Tuesday 14 September 2010

Essential 100 Part Four


  1. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Young Adult Friction
  2. The Olivia Tremor Control - Jumping Fences
  3. The Russian Futurists - Let's Get Ready To Crumble
  4. The New Pornographers - The Laws Have Changed
  5. Camera Obscura - Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken
  6. Ambulance Ltd - Anecdote
  7. Jenny Lewis - You Are What You Love
  8. Edwin Moses - I'll Be Around
  9. The Heavy Blinkers - Maplewood
  10. Benji Hughes - Baby It's Your Life
  11. Sebastian Tellier - Divine
  12. The Crayon Fields - Impossible Things
  13. Sunshine Fix - Sail Beyond The Sun
  14. Hal - Play The Hits
  15. Super Furry Animals - Juxtaposed With U
  16. The Shins - Fighting In A Sack
  17. Silver Sun - Lava
  18. The Bristols - Questions I Can't Answer
  19. Brassy - Boss
  20. The Little Ones - Morning Tide
  21. Stornoway - I Saw You Blink
  22. Adventures In Stereo - When We Go Back
  23. Sneeze - Shaky Ground
  24. The Junipers - Gordie Can't Swim
  25. Elliot Smith - The Ballad Of Big Nothing

Essential 100 Part Three


  1. Sonic Youth - Teen Age Riot
  2. Primal Scream - Velocity Girl
  3. R.E.M - Laughing
  4. Robyn Hitchcock - Balloon Man
  5. Agentss - Agentss
  6. Orange Juice - Bridge
  7. The Jam - A Town Called Malice
  8. Dexy's Midnight Runners - There There My Dear
  9. The Smiths - Cemetry Gates
  10. Lloyd Cole & The Commotions - Lost Weekend
  11. Teenage Fanclub - What You Do To Me
  12. Teardrop Explodes - Sleeping Gas
  13. Kenicke - Come Out 2 Nite
  14. My Bloody Valentine - Soft As Snow (But Warm Inside)
  15. The Boo Radleys - Lazarus
  16. The Specials - Ghost Town
  17. Magazine - A Song From Under The Floorboards
  18. Echo & The Bunnymen - Bring On the Dancing Horses
  19. The The - This Is The Day
  20. Mazzy Star - Fade Into You
  21. Orbital - Belfast

Essential 100 Part Two


  1. Captain Beefheart - Yellow Brick Road
  2. The Seeds - Pushin' Too Hard
  3. The Rolling Stones - Get Off Of My Cloud
  4. The Stooges - I Wanna Be Your Dog
  5. The Clash - (White Man) In Hammersmith Palais
  6. Wire - Outdoor Miner
  7. The Doors - Peace Frog
  8. The Easybeats - Friday On My Mind
  9. R Dean Taylor - There's A Ghost In My House
  10. Marvin Gaye - Mercy, Mercy Me (The Ecology)
  11. Stevie Wonder - Sir Duke
  12. David Bowie - Queen Bitch
  13. Talking Heads - Cities
  14. Television - Marquee Moon
  15. Badfinger - No Matter What
  16. Roxy Music - Beauty Queen
  17. Nick Drake - Pink Moon
  18. Big Star - The Ballad of El Goodo
  19. Tyrone Davis - Can I Change My Mind
  20. Al Green - Let's Stay Together
  21. Otis Redding - (Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay
  22. The Velvet Underground - Pale Blue Eyes

Essential 100 Part One


  1. Eddie Cochran - C'mon Everybody
  2. Conway Twitty - It's Only Make Believe
  3. Link Wray - Rumble
  4. The Coasters - Yakety Yak
  5. Jackie Wilson - Reet Petite
  6. Chips - Rubber Biscuit
  7. The Vipers - Don't You Rock Me Daddy - O
  8. Fats Domino - Ain't That A Shame
  9. Bob Dylan - Subterranean Homesick Blues
  10. Elvis Presley - His Latest Flame
  11. Connie Francis - Robot Man
  12. Sam Cooke - (What A) Wonderful World
  13. Georgie Fame - The Ballad Of Bonnie & Clyde
  14. Johnny Cash - I Walk The Line
  15. Gene McDaniels - Tower Of Strength
  16. The Ronettes - Be My Baby
  17. Lesley Gore - You Don't Own Me
  18. Dana Gillespie - You Just Gotta Know My Mind
  19. Glenda Collins - If You Gotta Pick A Baby
  20. Inez & Charlie Foxx - Mockingbird
  21. The Kinks - Tired Of Waiting For You
  22. The Beach Boys - You're So Good To Me
  23. Unit 4 Plus 2 - Concrete and Clay
  24. Barry McGuire - Eve Of Destruction
  25. The Walker Brothers - Make It Easy On Yourself
  26. The Who - My Generation
  27. Donovan - Colours
  28. Roy Orbison - In Dreams
  29. Bobby Darin - Dream Lover
  30. Linda Scott - I've Told Every Little Star
  31. Skeeter Davis - End Of The World
  32. The Beatles - If I Fell

On September 14th 2005, whilst browsing through the latest ‘Rough Guide to the Internet’ book, and in particular the ‘Music’ section I chanced upon a description of a site named ‘Art of the Mix’. I quite liked the look of it so thought I’d give it a go.

Within minutes of looking at the site I’d made my mind up, I would submit one of my own mixes. A mix I’d made for myself some 18 months earlier and still listened to on a regular basis (still do now in fact).

All I needed was a username. Simple, a few of my friends and work colleagues referred to me as Sammy G, and that’s how I wanted to be known on this new site. But, wait, someone else had already taken it. Not a particularly consistent mixer either, a couple of ambient efforts and he (or indeed she ) was gone.

This threw me a little. And for what ever reason it was, ‘cos for the life of me I cannot remember, I stuck a few numbers after the name and the username sammyg123 was born.

And today my alter-ego is 5 years old!

I’d been mindful of this milestone approaching for some time, and had thought about big for it. And this is what I decided on. 100 songs from 4 eras that define me and the music I love. So we have 1950 – 1965, then ’65 thru ’80. ’80 thru 1995 and then ’95 to the present day. The way I’ve worked out this out means songs from 1965 for instance could be used on two different discs. This was deliberate, and I’ve taken full advantage of this.

These aren’t my favourite 100 songs of all time ( although if I was to try and attempt such a task at least 50% of the tracks here would feature ). But it is as close as I have ever gone to doing such a thing on Aotm or ZerO. And I am delighted with the end result…

..so Happy Birthday sammyg123. This will be the soundtrack to my day.


RS MF