Mixtape with a song for every year for 50 years

[iridium]

I am embarking on a project for DP's upcoming 50th birthday. He lives and breathes music and it has been a big part of his life so I am going to try and make a compilation of 50 tracks, one released in each year since he was born, so since 1961.

He has always been into every wave of new music, especially electronic - punk, new wave, new romantic, acid house, hip hop, etc. etc.

Can I ask you kind souls to suggest what seminal songs I should include? Don't worry about pinning down the year - wikipedia will be my friend in this I think.

What a good idea! Have you thought about taking the number one from the singles chart of his birth week? Would that give a good cross section of music that you might not otherwise choose?

Otherwise, I suppose I'm a 90's girl and would say the usual Oasis, Blur, Pulp, suede, radiohead, defined my decade.

Oo that's a good idea to check the singles charts. I hadn't thought of that. The songs DP likes are probably not always the most popular, but it'll be great for inspiration.

Talked to Dh about this last night - he said I should consult an expert i.e. HIM! Anyway - I said what I'd suggested for the 90's and he said you should add some Snoop Dog or gangsta rap and some Take That/boy bands as being representative of the 90's.

I know what you mean about them not always liking the popular stuff - DH goes through phases of blues, jazz, country, rock and it's always unheard of!!

great idea! maybe look at some of those lists that the music mags do e.g. nme lists

The NME lists are fantastic. Just skimming through I've seen a ton of people I should include that I hadn't thought of yet. I'm going to look if any DJ magazines have similar.

Thanks for discussing it with your DH, PutOnThePan. Snoop and co is a good suggestion. I'll have to ferret out something in that vein. I'm going to steer clear of the boy bands though. :) I want to be a reflection of more what DP has been listening to over the years. Radiohead's going on there too.

For most of the years, I think I'm going to have to pick bands I know he likes and try and shoehorn them into all the gaps based on when albums came out etc.

The 60s and early 70s is the big problem era. He doesn't like a huge amount from that era generally, and I know he doesn't like the Beatles and Rolling Stones. It might end up being the ones I like from then instead!

For some of the latter years (from 1967 onwards) You can use John Peel's festive 50s. Much fabulousness to be found here you can probably borrow it from the library. Hmm I'm now doubting myself the festive fifties might be in one of the bios. Here
Sorry if a little coherent am super tired

What a good idea
For the problem years of the 60s/70s how about using music from films that he likes? James Bond or the British films like Get carter and From Sir with Love. There must be loads of films that you could pick from, you just need to find out his favs and the years they came out.