As you know, our Ultimate Mixtapes are usually a collaborative process amongst the Popdose authors. Typically, we end up with a lot more suggested tracks than we can actually use. Some (like “If I Could Build My Whole World Around You”) don’t make the final cut because they don’t fit in musically. Some (like “The Earth Died Screaming”) are pretty much perfect but get bumped by something even more perfect. Some (like “Jiggery Pokery” and “The Party’s Crashing Us Now”) get overlooked because they don’t fit into the weird arbitrary criteria the editor uses to whittle down the final collection. And some, (like all of the contest entries) we just didn’t happen to think of on our own. But we still think they’re worth hearing, so we’ve put together our first ever B-Sides collection. We hope you enjoy it, and thanks to everyone who made suggestions.
Speaking of suggestions, we have a winner in our iPad cover giveaway! Andrew Arensburger, who suggested that we add the Louis Armstrong song “What a Wonderful World” to the end of the first volume of the Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Mixtape, won the “Don’t Panic” iPad cover generously provided by MyCase Concepts.
One last thing. At the end of the third volume of the mixtape I included Pink Floyd’s “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” as a “dedication” track that I thought had no particular relation to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy excepting that Douglas Adams was a big fan of the band. As commenter Joncwriter pointed out, that song was actually used in the original BBC radio series but omitted from the released recordings due to licensing issues. I had no idea – it’s entirely a coincidence that I chose that particular track, which seems wonderfully appropriate because it’s these kind of coincidences that Douglas Adams seemed to really enjoy.
We hope you enjoyed the music. Credit for the clever theme and magnificent artwork goes to DwDunphy, who I can’t thank enough for his tireless contributions to these pieces.
1. “The Earth Died Screaming” – Tom Waits
2. “Light of Day” – Babel Fish
3. “If I Could Build My Whole World Around You” – Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell
4. “What’s He Building” – Tom Waits
5. “Rock and Roll Music” – The Beatles
6. “Knowitall” – Phantom Planet
7. “Turn It On” – Level 42
8. “The Question” – The Fixx
9. “What a Wonderful World” – Louis Armstrong
10. “Book of Brilliant Things” – Simple Minds
11. “That Man Jumped out the Window” – Cloud Cult
12. “My Mind’s Got a Mind of its Own” – Phish
13. “You’re So Vain” – Susannah Hoffs and Matthew Sweet
14. “You’re My Meat” – Joe Jackson
15. “Sundrops” – Kristin Hersh
16. “Wooden Ships” – Crosby Stills and Nash
17. “Jiggery Pokery” – The Duckworth Lewis Method
18. “Another Girl, Another Planet” – The Only Ones
19. “Wasting My Hate” – Metallica
20. “The Party’s Crashing Us Now” – Of Montreal
21. “What a Lovely Tune” – The Shadows
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