The first “silly cassette tape full of songs” Regina Spektor submitted to the U.S Copyright Office was entitled “Dressed in canvass”, with a copyright registration number of PAu002334372, which contained a cassette tape and six lyrics sheets.¹

The work was signed on 1998-07-30 and submitted to the U.S. Copyright Office on 1998-08-04. The tape itself had markings “Regina Spektor © (ME)" / "7/98”, indicating it was created sometime in July 1998. Furthermore, two of the lyrics sheets were dated as “2/98”, indicating they were either written or recorded sometime in February 1998 while Regina was still attending high school.²

The cassette tape contained seven songs in total, one of which (“Sunshine”) would appear on a later cassette tape as well as see release on Regina Spektor’s first LP, 11:11. The remaining six songs never saw release and are unknown outside of this registered cassette tape. Track names were written on the label of the cassette tape itself, though these did not always agree with titles as written on corresponding lyrics sheets.²

• The first track is entitled “Round the Mountain”. It had a corresponding typed lyrics sheet dated “7/98” which identified the track by the alternate title “He says”.
• The second track is entitled “Crowded Bus Stop”. It had a corresponding typed lyrics sheet dated “2/98” which identified the track by the alternate title “Standing on the bus stop”.
• The third track is entitled “Minotaur”. It had a corresponding typed lyrics sheet dated “7/98”.
• The fourth track is entitled “Little Man”. It had a corresponding typed lyrics sheet dated “2/98”.
• The fifth track is entitled “Looking at the Stars”. It had a corresponding typed lyrics sheet dated “7/98”.
• The sixth track is entitled “Sunshine”. It had a corresponding typed lyrics sheet dated “7/98”.
• The seventh and final track is entitled “Dressed in Canvas”. The alternate, misspelled title “Dressed in Canvass” was included both on the copyright application as well as the tape label. However, the tape’s tracklist used the correctly spelled title “Dressed in Canvas”. There was no corresponding typed lyrics sheet for this track.

The audio quality indicates the songs were performed with an upright piano and microphone, recorded by a nearby cassette player. It is currently unknown where the “Dressed in Canvas” cassette was recorded or if it was recorded over multiple sessions.

² denotes original research conducted at the U.S. Copyright Office located at 101 Independence Ave SE, Washington, DC 20540. Primary research artifacts may be inspected by individuals with an appropriate library card who pay the inspection fee. More information available here.