In one of the latest signs that I'm getting older, eight of the ten people I questioned after listening to Super Fantastic Mega Smash Hits don't remember K-tel Records. Too bad, because not since those fun-filled K-tel albums of the seventies and early eighties has there been a compilation of songs as eclectic as Super Fantastic Mega Smash Hits.
The concept of the album, alternative artists covering songs that wound up on K-tel and Ronco albums with great regularity, is an intriguing one. But what makes this more than just a gimmick-laden album is that the majority of the tracks are extremely well-done and all of them are likeable. The artists range from alternative favorites like Smashing Pumpkins to lesser-known acts like The New Duncan Imperials - with each providing their own take on the great (and some not-so-great) songs of yesteryear.
One of the things that made the K-tel and Ronco albums so cool was that there wasn't any one genre of music represented, but whatever songs were hip at the time wound up on the album. It was quite possible that you would find Kool & The Gang right next to James Taylor, and Super Fantastic Smash Hits follows the same path. For example, Southern Culture on the Skid's blues version of "Venus" runs right before Vic Chestnut's appropriately dark cover of Vicki Lawrence's "The Night the Lights Went Out In Georgia" (of course, with the lyrics adapted to fit a man's point of view, now the song is *really* confusing). Like a really cool radio station where you don't know what they're going to play next - but you know it will be good and the album keeps your interest.
In one of the finest moments on the album, Rex Daisy remind us that television theme songs were popular long before Friends with a cover of "Welcome Back". Other tracks, like Fig Dish's "Kung-Fu Fighting" and The Slug's "Hooked on a Feeling" instantly pull you in and serve as either a interesting bit of history or a journey back to your youth - depending on your age.
Now, some of the songs take a little while to grab your ear. bo bud greene's version of "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" seems to have more in common with Yoko Ono than Elton John and Kiki Dee on first listen. Likewise, Poster Children's take on Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" is rather annoying, but eventually grows on you, supported mostly by the strength of the entire album.
Super Fantastic Mega Smash Hits could have been a horrible attempt at camp. But, by not falling into campiness so deep that it would impossible to get out without platform shoes and polyester pants, it makes for a great group of songs that you probably haven't heard in awhile...unless, of course, you think "K-tel" are the call letters for your local AM talk radio station.
