Don't Buy This Album!

If you ever see "Forever 80s" -- a three-disc set with 10 songs each for an amazing $10 -- in your local music store, resist the urge to purchase.

I rarely splurge and buy something for me...and when I did, I got janked!

A couple of weeks ago, I went to Radio City Music Hall to buy tickets for family members coming to NYC for Christmas. I had a few minutes before I'd have to head to Grand Central to catch my train, so I went to FYE, looking for the new Fresh Aire/Mannheim Christmas Album (which I'm told is out, but haven't been able to find yet).

Unable to buy my desired CD, I was lured into a display with the above-mentioned 80s CD boxed set. I checked out the back and saw several great songs that I have yet to purchase from i-Tunes or have on CD. I thought I'd hit a gold mine.

On the train, when I opened the set, I read something in the insert that surprised me. After describing the songs and their iconic value, a sentence started with the simple phrase: "While these songs are not sung by the original artists..."

Then who are they sung by?

I had failed to see the phrase: "The Countdown Singers" on the cover.

In other words: "Songs you know...performed by artists you don't"

Or "All your favorite songs....by a non-familiar group"

Maybe: "You've heard the songs for years....though you've never heard this artist"

What about: "You love the songs...but will hate the singers."


"Jump" by Van Halen is just enough off to be comical. Instead of a guitar doing the riffs, it's a keyboard. "Amanda" just doesn't have that tone of sincerity like Boston. And I don't know if they really spit out all the lyrics in "End of the World" before the music catches up to them.

Then again, I've gotten more than $10 worth of humor and laughter out of this, so I suppose it's worth it. And it's taken me down memory road.

It's kind of like being back at my high school proms when no-name bands performed the hits of the day -- so it's a high school Prom album (sans a Forever Young rendition...a staple of any good Utah HS dance)

So now I have a great 3 CD set of 'cover band' music. I'm not feeling any 'power of love' on this.

Mark