: Love’s Made a Fool of You
20. Lulu: Oh Me Oh My (I’m a Fool For You Baby)
21. Sanford Clark: The Fool
22. Debbie Gibson: Foolish Beat
23. The Mothers of Invention: How Could I Be Such a Fool
24. The Demensions: My Foolish Heart
25. The Doobie Brothers: What a Fool Believes
26. Rick Nelson: Fools Rush In

Once again, we have a small collection of longer-than-average songs, illustrated with some longer-than-average legs. (Bless you, Hanes.) Nine tracks on this disc, minimum six minutes each: a couple of them exceed ten minutes.

Track listing for 111139-2:

1. The Chambers Brothers: Time Has Come Today
2. Steely Dan: Deacon Blues
3. Sugarloaf: Green-Eyed Lady
4. The Temptations: Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone
5. Arbogast and Ross: Chaos (Parts 1 and 2)
6. George Benson: This Masquerade
7. The Who: Underture from Tommy
8. The Moody Blues: Nights in White Satin
9. Jackson Browne: The Load-Out/Stay

The title, of course, sends up Talking Heads, yet I resisted the temptation to include “Burning Down the House,” which qualifies as a song about a building. On the other hand, “Mayonaise,” in its Corganized form, isn’t really about food at all. Evidently the process of constructing these things is starting to get to me.

Track listing for 111138-2:

1. The B-52’s: Love Shack
2. The Association: Broccoli
3. Average White Band: Cut the Cake
4. The Four Tops: 7 Rooms of Gloom
5. Smashing Pumpkins: Mayonaise
6. Madness: Our House
7. Dee Dee Sharp: Gravy
8. Wendy Rene: Bar B Q
9. Jim Lowe: Green Door
10. Tin Tin: Toast and Marmalade for Tea
11. The Clique: Sugar on Sunday
12. Cathy Carr: Ivory Tower
13. The Marathons: Peanut Butter
14. Susan Christie: I Love Onions
15. Frijid Pink: House of the Rising Sun
16. Trini Lopez: Lemon Tree
17. The Drifters: Three Thirty Three
18. The Newbeats: Bread and Butter
19. Freddie and the Dreamers: A Windmill in Old Amsterdam
20. The Warner Bros.: Oleo Margarine
21. The Clash: Rock the Casbah
22. Jan and Dean: Popsicle
23. Bow Wow Wow: I Want Candy
24. Parliament: (Tear the Roof Off the Sucker) We Want the Funk

Long-time sound (and video) guy Marc Wielage once observed that there were dozens of songs containing the words “hold on” or some variation thereof, so it was a relatively simple matter to assemble two dozen or so “hold” songs and then trim off enough to fit CD length. The young lady has been on hold for I don’t know how long.

Track listing for 111137-2:

1. The Miracles: You’ve Really Got a Hold on Me
2. 38 Special: Hold On Loosely
3. The Beatles: I Want to Hold Your Hand
4. Argent: Hold Your Head Up
5. Ambrosia: Holdin’ On to Yesterday
6. Mel Carter: Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me
7. Carolyne Mas: Hold On
8. Ian Gomm: Hold On
9. Wilson Phillips: Hold On
10. Johnny Nash: Hold Me Tight
11. DeBarge: Who’s Holding Donna Now?
12. Eddie Money: Baby Hold On
13. The Grass Roots: Baby Hold On
14. Simply Red: Holding Back the Years
15. Fleetwood Mac: Hold Me
16. Toto: Hold the Line
17. Joe Tex: Hold What You’ve Got
18. Thompson Twins: Hold Me Now
19. Electric Light Orchestra: Hold On Tight
20. Sam and Dave: Hold On I’m Comin’
21. Richard Marx: Hold On to the Years

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

Neil Diamond’s recording career, like Gaul, was divided into three parts: the Big Bang (on Bang Records, natch), the West Coast Incubation (on Decca/MCA’s less-unhip Uni label), and the OMGWTF Period (on Columbia, mostly). The man had dozens of hits, and a fair compilation wouldn’t attempt to squeeze him down to a single CD, but I never said I was being fair. And give Diamond credit: even some of the latter-day stuff has held up pretty well, and the ones that didn’t, well, they didn’t make it onto this disc. The cover photo, which is not called “Thank the Lord for the Knight Time,” derives from an old jewelry-store ad.

Track listing for 111135-2 (all tracks by Neil Diamond):

1. Solitary Man
2. Cherry, Cherry
3. I Got the Feelin’ (No No No)
4. You Got to Me
5. Girl, You’ll Be a Woman Soon
6. Thank the Lord for the Night Time
7. Kentucky Woman
8. Two-Bit Manchild
9. Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show
10. Sweet Caroline
11. Holly Holy
12. Cracklin’ Rosie
13. I Am … I Said
14. Done Too Soon
15. Stones
16. Song Sung Blue
17. Play Me
18. Longfellow Serenade
19. If You Know What I Mean
20. Forever in Blue Jeans
21. September Morn
22. Love on the Rocks
23. Hello Again
24. Yesterday’s Songs

This is the third Major Babes collection. Like its predecessors, it comprises a list of songs with girls’ names in the title. This time around, things were a little more flexible, in that it wasn’t required that the name be evoked in the lyrics, giving me an excuse to throw in an instrumental for once. The Scott English track, incidentally, was remade with a different (but not that different) title. A car show somewhere along the Pacific Rim was the background for the cover photo.

