We began featuring The Notorious Somewhat Alphabetical Mixtape Series back in 2014 with tape A. Today, we're featuring the 51st and final surviving mixtape from that storied stash, FFF. During our run, we've gone through six or seven cassette decks, and after playing this tape, we'll be mothballing our current deck. There are more than a few stray mixtapes in the HERChives, but for now, we are done with cassettes.
Though my labeling looks off on the label and jcard, FFF is a TDK SA90 in great shape. There is one label on the tape, and both copy protection tabs are intact.
Regrettably, my beautiful wife wasn't feeling well tonight, so she will be unable to listen to the tape. She took some aspirin and went to bed early. I just strapped on the Grados and ran an extension cable directly to the headphone output on the tape deck, so I could listen to FFF at my desk. Here we go!
The unmistakable vocals of Brad Delp usher in Boston's "Can'tcha Say (You Believe In Me)/Still In Love", the penultimate track from the band's Third Stage. Weirdly coincidental because I just finished reading Power Soak a few weeks back.
It is a brief read about the recording and eventual release of Third Stage. It is NOT the definitive story of Boston we've been waiting for, but for now it's all we have. Surprisingly, after "Can'tcha Say (You Believe In Me)/Still In Love" ended on the tape, "Hollyann" started, giving me a solid ten minutes and change of Tom Scholz and Brad Delp to open FFF. I may have played these songs for her a few times back in 1986 after the album's long-awaited release, but they are definitely favorites of mine rather than hers.
And then the synth stabs that mark the beginning of "The Power Of Love" come in, upsetting the cool hippie vibe I had settled into after the extended first track of this tape. I'm thinking this might be another one of the every song title has the word "love" in it tapes. She loved this song more than I ever did.
The gang vocals of Bon Jovi's "In And Out Of Love" come fading in on FFF for track three. She and I had seen Bon Jovi opening for Ratt back in August 1985 while they were supporting this album. We had tickets to see them headlining with Cinderella as their warm-up on their triumphant Slippery When Wet Tour in January 1987. The group performed "In And Out Of Love" at both shows. According to setlist.fm, those are the only two shows Bon Jovi has ever performed here in town. I later saw the group with a couple of girls from work (with my pregnant wife's full permission, they arranged it all as an early birthday present) on their Keep The Faith trek in 1993, but that was a hundred miles north of where I sit. And they did not perform this song during that show. I know I say it every time I write about Bon Jovi live, but they attracted the prettiest women to their shows. She and I liked this song at the time, but it's been a while since I've heard it, which probably means it's been a while since she's heard it too.
I recognize the creeping guitar riff of the next track on the tape, but it's not until the chorus that I recall "It's Not Love" by Dokken. We had seen Dokken open for Dio on his The Last In Line Tour in December 1984, but I'd been a fan of the band from the first time I heard "Breaking The Chains" in late 1983. I don't recall her ever saying she liked this song, so it's probably all me. Still doing songs with "love" in the title. Think it will last the whole tape?
Once again, I don't immediately recognize a track as it starts, but at the five-second mark, the unmistakable synths of Judas Priest's "Turbo Lover" kick in, and I'm here for the ride. It soon dawns on that this is the short edit of the Hi-Octane Mix from the B-side of the twelve-inch single. She liked to turn up the song in her car because it sounded amazing: all soaring synths, metallic riffs, and Rob Halford's menacing vocals.
Another in a series of jarring train wreck segues occurs as The Cars' "Bye Bye Love" comes in as track six on FFF. As the rain settles into a kinder, gentler downfall, my brain says hey this song has more than a few things in common with "Turbo Lover". Been a minute since I listened to the group's wonderful self-titled, so put that on my to-do list. She's a fan, I'm a fan, so everybody wins. I failed to lift the needle soon enough at the end of the song, so the first sounds of the next track ("Moving In Stereo" for those who might not know) can be clearly heard.
The opening sounds of "Moving In Stereo" abruptly cut off as the next song on the tape starts. It's synth vs. synth as Billy Idol's "To Be A Lover" begins. It's a suped-up, sped-up cover of William Bell's "I Forgot To Be A Lover" from 1968, equally drenched in gospel and new wave effects. I fell for the Whiplash Smile album straightaway, but I remember a conversation we had in which she said something along the lines of "Billy Idol will never cut another album as good as Rebel Yell." No argument from me, but that doesn't stop "To Be A Lover" from being my jam.
The tempo slows way down as the opening notes of "Love Hurts" come in. It's another cover and yet another song with "love" in the title. I also note that, as love songs go, there has been a patch of less-than-happy love songs with "Bye Bye Love", "To Be A Lover", and now "Love Hurts". At least on the surface. Anyone who knows me knows I love these three tracks.
Track 9 on FFF also stumped me initially. For about the first eight seconds, I was leaning towards it being a track from The Blasters. And then the voice of Huey Lewis cleared up that confusion real quick. "Whole Lotta Lovin'" is the only track on side one of Fore! that wasn't released as a single. The title meets the criteria for inclusion on this tape, but I don't recall either of us expressing any love for the song back in 1986. We had seen the band early in 1985, just a couple of weeks before they taped their Showtime concert special, Huey Lewis and the News: The Heart of Rock and Roll.
