I can’t believe it’s been a whole year.

What started as a conversation with my sister, sitting in my car, telling her all about this idea I had to make mixtapes on my blog and share them, has turned into one of my favorite parts of the week and to think, I was so scared no one would want to play along.

In the end it didn’t matter. I knew I wanted to play along and that was all that mattered.

It has been such an amazing ride, and I have met soooo many amazing people along the way. I have really enjoyed being exposed to so much music I just wouldn’t have listened to and getting to know everyone’s musical personalities.

This weekend I announced that after our theme “Missing You” on April 15, MixTape will be going on hiatus until the end of summer, early fall. As I always say in the rule sections, I listen to all of your mixes, comment and even try to share when I have my act together. And I love it, I really do. But it does take a lot of time. As a homeschooling mom who is trying to finish a book, I really need those three days back for a while.

So we will take a break, I will finish my book and then we’ll come back. Over the weekend the outpouring of support and encouragement that I received was so overwhelming that I decided, without question, MixTape will return. Although when we come back, we will be a first Tuesday of every month link-up. So be ready!

But for now, there are three more mixes to go! If you ever wanted to link-up before, but couldn’t find the time, or felt a little shy, The Time is NOW People!

This week’s theme is You Choose Your Theme! I think it’s the perfect time to make a mix about any topic you’ve been wishing and waiting for.

I had a lot of thoughts about this week. It was really hard, until I decided – for sure – that mixtape will come back. Since I know it will, I’m gonna stop the hemming and hawing. We’re gonna go with a mix I’ve made so many versions of, I don’t even need to think. Greatest hits. To me, in order to own a place on my Greatest Hits list, it must be a song I love so much, I would never change the station on the radio, no matter my mood.

Jen’s Greatest Hits

 

Our first cover song mixtape was back in May of 2013. I used up a lot of my choices back then.  Actually, through the course of the year I’ve used up almost all of the songs on my actual Greatest Hits list on my iTunes. So, there’s that.

I used a song off of this album back then. But the truth is 4 songs off of this album are on my greatest hits list. When the movie Me, Myself and Irene came out (Jim Carey), I couldn’t wait. But when I sat in the theater and heard the soundtrack, well that was it. A whole soundtrack of Steely Dan cover songs?! WHAT!?

Razor Boy – Billy Goodrum

 

I drink tequila. By choice. Margaritas. On the rocks. Shots. Salt and Lime. I also don’t discriminate. I’ll drink a bottle of Jose Cuervo as fast as I will a bottle of Patron. When I was a youngin (early 20’s) I used to hang out at this total dive, in a pretty nasty neighborhood that somehow existed surrounded by good neighborhoods in the city, basically Glenwood Ave and Morse – in Chicago (ask Lea from Becoming Supermommy, she’ll back me up). Roy’s is long gone, but the memories (surprisingly) are crystal clear, we split our time between drinking there and having tea and listening to Jazz over at No Exit. (there’s a story about No Exit in this mixtape)

Wait, where was I? Oh right… Tequila and Roy’s. Roy was awesome, he was from Mexico and used to bring over this stuff called Fire God Tequilapeno. Yes tequila + jalapeno. It was pretty pricey stuff (now 129.95 a bottle), but he liked me because I could stomach the stuff as well as any one of his family members, so I got free shots. That might be why I have acid reflux now…hmm.

Also, I always liked a good Tequila Sunrise

 

Man. Thank goodness for the search function on my blog. I really had no idea how many of my favorite songs I have already used on MixTapes. Apparently my memory is as bad as I think it is. Especially since 3 in a row were all on the same mix, ironically, it also was a free for all. I chose Song’s I Love to do Karaoke to.

I know I didn’t use this one though, I was saving it for a Famous Couples mix. It never really came to fruition. It’s an oldie but a goodie. A little ditty.

Jack and Diane – John Mellencamp

 

Neil Diamond will always remind me of my dad. Now that it’s been 25 years without him, I cherish that even more so. My dad looked like him, is from New York like him, acted like him, introduced me to him and definitely sang with the same passion.

I am…I said – Neil Diamond

 

And now. For the cheat. Yup. I get to cheat. Well no one would know, unless they were with me 53 weeks ago AND memorized my very first mix. One of my favorite songs of all time got a lot of play after Peyton Manning (my hero and also my son’s name until we settled on Isaiah, long story) did an awesome skit to this song on SNL. To bad they don’t want it to be public domain because I would happily post it here! Meanwhile here is someone’s bootlegged version of it, it is HIGH-LARIOUS. And watch Peyton’s face, I keep waiting for him to fall on the floor. Also you have to turn it up the sound is horrible.

Meanwhile, I don’t know when I first heard this song, my family loved Herb Alpert, and I always loved the original Casino Royale. But I know why the coach wanted to play this song. As I mentioned before. Earbuds. Grocery store. This is your song. And by the way, while there may be no lyrics, I still sing along.

 

This list took me longer than I thought. Because Duh. I had to sing along with every song! They wouldn’t be Greatest Hits if I could just let them go for a second and then turn them off, would they?

I can’t wait to hear what you have in store for me! Now these are the rules:

Five songs (give or take). Stick to the theme (as best you can). Check out the other players (everyone wants to share their tunes with you). Create a mix, not a “hey look at all the cool songs I know” we’re not snobs, if you were our best bud and you were gonna make us a tape, what would it be?

http://www.linkytools.com/basic_linky_include.aspx?id=230341

And for our last two themes:

April 8 – These Lyrics Are Genius! (Thank you Cyn from Cynking Feeling!) I actually had to eliminate a few songs this week because I realized how awesome they’d be for next week!
April 15 – Missing You. Because I will! But we’ll be back!

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