Tag: WTLX Mix Tapes

Note: This series originally appeared on Facebook in a slightly different form, Aug-Sept 16.

When I was a freshman, WTLX wasn’t very active. The following year, my classmate Kevin took over as station manager and definitely got things going. One area he had to address was the station’s music library. There was a lot of vinyl in it, but the vast majority was either out of date or too obscure (a few songs from what we inherited make an appearance in this series, however). Kevin used our music budget to aggressively add to the library his three years as manager. While most of the $ went to 45s, he judiciously added LPs as well, mostly greatest hits collections. This comes from one of those LPs.

“Cocaine” was the B-side of a two-sided single (with “Tulsa Time”); it peaked at #30 in August 80. The whole 7-plus minutes was regularly played on top-40 radio in Cincinnati back in the day.

During recording, the needle jumped the groove on this song four times. I played the tape so much in the late 80s that those skips are part of the song for me now.

Note: This series originally appeared on Facebook in a slightly different form, Aug-Sept 16.

By complete coincidence, the next song is from the other, much better known, rock band to emerge from Champaign in the 70’s.

I started buying 45s in the summer of 1976 and continued (at least occasionally) until just about the time they stopped producing them. I frequently would check out the B-sides and over the years came across many gems (my favorite is almost certainly Fleetwood Mac’s “Silver Springs,” the flip of “Go Your Own Way”). I first encountered this song as the B-side of “Keep on Loving You.”

One of the few albums I owned in high school was Hi Infidelity. Listening to this one, “Out of Season,” and “Tough Guys” (all of which I prefer to a couple of the singles) takes me back to late summer 1981, just before my senior year of HS…

Note: This series originally appeared on Facebook in a slightly different form, Aug-Sept 16.

YouTube veterans know that when a song doesn’t have an official video, there’s often one consisting of just a still shot of the album cover for the visuals. Suffice it to say that you may see a fair amount of that sort of thing in this series. I hope you’re checking in for the music…

Today’s tune is from 75. It was a big regional hit in the Midwest and climbed to #68 late that year. I remember hearing it quite a bit on album rock stations when I was in high school. Since I don’t listen much to classic rock anymore, I don’t know how much it gets played much today, but I still think it’s a great one. In doing a bit of research on Head East for this post, I learned that they essentially formed in one of my old stomping grounds: Champaign, Illinois.

Note: This series originally appeared on Facebook in a slightly different form, Aug-Sept 16.

In late May 85 I spent a couple of nights down in the old campus radio station at my alma mater putting together two mix tapes. I cued up records one after another and just let the tape run. In August 16 I listened to them for the first time in quite a while. Over the next six weeks or so, you can listen to the songs from those tapes, one a day, in the order they were recorded. There are songs that were hits at the time, album cuts from the early 80s, various obscurities, etc., etc. A few are certainly cringe-worthy in retrospect. You’ll also be getting a number of reminiscences from me along the way. My hope is that at least occasionally I’ll bring back some fond musical memories. All song rankings given refer to the Billboard Hot 100.

Side 1, Song 1: This song was beginning its ascent of the charts at recording time, on its way to #1. Here, have some Phil Collins.