This mix is dedicated in part to my brother Ben, who this weekend is graduating from college.

1) Merry Clayton - Yes
2) Howard Jones - Everlasting Love
3) Howard Jones - No One is to Blame
4) Howard Jones - Things Can Only Get Better
5) Matthew Wilder - Break My Stride
6) Boy Meets Girl - Waiting for a Star to Fall
7) Paul Young - I Want to Know What Love Is
8) Eric Carmen - Hungry Eyes
9) Eric Carmen - Make Me Lose Control
10) The Raspberries - Go All the Way
11) Badfinger - No Matter What
12) Badfinger - Baby Blue
13) Badfinger - Day After Day
14) Corey Hart - Never Surrender
15) Corey Hart - I Wear My Sunglasses at Night
16) Animotion - Room to Move
17) Animotion - Obsession
18) Go West - King of Wishful Thinking
19) Go West - Faithful
This happens to me all the time. I find my musical fixes are based on seasonal needs. That is, with weather changes, as my mind shifts gears, my musical taste morphs. This time last year, I was really getting into one of the songs in this mix, Howard Jones' "No One is to Blame." Here it is, spring again, and my HoJo fix grows. The best way to describe this week's collection of songs is as more of a historical list than a beginning to end cohesive playlist.

After Dirty Dancing alone in my shoebox apartment for much of last week, I watched Dirty Dancing Live in Concert, a live performance of the music from the film which toured in 1988, and I found myself on the edge of my couch. The footage was so dated, so silly, and it showed what a phenomenon D Squared had become in this country.

I vividly remember the car trips to Wichita, Kansas that year with my brother, the perpetual backseat DJ, asking dad to "Weewind! 'Hungwy Eyes!'"

You see, my chubby, chubby, little brother was under the impression that Eric Carmen's massively successful single "Hungry Eyes," was about a man obessesed with sweets, as he was; a chocoholic from a young age, my brother'd stuff any sugary concoction into his ruddy cheeks with sweeping fistfuls, his babyfat arms like crescents blithely swinging through bags of Hershey's Kisses or Nestle Tollhouse Morsels.

I've tangented from the oh so wonderful Dirty Dancing Live in Concert. In it, Mr. Carmen, ever the diva, fits the role well. It's clear he's looking past the fact he is a burnt out former frontman for a respected pack of rockers, The Raspberries. It's clear he's upset he'll be known as much for crafting a song from a movie as he would one that could stand on its own, like his other massive solo hit, "All By Myself." What isn't clear is why he looks like a bloated, valium-addicted, Long Island housewife. For some reason, he opted for blown out bottle blond lion's mane, smoky eye shadow, burgundy blush, and the tiger print gold lame' evening jacket. His blanched tapered jeans, black leotard, skinny suspenders, and what look like white lace-up Keds, all fitting about two sizes too small, make him look more like Streisand than Springsteen.

His look so startled me that I found myself researching the man as only I can. I learned about his breaking into music with his Mentor, Ohio buddies, helming the steering wheel on the crash-friendly Raspberries. His move to California to become one of the early eighties best songwriters (mostly known for his soundtrack help; see Footloose and Dirty Dancing).

And then I expanded, looking for sounds that immitated Carmen, contemporaries, finding the following music suited a certain nostalgia I had for heavily produced songs of the latter day new wave saints. Badfinger made its way in becoming one of the Raspberries major chart competitors. Badfinger was the only successful band to come out of the Apple Records debaucle them Beatles put together.

As for Boy Meets Girl, let's just say, they rule. Without them, there'd be no Whitney Houston. That's right. No Whitney. And without "Waiting for a Star to Fall" there'd be no title sequence to Three Men and a Little Lady, at least not one I'd remember.

Animotion was fronted in its final days by Cynthia Rhodes, the blonde dancer/actress in Double D who played Penny Johnson, the would be dancer extraordinaire if not for her fated run-in with Robbie "I Get My Thing Stuck in Other Things" Gould. Oh yeah, and she's Mrs. Richard Marx. Chicagoans just call her Mrs. Dick Marx.

This mix was solidified when, while shaving at school, we in the men's lounge had an impromptu dance party to "Never Surrender" complete with fist pumping and towel snaps. My Quebecois amigo, Conrad, confirmed that Corey Hart, Canada's pride and joy, now lives in the Bahamas with his wife and kids. Rough life you Canadians lead.

Oh yeah, and there's Matthew Wilder AKA Matthew Weiner, the one time consumate ladies' man and now he who lays claim to unearthing the talent of No Doubt. Love. Angel. Music. Baby.
We all know.

For 100 points and the game, what two films mentioned here are related by director? What is his name? For the Big Ben Jammin' bonus point: How did he die?