Tina the Princess: The musical equivalent of well-read

The title of this comes from a compliment I once got from Jose. But this post makes me question whether it was really a compliment or not.

During the clear out and tidy up of the roof space (that is slowly killing me) I came across my CD collection. They were proudly displayed in my room until a few years ago it became apparent there was really no need as everything was on my computer and iPod.

Or so I thought.

Part of the process of the tidy up is to put things into plastic Ikea boxes (or samla in Ikean). As I was putting them in I realised that I had never imported some CDs onto my computer.

[The links are to the You Tube video of the mentioned song for you to hear and remember. I haven't listened to them much past the opening bars. Hope there's no effing, jeffing or inappropriate content.]

Ever keen to right the wrong of BBMak et al not making onto iTunes I set to and spent a happy 6 hours importing and playing tunes from days gone by. I tweeted about it too, mentioned the fact that I was putting on the hits from Nows 29-35 that had previously been overlooked. Needless to say some tracks didn't make it; my iTunes knows of no such artist as Michelle Gayle for instance. But my goodness there were some classics on those Now albums, such as Corona, Rhythm of the Night, The Boo Radleys, Wake Up Boo! (Did they have another hit?), Ini Kamoze, Here Comes the Hotstepper (same question applies), Supergrass, Alright, The Outhere Brothers, Boom Boom. Need I go on?

I found two Brit albums (1997 and 1999 - Billie Myers, Kiss the Rain, Alisha's Attic I Am, I Feel were both nominated. Who knew?!) Mind you, even with those discoveries the only Manic my iTunes knows is of the Monday variety for the Street Preachers will never be on any iPod of mine.

Other CDs I imported were Surrender from Autumn Soul Tour all those years ago (I don't know why, I can still remember singing Better is One Day in parts), Tunes from the Toons (what? It's for the kids!), Cast (bit of Britpop never hurt anyone. Well except possibly the Gallagher brothers) and Travis (for when I want to be depressed). Soundtracks were not ignored anymore, and happily imported is The Thomas Crown Affair, Sister Act, Shrek and Pretty Woman. Good times.

Then I came to the singles box. Oh dear.

It didn't start off well for me with singles. The very first one I ever bought was Boyzone, Love Me for a Reason. Actually, it didn't start of well for albums either, that purchase was Wet Wet Wet, Picture This, no tracks off which got imported during this discovery. Says it all I think. Thankfully it picked up for the firsts, iTunes reveals the first song I ever downloaded, way back in 2005, was Arcade Fire, Rebellion. I get some cool points for that one, right?

Anyway, CD singles. Making on this time I added some classics. Ahem. Who remembers Smashing Pumpkins, Tonight, Tonight? Me, I do! Great strings, shame about the singing. And Fool's Garden, Lemon Tree. Ah the memories of listening to that on my mini hi-fi.

In the box alongside the modern CDs were tapes. Yes, actual cassette tapes offof the eighties. Except I bought them in the late nineties, early noughties. I couldn't play them to listen to them on my computer. I'm sure there's a device I could get on a Sky Mall-esque magazine but no need because the interwebs has reminded me of all I needed. For your musical enjoyment and laughter here are the songs that I bought. With actual money. I haven't heard of any them since.

[Some of the videos won't embed but you can still click through to hear them.]

'It's all about the money. It's all about the dum dum de de de dum'. Apparently those are the lyrics that made Ivor Novello start the awards.

I can only assume, from watching this video, they were some sort of Hanson wannabes.

A bus and a train you say? 'Eighteen wheeler' is probably too hard to fit into a line.

I really don't know what's going on with the flames in this video.

Other cassettes I had from this era included these greats. Sorry.