The original Abba recordings are much better.

Best album cover ever! (With Herb Alpert’s “Whipped Cream” coming in a close second.)

This is the first CD I pull out at the start of the holiday season.

While this album is an interesting technical achievement, it mostly comes off as a strange mish-mash of remixes. The best moment is the stripped-down version of Harrison’s beautiful “While My Guitar Gently Weeps.” The song is finally allowed to stand on its own considerable merits, without being buried under Clapton’s wildly overrated guitar doodling.

This is the perfect 80s synthpop album. Every time I listen to it, I’m right back in the days of makeup and wild hair.

As a “serious” musician, my bio should name someone like Mozart, or John Coltrane, or The Beatles as my main musical influence. The truth, however, is that the person who first set me on the road toward being a musician was…David Cassidy! I remember turning on th TV as a little kid, seeing Keith Partridge, and thinking, “I want to be just like that!” The first single I ever bought was David Cassidy’s solo, “Could It Be Forever.” But I’m not ashamed. Yes, the songs on this collection are bubblegum, but darn good bubblegum!

I’ve now listened to several of Putumayo’s compilations of music from around the world, and I’ve enjoyed them all!

As missmartinit mentions below, this book gives a strong nod to “The Velveteen Rabbit.” It owes an even larger debt to Rachel Field’s wonderful book “Hitty: Her First Hundred Years.” All three are well worth reading!

This is a tight CD, good band, decent singers…and it’s all boring as hell! This is Broadway by Committee. There is NOTHING original here. I suppose if you saw the show onstage it might be entertaining, but listening to this CD, it’s not hard to see why people make fun of music theater. Broadway needs a good shot of originality!

My wife and I do not have any kids, nor do we plan to; but we still love reading children’s books!