It's been four long months since our last Mixtape Monday so it gives us great joy to present to you, tape ZZ, the 52nd tape in The Somewhat Alphabetical Mixtape Series. The first 26 tapes were labeled A through Z and the second 26 tapes are labeled AA through ZZ, get it?
The unmistakable opening notes of the Beatles track "Twist And Shout" come pouring out of the speakers with plenty of top end, thank you very much. In stereo no less. It's a great track to begin a tape with and there is a little story behind it as well. For both of you who have yet to view Ferris Bueller's Day Off, here's a big fat spoiler alert – during the film, there's a scene where Ferris Bueller (Matthew Broderick) mimes Wayne Newton's "Danke Schoen" and "Twist And Shout" by The Beatles while on a float in a parade. Coincidentally, the film Back To School opened the same week as Ferris Bueller's Day Off and also features a scene with "Twist And Shout". Requests poured into radio stations for the song and Capitol Records rush-released the single pictured above which I picked up shortly after it appeared in the bins at Hollywood Records in early August 1986. She loves the song and I love the song. It is truly one of our greatest hits.
Speaking of the greatest, the mysterious sounds of an industrial machine or mining press or ???, signal the start of "Silly Love Songs", the next song on the tape. While this song has a history with us, as we've been known to harmonize on the "I Love You" parts, my first encounter with the song, specifically the 45 involves another girl. Back in elementary school, a petite girl began showing me attention in the usual elementary school way: by bullying me on the playground at recess. Someone wiser than me said that was her way of flirting with me so I asked her to be my girlfriend and she said "Okay". Bought her a 25-cent necklace out of a gumball machine and the 45 of "Silly Love Songs" which was my favorite song at the time. The following Monday, she broke up with me because I did not call her over the weekend which is what boyfriends do, she told me. She returned the necklace all knotted up and there was a deep, straight scratch across the entirety of the "Silly Love Songs" record. By the time I made this tape a little over a decade later, I dubbed the song off of the Wings Greatest album.
As the music begins for the third track of the ZZ tape, John Lennon can be heard saying "For the other half of the sky". He said in an interview shortly before his untimely and senseless death that "Woman" was the grown-up version of his Beatles-era song "Girl" which makes sense to this listener. This makes three consecutive Beatles-related songs to kick off the tape so I am wondering if that may be the theme. Then I get lost in the beauty of the lyric and how it echoes many of my own thoughts and feelings about the women in my life. I find myself singing out loud, thankfully alone in the house as my wife and our visiting-for-the-summer oldest grandson are at his swimming practice for a couple of hours. I would be much worse if it wasn't for my woman.
The familiar piano intro of "Three Times A Lady" comes in next and two thoughts race across the space between my fuzzy ears:
1) I hope this is the full-length album version and2) What a great thematic segue from "Woman"
Then I settle in and am a little disappointed when I hear the first edit that signals that what I am hearing is the single edit that lops off nearly half the original song. Then, thinking back to my record collection circa late 1986, I realize that I may not have even owned the full-length album version of the song yet. I had pulled a few choice cuts from the 1983 double album 25 #1 Hits From 25 Years for mixtapes through the years and it is built from the hit single versions of the label's first two and a half decades including two tracks from the Commodores. She likes the song and I enjoy singing it to her.
One of the songs I need never hear again is the fifth song on the tape and it is all hers. The dirge is titled "Separate Lives" and is a definite low point in the otherwise red-hot streak that Phil Collins was on at the time. I know we went and saw the film but I couldn't tell you anything about it other than we saw Krush Groove, Young Sherlock Holmes, Clue, Jewel Of The Nile, and Spies Like Us shortly afterward or at least before Christmas 1985. She really liked the song and bought the soundtrack album to get it so I must have borrowed it to put it on this tape. For me, the song can't end fast enough.
The bassline of "Stand By Me" always feels good and this time is no different. The song was another track from the Sixties, resurrected by a film soundtrack from the Eighties. It was a little weird to hear "Stand By Me" on the radio on a Top 40 pop station in 1986 but that's what happened. I remember the song being new to her which was cool and we both really enjoy hearing the song when it comes on. I also remember that after Dad saw the film, he asked if I had the soundtrack. I reminded him that he had all the songs on albums sitting on his shelf to which he replied that it sure would be nice to have them all in one place for his truck. So I copied the album to a tape for Dad. I'm not sure but I think it was less than thirty minutes so I filled up the ninety-minute tape with tracks from the American Graffiti soundtrack.