Track listing for 111134-2:

1. Rod Stewart: Maggie May
2. Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart: Alice Long (You’re Still My Favorite Girlfriend)
3. Scott English: Brandy
4. Kenny Rogers and the First Edition: Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town
5. Jimi Hendrix Experience: The Wind Cries Mary
6. Ritchie Valens: Donna
7. Tommy Roe: Hooray for Hazel
8. The Dovells: Betty in Bermudas
9. Blood, Sweat & Tears: Lisa, Listen to Me
10. Jimmy Soul: Twistin’ Matilda
11. Boomer Castleman: Judy Mae
12. Curtis Lee: Beverly Jean
13. Glen Campbell: Brenda
14. Neil Diamond: Cherry, Cherry
15. The Contours: Shake Sherrie
16. The Hollies: Dear Eloise
17. Jan and Dean: Linda
18. The 4 Seasons: Dawn (Go Away)
19. Bobby Goldsboro: Honey
20. The Charts: Deserie
21. The Strangeloves: Cara-Lin
22. Larry Hall: Sandy
23. The Association: Pandora’s Golden Heebie Jeebies
24. The Crickets: Deborah
25. Chubby Checker: Lazy Elsie Molly
26. Los Indios Tabajaras: Maria Elena

This is, of course, a collection of Temptations tracks, and mostly a fairly-obvious one, though stuff like “My Baby” (and its pretty-decent B-side, “Don’t Look Back”) had to be snipped to fit on the disc, and I was quite insistent on including the always-overlooked “I Want a Love I Can See,” which dates to 1963 and features a Paul Williams (!) lead vocal. (David Ruffin had yet to come on board.) The young lady with the 360-degree perspective was working for Van Raalte.

Track listing for 111133-2 (all tracks by the Temptations:

1. I Want a Love I Can See
2. The Way You Do the Things You Do
3. Girl (Why You Wanna Make Me Blue)
4. My Girl
5. It’s Growing
6. Since I Lost My Baby
7. Get Ready
8. Ain’t Too Proud to Beg
9. Beauty Is Only Skin Deep
10. (I Know) I’m Losing You
11. All I Need
12. You’re My Everything
13. (Loneliness Made Me Realize) It’s You That I Need
14. I Wish It Would Rain
15. I Could Never Love Another (After Loving You)
16. Please Return Your Love to Me
17. Cloud Nine
18. Run Away Child, Running Wild
19. Don’t Let the Joneses Get You Down
20. I Can’t Get Next to You
21. Psychedelic Shack
22. Ball of Confusion
23. Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)
24. Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone

Assignment: A lot of songs with “Bad” in the title. Difficulty: No Michael Jackson or Jim Croce tracks. Success: Reasonable. This is, of course, the Dark Side of last month’s The Good Stuff, and it might even have been more fun to assemble. The cover is swiped from a legendary French hosiery ad by the late René Gruau.

Track listing for 111132-2:

1. Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas: Bad to Me
2. Grand Funk: Bad Time
3. Little Anthony and the Imperials: Hurt So Bad
4. Steely Dan: Bad Sneakers
5. The Jelly Beans: I Wanna Love Him So Bad
6. Doug and the Slugs: Too Bad
7. Bruce Springsteen: Badlands
8. Creedence Clearwater Revival: Bad Moon Rising
9. The Cookies: Don’t Say Nothin’ Bad (About My Baby)
10. Elvis Presley: I Feel So Bad
11. Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes: Bad Luck (Part I)
12. Melanie: Bitter Bad
13. The Jive Bombers: Bad Boy
14. Miami Sound Machine: Bad Boy
15. The Beatles: Bad Boy
16. Donna Summer: Bad Girls
17. The Miracles: Bad Girl
18. Led Zeppelin: Good Times Bad Times
19. Kim Carnes: It Hurts So Bad
20. Jimmy Dean: Big Bad John
21. Robert Palmer: Bad Case of Loving You (Doctor, Doctor)
22. Chris Clark: Love’s Gone Bad
23. Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs: Oh That’s Bad, No That’s Good
24. Meat Loaf: Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad

Assignment: A lot of songs with “Good” in the title. Difficulty: No “Goodbye” or “Goodnight” tracks. Success: Reasonable. Besides, where else are you going to hear Tammy Wynette and the Knack on the same disc? Oh, and if you don’t recognize the cover, don’t blame Desenex.

Track listing for 111131-2:

1. James Brown: I Got You (I Feel Good)
2. 10cc: Good Morning Judge
3. Herman’s Hermits: I’m Into Something Good
4. Barbara Lynn: You’ll Lose a Good Thing
5. Billy Joel: Only the Good Die Young
6. Cat Mother and the All Night Newsboys: Good Old Rock ‘N’ Roll
7. Rufus: Tell Me Something Good
8. Frank Sinatra: It Was a Very Good Year
9. The Beach Boys: Good Timin’
10. Linda Ronstadt: You’re No Good
11. The Knack: Good Girls Don’t
12. Stevie Wonder: Nothing’s Too Good for My Baby
13. Eric Burdon and the Animals: Good Times
14. Chic: Good Times
15. Bunny Sigler: Let the Good Times Roll/Feel So Good
16. The Cars: Good Times Roll
17. Fontella Bass and Bobby McClure: Don’t Mess Up a Good Thing
18. Sam Cooke: Good News
19. The Rascals: Good Lovin’
20. Crazy Elephant: Gimme Gimme Good Lovin’
21. Bobby Vee: Take Good Care of My Baby
22. Little Richard: Good Golly Miss Molly
23. The Beatles: Good Day Sunshine
24. Tammy Wynette: Your Good Girl’s Gonna Go Bad
25. Paul Revere and the Raiders: Good Thing
26. Elvis Presley: Good Luck Charm
27. Chuck Berry: Johnny B. Goode