Web Sites Help Oldies Fans Customize Their Own CDs

Remember the 99-cent 45 record? As kids, many of us were too short on funds to spring for a long-playing album, but we could afford the $1.07 (with tax) for a 45--chart-topping A-side, obscure B-side.

My first 45s (in fifth grade) were “My Eyes Adored You” by Frankie Valli and “Brandy” (“you’re a fine girl . . . but my life, my love, my lady is the sea”). I know. But hey, I was 11.

Nostalgic for those good old days and repeatedly unable to fit those old 45s into my compact disc player, I bought a portable record player on EBay for $11. It was a swell-looking player with Michael Jackson gracing the cover but it arrived sans needle.

Still, this hasn’t made me Net-shy, no siree. While the Internet might have helped this EBay swindler cheat me out of 11 bucks, for 11 more bucks I can get 11 songs from the Looking Glass (or was “Brandy” its only one?) over the Internet. And these tunes won’t come with the hisses, skips and pops that the Michael Jackson player would surely have furnished (if it had come with the promised 20-year-old needle).

Web sites like Customdisc.com and Musicmaker.com let you create a custom CD, tailored to your own tastes. It’s the mixed tape, gussied up for the new millennium.

Now, sure, I could nab “Brandy” for free with Napster (the free music swap shareware that’s 2 good 2 be legal 4 long), but (besides the fact that I would have to search through song after song from the artist known as Brandy) what if I don’t have a CD-burner, a drive that writes as well as reads CD-ROMs? For the less tech-savvy among us--the Not Ready for MP3 Players--the 99-cent song is back and on sale at many an easy-to-use e-music site.

One spot where you’re likely to find “Brandy, you’re a fine girl” is Ktel.com. That’s right, the label known for cheesy compilation albums hawked on late-night TV is wired and selling custom CDs online.

Like all these sites, you can sample the song (is “Tell Laura I Love Her” as awesome now as it was in fifth grade?). Then just mix and match, personalize the jewel case with your own title and select from nine Hallmarky cover-art schemes (Roses! Sunsets! Pearls!).

But nota bene: Some of the songs you think you know and love are actually not the original versions. Often you’ll find the artist listed as some has-been, formerly of a certain band, whose career now consists of rerecording oldies. Splurge 99 cents on “This Magic Moment,” for example, and the singer will be Jay Black, formerly of Jay & the Americans.

Worse, if you don’t pay attention to the artist, you might be listening to Starsound Orchestra’s Muzak version.

At Customdisc.com, you can get your money back if you don’t like the CD you’ve made. But you’ll likely find what you want here. CustomDisc.com specializes is customized digital entertainment, with made-to-order CDs and digital downloads too. It plans to expand into DVDs, Just-in-Time CDs (catalogs that aren’t being pressed anymore can be made into full CDs through CustomDisc), CustomMiniDiscs, film and television.

In addition to their mega selection, CustomDisc editors can do the work for you, suggesting compilations like “Hackey-Sack Reggae Party” or “Music for ‘Sopranos’ Fans” (that latter including “I’m Not Bitter I Just Want to Kill You”). You can check or uncheck whichever songs you like or don’t like, or make a hybrid CD--part “Karma Sutra Ambient World,” part “Frat Toga Party.”

There are 13 party mixes to choose from, ranging from “Music for a Bachelorette Party” (including “Married Woman Blues”) to “Alternative Drinking Songs” (such as “Mom’s Drunk,” “Let’s Get Drunk” and “A Drunker Version of You”).

Other sites offering similar services include Musicmaker.com, which features exclusive live recordings of Jimmy Page & the Black Crowes and, coming up, live Who concerts. Music retailers such as CDNOW.com also have custom departments. In fact, CDNOW reports that custom CDs were the Valentine’s Day gift of choice for its customers, outselling by 67% Santana’s multiplatinum album, “Supernatural,” which had held CDNOW’s No. 1 sales position for the prior 12 weeks.

With Mother’s Day right around the corner, followed by graduation and wedding season, it’s truly the time to log on and craft customized, giftable music. For the graduate? “Get a Job” by Sha Na Na. For Mom? “Bald-Headed Mama Blues”? “Big Bad Mama”? “Hot Rod Mama”? Or perhaps the squeaky cleaner “Always Be Kind to Your Mother,” by Reno & Smiley.

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Erika Milvy is currently accepting ideas for baby-themed ditties for an impending baby shower. Ideas can be sent to erika@well.com.