The bass-baritone voice of Bill Medley begins the next track on the tape as we near the end of the side. A scene in the Summer box-office smash Top Gun created new interest in the 1964 song "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" by The Righteous Brothers, featuring Medley and his partner Bobby Hatfield. Because it was not included on the Top Gun soundtrack in 1986, I searched high and low for the song before finding the double A-Side 45 pictured above. She is still a big fan of this song. And then the tape clicked to a stop.
We settle back in for side two of the tape, and the little guitar riff, bass line, and splash of marimba welcome me into "Love Plus One". Had the song on two other albums at the time, though neither one was a Haircut One Hundred album. The Beat was my go-to source for the track with Blast Off and Greatest AOR Hits: Portrait Of A Decade standing by. Wasn't even aware there was a longer version of the song until the early nineties, when it began showing up on compact disc compilations. We both still very much enjoy this song, yelling along with the Ah-yah-yah-yah-yah-yah parts.
The second track on the second side of FFF is Paul Simon's "Loves Me Like A Rock". We both enjoy the spiritual threads that run through this track, vocally and lyrically, and always sing along when it comes on.
"I Was Made To Love Her" is the third track. Have loved this song since I first heard Dad play it off one of his albums. He had a series (Anthology?) of triple-album sets from a few Motown stars, including Stevie Wonder, The Supremes, The Temptations, and The Four Tops, that he got a good deal on from Columbia House. Somehow, he got rid of them before I inherited his collection. I learned there were other albums in the same series for even more Motown stars that he might have liked to have. One thing I can say for sure about my father and his love of music: he was never an obsessive completist. He only bought what he liked. Or received from Columbia House when he forgot to return the monthly selection card.
My love for Art Of Noise's "Moments In Love" has been mentioned more than once here on The Hideaway, but I wasn't about to gobble up ten plus minutes on this tape with the full-length version, was I? Nope! I dug into my collection of twelve-inch singles and found an under-six-minute version titled "Love Beat". The song is the fourth track on this side of the tape, though I clocked it as 5:15 rather than the 5:41 printed on the label. We share an affinity for "Moments In Love".
If you are making a tape of songs with the word "love" in the title, you must include the Bee Gees classic "How Deep Is Your Love", right? Right! The song is here as track 5 on the flipside of FFF. It still sounds so lush nearly fifty years on. We both are fans of the song, though neither of us can hit those notes. As the song finishes, and I'm thinking what could possibly follow it up and bracing myself for one of my trademark train wreck segues, another Bee Gees song begins. "Love So Right" follows "How Deep Is Your Love" on 1979's Bee Gees Greatest album, so it seems like a good choice to just let it rip. Now my mind is racing for other Bee Gees songs with "love" in the title, and I come up with four right away that are on that same compilation, although none of them immediately follow "Love So Right". My hunch is confirmed when "Love You Inside Out" begins playing after "Love So Right", and I think I probably would have stopped after the triple-play from The Brothers Gibb.
Sometimes, I know myself better than other times. Some folks may consider "What About Love" a lost track from the Eighties. It got 140 spins on US radio last year, according to Mediabase, almost entirely on AAA stations. My girl was a 'til tuesday fan who bought their first two albums, so this was an easy choice.
The opening organ of "An Old Fashioned Love Song" with Chuck Negron singing lead takes me back to another place and time. It is a nice place I'd like to visit more often. I think she likes this song. I know she likes Three Dog Night.
Speaking of nostalgic memories, the next song on tape FFF is "Never Knew Love Like This Before", the second-to-last song played at my Freshman Dance way back in September 1980. It was still a relatively new release at the time, so not everybody knew the song, yet it still packed the dance floor. It is such a positive song, full of love. Of course, she loves it.
The next song on the tape is one of my Dad's favorite songs. For the longest time, he would sing along with it as "Purdy Little Love Song". Even after he found out the actual title was "Heard It In A Love Song", he would sing Purdy little lo-ove song. My girl played flute in her junior high band, so she has always had an ear for the instrument in popular songs. She really likes this one.
The twelfth and final song on side two of FFF is another Paul Simon banger, "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover". Steve Gadd's drumming always perks up my ears; I had already listened to McCartney's "Take It Away" and Grover Washington, Jr.'s "Just The Two Of Us" earlier today as part of the tasty Hideaway House Blend. Both tracks feature Gadd working his magic as well. Again, maybe not the best choice to woo the girl, but it does have love in the title, the prerequisite for inclusion on FFF. We both dig "50 Ways To Leave Your Lover" and often engage in my grade-school playground pastime of improvising different names and ways, i.e., "reset the pins, Ken" or "pull out the plug, Doug" to supplement Simon's meager five ways.
Again, none of these songs were dubbed off compact discs, dating this tape to before Christmas, December 1986. I had been buying discs for several months before then, but did not receive my own player until Christmas. I would go on to make my girl a few more untitled mixtapes before proposing to her in January 1987. (Neither one of us remembers the exact date.) She accepted, and we began to make plans for a Summer wedding. Then we came to our senses and moved the date up to the Spring. In the end, we got hitched in a judge's chambers in late March, with just our parents and sisters as witnesses to a simple ceremony. Our 39th wedding anniversary will occur in 2026, and we just marked one year since she joined me in retirement.
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