Browsing thru the used CD shop, I came upon some CDs in the thowout bin.
One of them was a nine CD set of the “Greatest Hits of the 80s” in big letters. Followed by in very tiny letters, "as sung by the “Countdown Singers”
I also found CDs of a similar nature by the “Serendipidy Singers” and such
My question is “Who would want that?”
What purpose does anyone want a nine CD set by a bunch of singers no one ever heard of?
That’s probably it - they hope people won’t notice. Maybe it’s cheaper to get some no-name to sing it than to use the original recording. Just a WAG.
But things like that from the cutout bin are some of the best WTF filler stuff in the world to put on CD’s or mix in with other stuff – or to play with.
They’re like humor gold – not always successful, but sometimes wonderfully awful.
I love my recording of Elvis songs in Latin by some Latin Teacher/Elvis Impersonator.
Novelty, for less than 5 bucks is just more fun than you can imagine.
Because some people like the songs, and not necessarily the singers. They don’t really care who sings them – and usually the people they get try to sound as much like the original as they can.
Back in the early days of rock, older people would buy these. The Beatles were long-haired freaks, but an album of “She Loves You” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand,” etc. by The Merseyside or something – tamed a bit – worked for them.
I just checked out samples of their covers at towerrecords.com. These Countdown Singers actually do a pretty good job of imitating the originals, most of the time. They can’t hold a candle to Don McLean’s “American Pie” but, really, who can?