If Oakenfold had one thing going for him back in his "prime", it was the quality of tracks he used to find. He could never mix for shit and most of the sets I've heard from him have mediocre flow at best (which is to be expected when your transitions and cue points are so limited by your lack of technical ability), but for a good while, he managed to find and break (or just license and hammer) a lot of undeniably brilliant tracks and that was enough to make him a superstar. The man's career is a testament to canny business sense and jumping on hot trends at exactly the right moment. Oakenfold never pioneered, only popularised. I'm sure that will provoke the ire of the obligatory gaggle of Oakey acolytes, but anyone with any sense knows I'm right.
As for tunes, there are loads of obvious choice, but here's a slightly less well known selection:
in his prime, oakie had the best sense of taste of anyone. man could spot talent and tracks with the best of them. mixing was subpar sure but perfecto released a lot of great tracks and oake spotted a lot of great talent. for that he should always be remembered.
