While looking for some Christmas decorations in my basement the other night, I ran across two shoeboxes whose contents scared the bejeesus out of me. Well, not all of their contents were completely terrifying, but still � they were frightening enough. Why so frightening? Well, these boxes contained my collection of cassette singles from back in the day. Oh, how I loved the cassette single (I never called them �cassingles�). I spent half of my allowance buying those things, and as I looked them over the other day, I realized I could have saved a lot of money had I been more selective in my purchasing. Ahem. We�ll just say that I didn�t always have the best taste in music and leave it at that. Actually, we won�t leave it at that. Since I have no shame, I decided to share some of the selections from my collection with y�all. Let me make two things clear up front: 1) The heyday of the cassette single happened to coincide with the period in my life when I watched a LOT of Video Soul on BET. (Whatever happened to Donnie Simpson? He was my boy!) 2) The boxes that I found the cassette singles in were for Tretorn sneakers. �Nuff said.

So, without further ado, let�s bring on the pain. I present to you Pam�s (Sometimes Shameful) Cassette Single Collection, Part I. Shall we?

- US3, Cantaloop: I�m starting out with a non-shameful one just to make myself feel better. This song rules. Biddy Biddy Bop!

- Toni Braxton, Another Sad Love Song: I�ve just recently re-discovered La Braxton. I forgot how many good songs she had, and it all started with this one. (My personal favorite? Love Shoulda Brought You Home, with You�re Makin� Me High running a close second, if only for the video alone.)

- After 7, Can�t Stop: Wow, maybe this isn�t so scary after all�.

- Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, Good Vibrations: �And I spoke too soon. I really have no recollection of buying or listening to this. Why do I have this? Maybe I hit myself on the head with a mallet after I bought it so I would forget about it. I think I will do the same right now.

- Jane�s Addiction, Been Caught Stealing: This one I am absolutely not ashamed about. We listened to this song to death. When I was in high school, this was our theme song on the �Rebel Nights� when we�d go out and steal lawn ornaments and �For Sale� signs and put them on our friends� lawns. Ah, good times. I also do a mean cow noise from this song.

- Gerardo, Rico Suave: See �Marky Mark� above. Now where did I put that mallet? [Side note: My brother and I can�t watch Can�t Buy Me Love together without shouting out, �Gerardo!� every time he comes on screen.]

- R. Kelly, Bump and Grind: Before the little girls, before Big Man, before The Closet, and before he was telling people to �Shuh, shuh,� there was this R&B masterpiece by Mr. Kelly. Classic tune.

- Cher, Love and Understanding: Not a bad song, but just a random and curious selection in the mix.

- Tony, Toni, Tone, If I Had No Loot and It Never Rains In Southern California: Tony, Toni, Tone!!! Wow. What happened to them?

- Janet Jackson, If: The naughty song.

- K7, Come, Baby Come: I�ve been looking to download this song for ages, and I can never find it. Great, great song. Swing, batter, batter, batter, batter, batter, swing!

- Expose, I Wish The Phone Would Ring and Your Baby Never Looked Good In Blue: Expose! They actually had some good songs, but I don�t know why I felt the need to buy these two. I remember having the 45 of Come Go With Me.

- Goddess, Sexual: Does anyone besides me remember this song?

- Voices That Care, Voices That Care: Oh dear. I don�t think I can begin to tell you how much I used to love this song, and how very, very ashamed I am at this moment. Seriously, this cassette single came with an instrumental version of the song, and I actually used it to audition for a musical in high school. Everyone else was singing their best Broadway showtunes and I break out the Voices That Care. How sad.

- Little Texas, God Blessed Texas and Clay Walker, What�s It To You: This is when I started getting into country music.

- Sophie B. Hawkins, As I Lay Me Down: Wait, so let me get this straight � I own a Sophie B. Hawkins song and it�s not Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover? The hell?

- Shanice, Saving Forever For You: The 90210 song, even though I never watched that show! Actually, I am such a huge fan of Shanice�s first album. I wore that CD into the ground, and I still listen to it today. I bought this single for the instrumental b-side, because I wanted to be Shanice.

- Shai, The Place Where You Belong: The only way to listen to this song properly is to have the bass turned WAY up, and wait for when that first beat drops. Awesome tune. Loved the Shai!

- Lisa Keith, Better Than You: It took me the longest time to figure out that Amy Grant wasn�t singing this song.

- Tag Team, Whoomp! There It Is!: Whoomp! I have no idea why I have this!

- Whodini, Freaks: I do know why I have this one: Whodini mentions a �freak� named Pam in the song. Word to Whodini.

- Fiona (featuring Kip Winger), Everything You Do: �Ooh, you�re sexing me!� I love, love, LOVE this song. I always wanted to be Fiona when I was younger, even before this song came out. Badass chick in leather pants? Loved her. I also used to have quite the thing for one Mr. Kip Winger. Hot guy aside, this song rocks. I still put it on mix CDs.

- Roxette, Sleeping In My Car and Crash, Boom, Bang: The first one I bought from hearing it on the radio, the second from hearing it on the Muzak in the store I worked at freshman year of college. Both great songs by an underrated band.

- Robyn, Show Me Love: I have no idea why I have this. I don�t even remember listening to this song, but I must have. Again, not a bad song, but a curious selection.

- The Party, In My Dreams: I never watched The Mickey Mouse Club, but I had The Party�s first album. This song came out after that and it remains one of my all-time favorite songs, for reasons I can�t explain. It just always puts a smile on my face.

- Madonna, This Used to Be My Playground and Bad Girl: Bad Girl may be my favorite Madonna song. I don�t remember buying the Playground single, but maybe I was too busy listening to White Heat. Am I the only one who used to love that song? Now I want to listen to it. �And we went for it, I went for it�treated you like a kid brother!�

- Vanessa Williams and Brian McKnight, Love Is: Speaking of 90210 songs�.

- Red Hot Chili Peppers, Give It Away: Before they became dead to me.

- Mariah Carey and Luther Vandross, Endless Love: I also had the 45 of the original version of this song. I was very excited when this song came out, because I had taken a magazine poll a few months earlier and answered, �Mariah Carey and Luther Vandross� for the �Dream Duet� question. I made this song happen, people.

- Hi-Five, Never Should Have Let You Go: Aww, Hi-Five! The bridge on this song rules.

- Tyler Collins, Girls Night Out and Second Chance: Speaking of song bridges, I figured I�d end things on a high note. Tyler Collins was my GIRL. I discovered her on the Video Jukebox channel, and I listened to her first album incessantly. I bought these singles because the album versions of the songs were different, and Girls Night Out didn�t have the awesome ��bridge� part in it.

You know, that wasn�t as painful as I thought it would be. I did, however, leave out a lot of song, but I�ll just save those for Chapter II. I�m just glad I didn�t pull out the 45s. God help us all if I ever do that (paging Glenn Medeiros!).


before & after





2007-09-26 - Follow Me!
2006-09-30 - Site Move & Favorite Entries
2006-09-25 - Evil Easter Bunnies & Rock Climbing!
2006-09-22 - Shameful-Purchase Hiding & A New Dentist Plan
2006-09-19 - Birthday Picture/Video Diary & The Wheelmobile





Copyright 2003-2006 by Sockgirlie. Stealing is wrong.