New Mood on Monday

I mentioned in Friday’s post that I had done a summery mix which JC over at The Vinyl Villain had been kind enough to post.

In the bit which he wrote to accompany my mix, JC (unintentionally, I’m sure) shamed me by saying that I post “daily”. I wish that were true; I have nowhere near the discipline to keep daily posts going on such a regular basis, although it does happen every now again.

So, in the spirit of our actually regular uplifting Monday morning post, I figured I would be positive this week, and try and post something every day. And then see how long I could keep it up for (as the vicar said to the etc etc etc).

But what to write about? Well, as you know, I love doing playlists, mixes, call them what you will. And, whilst I shy away from doing fully-themed ones on my Friday night posts, I do enjoy the challenge of preparing an hour-long mix of tunes with a common thread running between the songs contained therein.

However, when preparing a themed mix, it is very easy to get lost in the challenge, and include songs simply because they fit the criteria you have set yourself for the playlist in question, irrespective of whether they “work” or not.

I’m sure you all know what I mean, but I fear I’m not explaining myself very well.

Let me give you an example: the summery mix of mine which JC kindly posted last week was supposed to be a load of songs which contained the word “sun” in the title. A simple enough task: search iTunes for such songs, bang the good ones in a playlist, fiddle around with the running order, and Bob is indeed your uncle.

Having done that, you realise that you have included songs which are great, have the word “sun” in the title, but aren’t particularly appropriate. And that you have omitted songs which would be perfect for the playlist, but don’t fit the criteria.

So: I wanted to include Patio Song by Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci, Legal Man by Belle & Sebastian and Squeeze’s Pulling Mussels (From The Shell), none of which, the more astute amongst you will have noticed, have the word “sun” in the title.

The “songs with sun in the title” idea swiftly got binned.

For the rest of the of the week, then, I’ll be posting songs which did have “sun” in the title, but which got bumped from the playlist in favour of tunes which were…well, not better, just fitted better.

(Better, I mean better.)

Starting here, with what was supposed to be the opening tune in the playlist. I could have plumped for the Hair Original Stage Cast version, or even Andy Williams’s smooth easy listening take, but in the end I’d plumped for 5th Dimension’s go at it:

The 5th Dimension – Aquarius/Let The Sunshine In

Now, one of the reasons that got bumped was because the whole Aquarius bit at the start didn’t sit with the rest of the theme. If only there were a version which omitted that….

Count your lucky stars I didn’t remember this, which I actually bought at the time (in my defence: it reminded me of a great night out which wasn’t spoiled by this cheese-fest getting played):

Milk & Sugar – Let The Sunshine

More (playlist rejects) soon.