Dancing Queens

A while back, I wrote about the lost art of the mixtape. And I recently rediscovered one of the best. My first year of college, two friends and I created this tape to be the perfect dance mix, with built-in time to catch your breath. We laughed so much while we created it, and I wish I could scan in the cover art I made (we each made our own for our own copy of the tape). Think fishnets, and sass, and groovin' and love. Four years later, at a party shortly before graduation, someone put a tape on: it was the mix we had made! It had made its way around the school, passed on for its legendary powers to get people up on the dance floor. And we laughed and laughed as we danced. And here's how it went:

Side A

Dancing Queen - ABBA

Respect - ARETHA

Stuck in the Middle - STEALERS WHEEL

Into the Groove - MADONNA

Sweet Dreams - EURYTHMICS

Take On Me - A-HA

1999 - PRINCE

Groove is in the Heart - DEEE-LITE

Girl, You'll Be a Woman Soon - URGE OVERKILL

Vogue - MADONNA

A Fine Romance - LENA HORNE

I Will Survive - GLORIA GAYNOR

Side B

Let's Go Crazy - PRINCE

Tainted Love - SOFTCELL

Wonderwall - OASIS

Laid - JAMES

Jump - THE MOVEMENT

Big Time Sensuality - BJORK

Son of a Preacher Man - DUSTY SPRINGFIELD

Hooked on a Feeling - BLUE SWEDE

Take a Chance on Me - ABBA

St. Elmo's Fire - JOHN PARR

Perhaps, Perhaps, Perhaps - DORIS DAY

You Make Me Feel Like a Natural Woman - ARETHA

Girls Just Want to Have Fun - CYNDI LAUPER

And though we made this tape more than 15 years ago, and it was a mix of our different tastes, and it's a little scratchy from being played so much, and it breaks my personal mixtape rule of using the same artist more than once: it's still fabulous!

Be that girl.