Old Enough to Forget

A weird and inexplicably goofy thing happened in 1981. Disco made a brief but memorable comeback inside a Trojan Horse containing rearranged versions and snippets of classical pieces mashed together, alongside a steady drum beat that never varied or wavered. The album was arranged and conducted by Louis Clark. Yeah, the same Louis Clark who once was an integral part of those early Electric Light Orchestra albums who arranged their strings and stuff. The guy must have fallen on hard times to be sucked into the K-Tel universe. Except this album caught on - all over the world it was a hit, and the single, "Hooked on Classics" was a staple on the radio that summer. Heck this album's impact is probably what gave birth to the mashup, inspired DJs to drop their own beat over any existing piece of music, no matter how mundane. All of it owes a debt of gratitude to the fine folks at K-Tel. We're all poorer for it. Still, there was something oddly wonderful about this album. Th...

When I was ten years old I remember hearing "Roll Over Beethoven" and it melted my little brain. This wasn't like anything I'd heard. 1973 was an awesome year for formative rock and roll, and I'd file away names like BTO, Rick Derringer, Ian Thomas, and Alice Cooper for the day when I got older and could buy their albums. So where was ELO on this future list of must-have bands? Not near the top, and as time passed my interest waned. Heck, it was a close thing when "Don't Bring Me Down" and "My Sharona" were vying for the world's most overplayed song, but I managed to NOT get either album. Then in 1980 the band tried to do their own version of The Wiz by releasing the soundtrack to Xanadu and I wrote them off - this was not rock and roll. Then the year I graduated the band dropped Time , and for whatever reason this weird, electronic, cheesy release resonated with me and I played the album until I was pretty sure I could hear bleed-ove...