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





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
2006-09-14 - An Entry About Hall & Oates? Really?





Copyright 2003-2006 by Sockgirlie. Stealing is wrong.