VIRTUAL MIX TAPE: "13 Wonderful Will Songs, Vol. 17"

Yes, that’s right, it’s time for another installment of songs—the 13th, in fact!—that I love and that I hope you’ll love, too. And if you don’t, well, it ain’t like this thing is behind the paywall, so what’d you pay for it, anyway?

In conclusion, listen or don’t, but if you do, I hope you dig it…and if you really dig it, consider upgrading to a paid subscription!

1. Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, “Can You Picture That?” (1979 - The Muppet Movie: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

I was fortunate enough to secure screeners for the upcoming Disney+ series Muppets Mayhem, which revolves around Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, so of course I’ve had this track from The Muppet Movie stuck in my head ever since. FYI, the series is absolutely wonderful, and if you’re a Muppets fan who enjoys when the characters are filled with both humor and heart, then I’ll go out on a limb and say it’s probably the best thing to emerge since 2011’s The Muppets.

2. Throwing Muses, “Dizzy” (1989 - Hunkpapa)

I may be wrong, but I want to say that I read somewhere that Kristen Hersh, lead singer and songwriter for Throwing Muses, was never a fan of this song. That’s her right, of course, but it’s the song that made me first appreciate the band, so I must respectfully disagree with her and declare that I love it.

3. The Hoosiers, “Goodbye Mr. A” (2007 - The Trick to Life)

Somewhere around the time that my daughter went off to school, which would be the fall of 2009, I suddenly realized that I hadn’t been paying nearly enough attention to the bands that were coming out of the UK and that I really needed to do something to change that. As such, I dived headlong into exploring what bands had emerged since my daughter was born, and the first one I found that I really fell in love with was The Hoosiers. This was the song that did it for me. It’s catchy as hell.

4. Lindsey Buckingham, “Countdown” (1992 - Out of the Cradle)

For reasons I can’t really explain, I was a Lindsey Buckingham fan before I was really much of a Fleetwood Mac fan. That’s since changed, of course, and now I love the band very much, but I was just head over heels in love with Lindsey’s Out of the Cradle album when it was released, and then I was fortunate enough to see him do a solo performance at the Bayou in Georgetown. Let me just say this: it’s the only time I’ve ever been to a concert where I walked away thinking, “Holy shit, I want to learn how to play the guitar.” It was a stupid thing to think, of course, because it’s not like I could ever come close to matching anything I’d seen Lindsey do that night, but he was just that good. Anyway, I digress: this is a great song from a great album, and if you’ve never heard Out of the Cradle, you should remedy that as soon as possible.

5. BMX Bandits, “I Wanna Fall in Love” (1996 - Theme Park)

I don’t remember exactly when I first heard about BMX Bandits, but I know it was the direct result of reading about their single, “Kylie’s Got a Crush on Us,” a title which still makes me laugh. Later, I’d heard that they had a song called “Serious Drugs,” but I actually heard the Gigolo Aunts’ cover of the song before I ever heard the original version. Finally, when BMX Bandits secured a deal with Big Deal Records in the US, I was able to pick up one of their albums, and this was the song that made me want to check out all of their stuff.

6. The Everly Brothers, “On the Wings of a Nightingale” (1984 - EB 84)

Like most everyone, I first became aware of the Everly Brothers through classic singles like “Wake Up Little Susie,” “All I Have to Do is Dream,” and the like, but I also remember what a big deal it was when they did their reunion show in the ‘80s and released a new album. What I didn’t realize until some years later was that this album featured a single that was written by none other than Paul McCartney. It’s a great tune as well as a wonderful spotlight for the brothers’ harmonies.

7. Peter Noone, “Oh You Pretty Things” (1971 / 2007, Cover to Cover: The Songs of David Bowie)

Obligatory cover song! Well, sort of. If you only know Peter Noone for his work as the lead singer of Herman’s Hermits, you’ve missed out on some very interesting work that he’s done over the years. For one, he had a power pop band called The Tremblers that put out a lone album in 1980 that’s worth tracking down. Before that, however, recorded this Bowie song as his debut solo single, with Bowie himself playing piano on the track, but the “sort of” caveat comes from the fact that Bowie hadn’t actually released his own version of the song yet! Still, since it’s decidedly best known as a Bowie song, I think it counts as a cover.

8. Menswe@r, “The One” (1995 - Nuisance)

You can tell who’s a real fan of this band by who takes the time to use the “@” symbol in place of the “a” in their name. If you can’t be bothered, you’re just a poser! Okay, maybe not. I just always remember that quirky choice in their name, and I can’t help but make a point of maintaining it whenever I type it. I don’t think this song was ever a single, but I always thought it should’ve been. It’s such a great line in the chorus, one that I think sums up the way a lot of people felt when politics became such an issue circa the 2016 election: “Isn’t it strange how people change? / I never liked you anyway.”

9. Ride, “Vapour Trail” (1990 - Nowhere)

I always tell the same story about this song, so I’ll tell it again here for consistency’s sake. When I was attending Averett College—now University—in Danville, Virginia, I was in my dorm room when my friend Robby Barber burst in, put a copy of this song in the player (I can’t recall if it was cassette or CD), turned off the lights, and said, “Just close your eyes and listen.” It was a transformative experience. The older I get, the more I feel obliged to listen to the song the same way I did back then, if only to try and capture that feeling again. Sometimes I almost can.

10. Super Furry Animals, “It’s Not the End of the World?” (2001 - Rings Around the World)

This is one of the songs that my wife and I heard for the first time when we were on our honeymoon in the UK, and I loved it so much that I ended up picking up a copy of the CD when it came out in the States. It’s a gorgeous piece of Beatle-esque psychedelic pop.

11. Violent Femmes, “Out the Window (1991 - Why Do Birds Sing?)

I don’t know what led me to include this song on here, although I think maybe it’s because the band was in my head because of the re-release of their self-titled debut album for this year’s Record Store Day. Believe it or not, though, this was actually the first Violent Femmes album I ever owned, and me being me, I think I actually bought it for the band’s cover of Culture Club’s “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?” All things considered, though, I think this track has aged far better.

12. The Delfonics, “Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time)” (1970 - The Delfonics)

I noticed the other day that I hadn’t really included any R&B on these virtual mix tapes, even though I’m actually a big fan of ‘70s soul, so I decided to go with this track, which is a stone cold soul classic. Of course, it always makes me think of Jackie Brown, but there are worse memories I could associate with it than one of my favorite movies of all time.

13. Fishbone, “Sunless Saturday” (1991 - The Reality of My Surroundings)

This inclusion was unabashedly inspired by having seen Fishbone in concert recently, and—as ever—this song was one of the highlights of their live performance. Make no mistake about it: even after all these years, Fishbone still kicks ass.