VARIOUS ARTISTS
Best Of The Summer Concert Series (NBC Records)
Reviewed by Shaun Dale

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A regular summer feature of NBC TV's The Today Show is the Friday morning concert series, which features top artists from a variety of genres performing in the street outside the show's studios. This disc features ten of those performances, along with an unreleased live track from Sixpence None The Richer which was performed on the show after the album's production and a special Today show theme cut.

It's an all star collection of performers cranking out some of their best known music, and it's all for a good cause. A piece of the profits is earmarked for the National Colorectal Cancer Research Alliance, which was co-founded by Today show co-host Katie Couric, who lost her husband to the disease in 1998. That's a good enough reason to give this one a try all by itself, but there's some fine music here as well. It's not all music I might ordinarily choose, but some of the cuts I might be least likely to punch up on a juke box, like Amy Grant's "Baby, Baby" or Donna Summer's "I Will Go With You (Con Te Partiro)" turn out to be surprisingly (to me, at least) enjoyable.

It's all very mainstream, but that also makes it a great choice if you've got to buy a gift disc for someone whose tastes lie in that direction. Slip your friends and relations some good tunes, help out a good cause, and don't forget to give it a listen or two yourself. You're likely to have a good time.

Track List:

Sheryl Crow/If It Makes You Happy * Sixpence None The Richer/Us * Phil Collins/You Can't Hurry Love * Hootie & The Blowfish/ Hold My Hand * Brian Setzer Orchestra/Rock This Town * Earth Wind & Fire/September * Lionel Richie/Easy * Donna Summer/I Will Go With You (Con Te Partiro) * Amy Grant (Baby, Baby) * The Pretenders/Human * Doobie Brothers/Blackwater * Bonus Track: America's First TV Family Theme 2000

© 2000 - Shaun Dale