Last night’s discovery of Party Fox inspired me to dig out the first pop music cassette I ever bought, a compilation aptly named The No.1 Dance Party Album which also happens to be the best compilation I’ve ever had the pleasure of hearing (closely rivalled by TOTP V1 of 1998).
On first look, it appears to be just another album full of cheesy party songs put out just in time for Xmas in 1997, yet further inspection shows that it held the perfect mix of 90s dance floorfillers, the top pop tunes and the most memorable pop songs since the 70s. It was the perfect introduction to pop music for me and several of the songs (eg. Flashdance (What A Feeling), Ooh Aah Just A Little Bit and Don’t Leave Me This Way) are still among my all-time favourites which always make me smile, and I’m pretty certain that wouldn’t be the case if I hadn’t listened to them on repeat between the ages of 9 and 12 (and quite regularly since then!). Basically, every child growing up and beginning to take an interest in music should be given a copy of this CD, which is still easily available on Amazon, and perhaps the future of pop music would be a little more exciting.