Zooey Deschanel's mixtape of "happy songs"

bradleysroka:

“Happiness songs are, like, my area,” Deschanel told Jada Yuan for a recent New York magazine profile. Three months later, she handed the author a CD mixtape, which is linked via this post’s title, and by individual track below.

Deschanel’s husband, Ben Gibbard (aka Death Cab for Cutie), explained how he was “immediately taken when we first met that she had this just, like, immense knowledge of really obscure music. I hate to say it, but it’s the kind of obsession that mostly dudes have. Like, ‘Oh, but Emitt Rhodes’s second record …’ Nerdy, lonely guys know about this stuff. She’s turned me on to a lot of music I hadn’t heard.”

From New York:

Listen to the Mix Tape

1. “Rudy, a Message to You,” by Dandy Livingstone (the original 1967 ska version, long before the Specials made it a hit)
2. “Let’s Dance,” by Chris Montez, 1962
3. “Magnet,” by NRBQ, 1972
4. “Funny Funny,” by Sweet, 1971
5. “She’d Rather Be With Me,” by the Turtles, 1967
6. “Pushover,” by Etta James, 1963
7. “Be True to Your School,” by the Beach Boys, 1963 (Their early period, but, says Gibbard, “she’s really into late-era Beach Boys. For all I knew, the Beach Boys stopped making records after Pet Sounds. I’m a musician. I should know better than that. She was like, ‘You’ve never heard ‘Sunflower’? And she was, like, mad about it.”)
8. “Georgy Girl,” by the Seekers, 1966
9. “Yes We Can,” by Lee Dorsey, 1970 (a hit for the Pointer Sisters, it was remixed in 2008 for Obama supporters)
10. “Wonderful! Wonderful!,” by the Tymes, 1963
11. “Darlin’,” by the Paper Dolls, 1968 (a Beach Boys cover)
12. “Love Comes to Everyone,” by George Harrison, 1979
13. “After Hours,” by the Velvet Underground, featuring Maureen Tucker, 1969 (the song Lou Reed reportedly said was too innocent and pure for him to butcher)

(via givemezooey)