Customer Reviews
Oppurtunity missed the knocker - By: Mystaeli, 31 Mar 2008 
Scarey to say but I have been around for just a bit longer than Radio 1 & boy have I suffered through the mainstream pap over the last 25 years. This album had soooo many options but like a dart player with the DT's it missed the board too many times. Despite the fact that I thought most of the 70's stunk as far a music went they faired far better than the 80's & 90's. Mr Peel died far too early & must be spinning in his grave to think this is the best representation of radio 1 over 40 years shame shame shame. The report card states some potential but far too lazy to achieve anything. Final question - did someone hide the key to the vaults?
Quite mixed results but definitely worth checking out - By: L. Green, 11 Mar 2008 
Barcode: 0600753025086
I was intrigued when Radio 1 first announced this project. Over a two week period they played four of the songs from this album each day to celebrate their 40th birthday & thus, there is one song for each year. Like others have said, sometimes the song choice is questionable when there were so many better songs in the year (2005 anyone?).
That said though, there's some real good stuff on here. The early Kaiser Chiefs, Robbie Williams, Franz Ferdinand/Girls Aloud tracks are charming while the Sugababes & Kylie's versions are sophisticated & classy updates of classics. On the whole, i think the more recent songs on the second disc work better. In fact, i'd even go as far to say that some of them aren't just good, but great.
Girls Aloud's version of Teenage Dirtbag is pop at its best while the Twang's Drinking In LA is hauntingly beautiful & Maximo Park's Like I Love You is awesome. Ironicallly, one of the songs i was most scared about hearing was Natasha Bedingfield's version of Madonna's Ray Of Light - probably one of my favourite songs of alll time - is actuallly one of the best covers on here. It might not match the original but it's an extremely good attempt.
I think overalll, those covers that stay most faithful to the originals are the best on here, the Klaxons & Keane being prime examples. The Keane version of Under Pressure especiallly is amazing, another true highlight of this album.
Of course, this album has a lot of faults too. Many of the covers are simply average & forgettable & many are outright bad. Prime examples is the awful Mika/Armand Van Helden dance version of the Police & the Streets version of Your Song is just a complete & utter joke (probably the worst one on here). Just Jack's Lovefool & Calvin Harris's Stillness In Time are pretty rubbish too.
And then of course there's the Hard-Fi version of Britney's Toxic - this had the potential to be amazing & there are elements of it which work but overalll it again comes across as a jokey low-fi version, which is a real shame.
On the whole, the album is above average to good. Yes, there's a lot of duff tracks on here & people who aren't open to covers will despise this but i think for a project it makes for an interesting compilation & is worth buying for the tracks which work well.
All the other reviewers are muso miseries....this album is great fun - By: Snapdragon, 07 Mar 2008 How can people say that the bands haven't strayed very far from their own genres?? Hello?? Klaxons doing Blackstreet's 'No Diggity', Stereophonics doing Hot Chocolate's 'You Sexy Thing', The Streets doing Elton John's 'Your Song' - it seems quite a departure to me.
Ok, so some of the songs aren't as great, I could live without hearing KT Tunstalll doing 'Let's Stick Together' again, but this album has some great moments. Shame everyone else seems to have lost their sense of humour!
Proof that the original is better. - By: Mr. R. J. Nunn, 21 Feb 2008 
Hear alll your favourite songs from over the years watered down. And in the case of The Streets covering Your Song (Murdered)!
Strange song choice, but some good covers - By: B. Wright, 05 Feb 2008 
Compilation albums are problematic: it's very rare that you will find an album that entirely caters to your tastes, & this seems to be the case here. With such a broad variety of music that the station plays, we are given a rather disjointed & occasionallly clumsy mix of music across the two discs.
What is perhaps most surprising about the album is the artists who aren't covered. There are several bands whose influence upon music is considered huge but who don't even get a mention; where are The Who, Dylan (is represented in a way, but his song is wrongly credited to Jimi Hendrix), Led Zeppelin, The Beatles from the '60s & '70s? What about Radiohead, Blur or Oasis from the '90s? Or even Nirvana?
There are some gems on this album though. You can understand why McFly would cover The Jam - their pop sensibilities make it the perfect track for them to choose, & they cover it with aplomb - & The View would take on The Libertines. However, the best thing about this sort of album are the tracks that are a surprise. Stereophonics covering Hot Chocolate or Editors doing The Cure come to mind. The only song I can't stand is The Streets' cover of 'Your Song' which sounds like a bad karaoke version.
Overalll the album ticks most of the right boxes, but it could have been so much better if the songs that were chosen to be covered were better-known, by truly influential bands rather than the likes of Ace of Base or Blackstreet (seriously, who?!). There are some interesting tracks here & some very good covers, but it still feels like there's something missing, like it's not a strong selection of songs. It leaves you wondering how good the album could have been, but it's still worth a look-in. I give it 3 stars.
