And swallow it down with the yurple. (Yurple?)

It makes perfect sense that Essential Mix producer Pete Tong chose New York via London club darling Mark Ronson to spin the show's first set of 2007, a year that would afford the Allido Records founder a respectable share of stateside fame. With projects like Amy Winehouse's sophomore LP and Lily Allen's debut embraced by both the Starbucks crowd and tequila swilling party-grrrls alike, the socialite's son ended summer '07 with the release of an earnest solo album, impressively managing to reinforce any jeopardized club credibility. The man can still DJ.

Today's mix is not so much a club set, more of a DJ Yoda style megamix- the expected team of Allen/ Ghostface/ Winehouse/ Merriwether make their requisite appearances, though with refreshing flourishes from artists outside Mark's regular sample stable, the piece rounds out quite nicely, and serves as a fine little party starter.

Our favorite moment of the set comes with the phenomenal drop of Rhymefest's "Devil's Pie", played right into Regina Spektor's "Fidelity", and capped off with jazzy panache by the DJ's own remix of The Smiths' "How Soon Is Now?", a beat-happy bleak floor filler that's classic Ronson. We're still waiting to see just one of the bigger indie pop DJs jump on that terrific Morgan Page remix of "Fidelity", but we suppose it'll happen in due time. A nod of the hat to the original mix more than compensates for spinning his Ghostface/Nate Dogg collaboration "Ooh Wee" twice in the same set. (Yeah, one of them is a remix, but still. We remember being in middle school when CBS Radio Boston affiliate Mix 98.5 sponsored a free outdoor Lou Bega concert. Bega performed six songs, three of which were "Mambo No. 5", no joke. )

Thankfully, the flagship Essential Mix of 2007 suffers no Lou Bega. Featuring the likes of DangerDoom, Chaka Khan, Billy Bragg, and /am.fm.pm/ favorites Three 6 Mafia, Mark Ronson's Radio1 Essential Mix of 1/07/07 is available for download right here. Who knew that Vassar boys could dance?

Mark Ronson - Radio1 Essential Mix 1/07/07 (.rar)