Journey's Escape is my favorite Journey album and "Who's Crying Now" is my favorite Journey song so I got a little excited when I heard the piano intro of the seventh song on the tape. We'd made out more than once to the song but my history with it goes back to having a cassette of Escape in my Walkman as we moved from Illinois to Arizona in 1981. I listened to that tape countless times on the road and at the campground that was our temporary home once we arrived in Arizona. My most vivid memory of that time is listening to "Who's Crying Now" while lying on the picnic table outside our tent staring up at the stars. It gives me a cool floating-in-space sensation to this day. Or maybe it's just my blood sugar.
We go from one magnificent song to another as the gentle cascading intro to "Here Comes The Rain Again" comes fading in. I wrote about Eurythmics and this song back on the fortieth anniversary of Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) in 2023. Still love the song.
"Cry" has another great fade-in intro and the Trevor Horn production is so full-sounding even coming off a nearly forty-year-old magnetic tape cassette. At this point in time, this song always points me back to the "Definitely Miami" episode of Miami Vice that was originally broadcast on January 10, 1986. The song plays over the closing scene of the episode. I'm pretty sure I've written about "Cry" and that episode of Miami Vice but am not finding anything. Gonna pause the tape here, bring up the Extended Remix version of "Cry" on the SONOS, and drift away. Be back soon.
Sometimes when listening to tapes or discs I have made, I can predict with an admittedly teeny-tiny bit of accuracy what the next song is going to be. Hearing the beginning of "Hold Me Now" as the next song on the tape was one of those instances. I cannot say why but as "Cry" was ending, I thought that "Hold Me Now" would be a wonderful follow-up, even after I snuck off to listen to the longer version of "Cry". We have both loved "Hold Me Now" since whenever we first heard it and it may have briefly been our song at some point early on in our relationship. By my count, we're just over the 41:00 mark, just enough room for one more song.
Continuing the run of impressively introed songs is Peter Gabriel's "In Your Eyes", the second single from his So album. Knowing how long the song is, I was surprised it played out fully. It's a beautiful tune, one of a trio of beautiful tracks on the album, including "Red Rain" and "Don't Give Up". I'd say the scales were tipped in my favor as far as Gabriel's music and she gradually came around though she immediately loved his uptempo stuff. This song's lyrics continue to remind me of her big brown eyes.
We take the opportunity to refresh our glass of sweet tea and grab a handful of green grapes before pressing play on the flip side of the ZZ tape.
The cool-sounding synthesizers let us know that The Alan Parsons Project is in the house with "Games People Play". I reach for the remote to turn up the volume, satisfied after two presses of the + button. When we ultimately joined households in March 1987, my lady brought a handful of Alan Parsons albums into our union while I contributed just one: The Best of The Alan Parsons Project. If I haven't mentioned it before, my girl's three favorite groups are Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass, The Alan Parsons Project, and The Beach Boys. Yeah, so I got that going for me.
The opening fiddle notes of Dexys Midnight Runners' surprise hit "Come On Eileen" herald the second song on side B. It turned out to be the 4:12 single version. I never could pinpoint why the song appealed so much to me but she said it was fun to sing along with and I don't disagree.
It's been a while, but when I heard the simple drum and piano pattern of the third song on side B of tape ZZ, I wasn't able to name that tune. Once the vocals started, I guessed Crowded House and Googled it to be sure. Sure enough, Crowded House has performed "Message To My Girl" in concert dozens of times. Only then did it dawn on me that Crowded House had a couple of things in common with Split Enz so I searched for Split Enz and "Message To My Girl". Bingo! I couldn't recall the last time I heard the song before today, so as it played on, I did a deep dive and learned a former Beach Boy plays drums on this track. And unless you already have it in your collection, you probably haven't heard it in a bit either. It's been monitored just nine times across seven radio stations in 2025. And it hasn't been played on any Sirius XM channel in at least 60 days. I think my girl likes it - she's not here yet so I can't ask her. I checked our everyday playlist and "Message To My Girl" is one of three Split Enz songs on there so she'll hear it eventually.
