Many a blogger have been writing about their bargain bin CDs. I picked this one up recently for a couple of bucks and it's fun. Not great. But fun.It was the title that caught my eye-- Teen Town U.S.A. I write predominantly for teens in my real life and I just have such a weird pull to anything teen. But these throwback teen comps are usually rife with Frankie and Annette or the same damn twelve songs that played on AM radio when I was a kid. This one actually features a few early recordings by a couple of guys who became famous. The Beach Boys perform as Kenny and the Cadets and Paul Simon as Jerry Landis. Neither is ground-breaking or astonishing, but they're reasonable sock hop type tunes to dance the night away. The rest is made up of lots of other folks that weren't even one hit wonders because these songs were never hits. Still it's a silly lil' slice of Happy Days Americana. My fave? Oh definitely Jerry Landis, aka Paul Simon's ridiculous "Lone Teen Ranger." Hey, it made it to #97 on the pop charts!
Really I'm gonna post some indie rock tomorrow.
Bobby Reed, "High School USA"
Jimmy Jordan, "Tick Tock"
Kenny & the Cadets, "Barbie"
Jimmy Johnson, "Lone Ranger"
Jerry Landis, "Lone Teen Ranger"
The rest of the CD is more of the same. On Yeaah! Records out of the UK, circa the late 90s.
2 comments:
I should send one to my in-laws, who have recently demonstrated (painfully) that "Back to the Beach" with annette and Frankie is "their family movie." It would go over big.
I didn't know about Kenny and the Cadets. Thanks! Cool!
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