The first Ongoing History of New Music CD came out 25 years ago today.
Remember CDs? They were plastic things that stored digital music and needed to played in a special machine. In 1996, they were all the rage. Record companies loved them because the profit margins were so high. They were also willing to splash out a few bucks to help out with certain projects by radio stations and MuchMusic.
On this day in 1996, the first-ever Ongoing History of New Music CD was released. I helped with the tracklisting and wrote the liner notes. I’d completely forgotten about this until Scot Turner (who tracks such things) reminded me.
Here’s what was on the CD:
- China Crisis, Working with Fire and Steel
- Heaven 17, Let Me Go!
- Flying Lizards, Money
- Stephen “Tin Tin” Duffy, Kiss Me
- Voice of America, Story of Love
- World Party, Ship of Fools
- XTC, Senses Working Overtime
- OMD, So in Love
- Japan, Gentlemen Take Polaroids
- Flying Picks, Only You
- Simple Minds, Love Song
- Talk Talk, It’s My Life
- Waterboys, The Whole of the Moon
- Kate Bush, Wuthering Heights
- Duran Duran, Girls on Film
A collector’s item, right? Well, maybe. You can find a copy on Discogs.com for around $15.
I still have my copy. Still one of my favourite collections from that time. In fact, just re-ripped it so I can listen to it in lossless audio quality.
Kinda sad that those 15 songs (and many more of their ilk) no longer get any airplay on Edge 102.