My Wedding Tape, 40 Years On

Someone has a notable anniversary today, so excerpts from my "Wedding Tape," with everyone from Sam Cooke and Louis Armstrong to Aretha and Bruce Springsteen. No wedding bell blues here.

Forty years ago today, in Greenwich Village, I completed doing one of the things I loved best—copying beloved songs off vinyl onto cassette tape for a fun gathering, usually a party, my own or someone else’s. But this task was a little different: It was for the small reception/dinner that was to follow the Mitchell-Bedway wedding uptown that (Sunday) afternoon. I was happy about a lot of things that evening but one of them was that some of the guests and even the restaurant’s staff told me they loved the song selection. So below, just a few of the tracks (yes I still retain the list, and the fabulous spouse). Join in the celebration but don’t forget to subscribe, it’s still free, and then invite others to join the daily party if you want it to go on.

Louis Armstrong, “Ain’t Misbehavin”. The father of us all.

Hank Williams, live, “Hey Good Lookin’” (with June Carter cameo)

Sam Cooke, “That’s Where It’s At.” Indeed.

We saw Alberta Hunter do this—a few times—a year or two before the wedding during her legendary residency at The Cookery in the Village.

The Flamingos, “I Only Have Eyes for You.” Amazingly, first night of our honeymoon in Key West, the group was singing in the hotel lounge.

The McGarrigles, “Be My Baby.” Not the Ronettes by a long shot.

Neil Young, “Comes a Time,” live, with Nicolette, of course.

Richard and Linda Thompson, live, “Dimming of the Day.” On this tour, however, they were breaking up, rather publicly, but we won’t mention that.

Van the Man, “The Way Young Lovers Do.” And still do.

Aretha, “Baby, I Love You.”

Beatles live, I’m in love with her and “I Feel Fine.”

Dylan, “Wedding Song.” Didn’t work out for him, either, but we also won’t mention that.

Springsteen says, “I Wanna Marry You.” We saw him do this at MSG that year (1980), three years before our wedding.

Tina Turner asks: Do I love you, “River Deep, Mountain High”? Obviously. Ike and Phil, not so much.

Smokey and the Miracles, “I Second That Emotion”—for “a lifetime of devotion” (as it turned out).

Plus…

A sampling of others on the tapes: “Not Fade Away,” “Today I Met the Boy I’m Going to Marry,” “Brown Eyed-Girl,” “Come Rain or Come Shine,” “You Turn Me On (I’m a Radio)”, “Do Right Woman,” “Give One Heart (Get Back Two),” “The Best Is Yet to Come,” “Mystery Dance,” “It Takes Two,” “You Send Me,” “The Look of Love,” “In My Life,” “Embraceable You,” “The Girl Can’t Help It,” “Time to Kill,” “Hallelujah, I Just Love Her So,” and many more….

Greg Mitchell is the author of a dozen books, including the bestseller The Tunnels (on escapes under the Berlin Wall), the current The Beginning or the End (on MGM’s wild atomic bomb movie), and The Campaign of the Century (on Upton Sinclair’s left-wing race for governor of California), which was recently picked by the Wall St. Journal as one of five greatest books ever about an election. His new film, Atomic Cover-up, just had its world premiere and is drawing extraordinary acclaim. For nearly all of the 1970s he was the #2 editor at the legendary Crawdaddy. Later he served as longtime editor of Editor & Publisher magazine. He recently co-produced a film about Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.

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