That last track made me think of "The Captain Of Her Heart" (is it the piano riff?) so imagine my surprise when I heard it begin as the tape's next song. She had heard it once or twice on the radio and again in the car when we were out. We hit a record store maybe two that night and she found the 45 and I bought it for her. I recall she was disappointed in the album when she eventually picked it up. I need never hear the song again but years later I added it to The Drive's inaugural playlist in her honor. Just checked, and only three stations across the nation have played the song more than The Drive thus far in 2025.
The next song on the tape slowly fades in with the sounds of the tide. "Wishing You Were Here" is a great song and, once again, I'm pleased with how the last three songs have fit together. I shared my wife's three favorite recording artists earlier in this post and if I extended the list, it would also include Barry White, Billy Joel, and Chicago. However, it should be noted that when we met she was a fan of Chicago from Chicago 16 on. I introduced her to the group's earlier hits and I began with "Wishing You Were Here", pointing out that her beloved Beach Boys could be heard singing. She loves it as she tends to like the group's slower songs overall. If You Leave Me Now was the only Chicago album I had back in late 1986 though I would soon add Chicago IX: Chicago's Greatest Hits and Greatest Hits, Volume II. She brought Chicago 16 and Chicago 17 into our joint household in March 1987.
"Chiquitita" begins playing and I'm thinking that maybe there are too many slow songs on this tape. It sounds great and I guess the tempo does pick up a bit as the song plays. Like practically everyone else on planet Earth, both of us sing along loudly to ABBA songs whenever we hear them and soon I am singing along to "Chick-A-Tee-Tah". Before the song ends, I decide I want to hear "Fernando" next but resist the urge to pause the tape, punch it up off the NAS, and listen to it. There's a super slim chance that "Fernando" will be the next song, right?
Nope. This is not "Fernando". Tom Breihan nailed it when he described the rhythm track of "Heartache Tonight" as "a big, rude, almost glam-rock drum-stomp" much like Queen's "We Will Rock You". She tolerated the music of the Eagles whenever I played them. I think I heard her say once or twice that she actually liked "Heartache Tonight" which is surely why it's making an appearance here as the seventh song on side B.
Speaking of the Eagles, Glenn Frey comes blasting out of the speakers with "Partytown" noticeably louder than the previous song. I'll claim this track all for myself as I have no idea if she likes it. Actually, I can count on two fingers the number of folks I've ever met who liked "Partytown" as much as I do.
As the boom-bap of Billy Squier's "The Stroke" begins I thought it may have been the better choice to immediately follow "Heartache Tonight" rather than "Partytown". Then I lean back and let the song wash over me. It's always been a favorite song of mine and the parent album Don't Say No is one of my favorite albums. There aren't any specific memories attached to the song, just the warm pleasing feeling I get when I hear it, like a healing salve I didn't know I needed. The song ends cold and I don't have to wait long for the next song as the guitar and synth intro of "My Kinda Lover" which also follows "The Stroke" on Don't Say No, comes in loud and clear. "My Kinda Lover" has the simplest of choruses with the song's title just repeated over and over. I count 27 my kinda lovers. Would I have been so bold as to do a triple-shot of Billy Squier?
Nope, I did not go for a three-fer of Billy Squier. Absed on the tape counter, the last song on the tape is "The Air That I Breathe" from The Hollies. It's a great-sounding track that could serve as a tape opener or closer. I recall thinking I had the song somewhere in my collection at that point but struggling to find it. I popped over to Dad's house and looked for "The Air That I Breathe" in his collection and found it on the album Super Groups, a Columbia House Music Treasury. Borrowed the album, recorded the song, and returned it. About a month later, I'm combing through my collection again, looking for another song and I find it on one of the three Columbia House Music Treasuries I own, All Star Hits Of The 70's. I slide the box open and there among the five LPs in white sleeves is the album Super Groups. As I recall, Super Groups was a pack-in with the five LP set All Star Hits Of The 70's box set. I still have my copy of the latter, but I must have removed Super Groups from the Record Wall at some point and it did not come to me as part of Dad's collection when he gave me all his vinyl. She really loves "The Air That I Breathe" and it does this ol' boy some good whenever I hear it as well. And the tape should be over...
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