My 90's and 2000's Experience: Oldies Compilation CDs

 Hey everyone, how's it going? I'm doing pretty well. Today I'm diving back into the world of music and CDs. This is going to be a look at four compilation albums of music from the 50's, 60's, and 70's that my dad had on CD when I was growing up. I actually have three of these albums on my computer and I'm listening to at least two of them as I write this blog post. Before I start I'd like to remind you that this is not a review of these albums, I'm just talking about each album and when I remember my dad first putting them on. I'm also not going to talk about every song on the album either. I'll just be talking about the ones that really stuck with me. So, with that out of the way, let's get into it.

First up is The Seventies Generation: 1970-71, which was a compilation that came out in 1999. As the title suggests, these are all songs that came  The two songs that stood out to me is track 5, "Come and Get It" by Badfinger and track 6, "Arizona" by Paul Revere and the Raiders. I don't remember if my dad bought this CD himself or if he got it for his birthday or Christmas in 1999. I just remember hearing the album for the first time with "Ride Captain Ride" by Blues Image starting it off and then ending with "Hitchin' a Ride" by Vanity Fare. Aside from the songs I was hearing on the radio, and the more modern day music that I had on CD, this album, along with the other three that I'll be talking about here shortly, was part of the soundtrack of my life in middle school and high school, and while I had my favourite songs on all four albums, I still enjoyed listening to all of the songs on each of them.

 

Next is 15 Super Oldies: Too Good to Be Forgotten, which initially came out in 1989. My dad didn't get it until around 1998 or 1999, sometime close to when he got The Seventies Generation. I think. I don't actually remember. I just remember not hearing it for the first time until I was twelve or thirteen years old. But this album has "Da Doo Ron Ron" by the Crystals, "When A Man Loves a Woman" by Percy Sledge, "I Got You (I Feel Good) (Live)" by James Brown, and, of course, "Rock Around the Clock" by Bill Haley and the Comets. I'd known "Rock Around the Clock" because it was the opening theme song for the first few seasons of Happy Days and I remembered hearing it on reruns of those earlier episodes. Also, Morgan Lee (Melissa Galianos) sang the "Da Doo Ron Ron" part of that song in an episode of the 1998 sitcom, Radio Active during that show's first season. So those songs are the ones I remember the most from this particular album.

 

Now this album (with a different cover) is the reason I knew the biggest hit that came out of the soundtrack for Guardians of the Galaxy in 2014, "Hooked on a Feeling" by Blue Suede, and "Go All the Way" by Raspberries, which was also in the movie and on the movie's soundtrack album. Oddly enough "You Sexy Thing" by Hot Chocolate was used in a commercial for milk in 1998-1999, around the time I was watching Animorphs, Radio Active, and the first season of Pokemon, so I associate that song with those three shows more than I do with this compilation CD, even though it didn't appear on any of those shows. And "My Sharona" by The Knack was on a mixtape that my dad played all the time when I was younger, so naturally that song stuck out to me as well. Especially because it's the first track on the album.

The last album I'm talking about today is Rock 'N' Roll Reunion: Class of '64 is actually my mom's CD. And while it has some songs on it that I love, I honestly haven't heard them anywhere but on this compilation. The two songs that stuck out to me on this album, and became my favourites are "Come A Little Bit Closer" by Jay & The Americans, "The Little Old Lady (from Pasadena)" by Jan & Dean, and "Under the Boardwalk" by The Drifters. Honestly, for the longest time I actually thought that the Beach Boys sang "The Little Old Lady (from Pasadena)" because Jan & Dean sounded so much like the Beach Boys, which makes sense, since the two bands were producing albums around the same time. Plus, I thought it was funny that there was a song about an old woman driving dangerously because it made me think of Granny from the Looney Tunes and the Penguin's Aunt Miranda from a Batman newspaper comic strip published in 1946. I was anywhere between 11 and 13 when my dad got this CD for my mom, as it came out in 1997. This is also the only one on this list that I don't have on my computer currently. I used to, but I never got around to putting it back on once I got a new laptop back in 2020 or 2021, whenever it was. 

So the biggest reason that these albums mean a lot to me, aside from the fact that my parents played them all the time when I was a teenager, is that they're the only way I found out about all of these songs at the time. I didn't have Guardians of the Galaxy to introduce me to "Hooked on a Feeling" and "Go All the Way". I didn't have movies and TV shows to introduce me to "Come a Little Bit Closer" or "Da Doo Ron Ron" (in it's entirety). And the radio station I listened to, which had a 70's show on Saturday nights and an Oldies show on Sunday mornings, didn't play a lot of these songs despite all of them fitting in the description of Oldies or 70's music. I probably heard "Rock Around the Clock" on the radio quite often on the Sunday Morning Oldies Show on MAJIC 100. Plus, very few of these artists ever had the original albums these songs were put out on originally re-released on CD or even audiocassette and not all of them had "Best of" or "Greatest Hits" albums released, so these compilation albums were the only way to hear these songs. They're definitely the only way that I had to hear these songs. 

And that's going to be it for me for today. I'll be back soon with more posts. Next week I'm gonna talk about certain TV shows that had DVD releases in the late 90's and in the 2000's before they ever got complete season DVD box sets. These DVDs were more like the DVD equivalents of the VHS releases of TV shows in the 80's, 90's and early to mid 2000's. So until then have a great rest of the day and a great rest of the week and I will talk to you all later. Take care.