Women Rock! Girls & Guitars (2000) is one of those custom music CDs that various companies would indulge in a couple decades ago. This one happened to be available “Exclusively at Sears” (Starbucks used to do these types of CDs, too). Whoever assembled these songs loved Heart: there’s “Barracuda” and “Crazy on You” as well as a live version of “Maybe I’m Amazed” with Cyndi Lauper. This CD has a lot of Heart!
Of course there are dozens of other women in Rock whose songs could have been chosen, but this is the line-up that the suits at Sears seemed to prefer. My favorite songs on this CD are Wynonna’s “Only Love” and Cyndi Lauper’s classic “Girls Just Want to Have Fun.” What do you think? GRADE: B-
TRACK LIST:
| 1 | Heart– | Barracuda | 4:25 |
| 2 | Sheryl Crow– | If It Makes You Happy | 5:27 |
| 3 | Wynonna– | Only Love | 3:35 |
| 4 | Amy Grant– | Takes A Little Time | 4:35 |
| 5 | Heart– | Crazy On You | 4:55 |
| 6 | Melissa Etheridge– | I’m The Only One | 4:57 |
| 7 | Cyndi Lauper– | Girls Just Want To Have Fun | 3:58 |
| 8 | Destiny’s Child– | Amazing Grace | 2:43 |
| Bonus Track | |||
| 9 | Cyndi Lauper / Heart– | Maybe I’m Amazed (Live) | 3:45 |
No wonder Sears went out of business. I kind of like Cyndi Lauper but that’s it. Wynonna? Amy Grant? Destiny’s Child? They are not women who rock. On top of that it’s only nine tracks. Pretty skimpy. D-
Steve, you might be right about this weak music CD being a contributing factor to SEARS’ demise.
I like the Cindy Lauper and Heart songs, but I’m with Steve: there are so many other female rockers who could have been included here. With a title like “Women Rock,” I was expecting Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, Chrissie Hyde & the Pretenders, Patti Smith, even Stevie Nicks in her “Rock A Little” days, not Amy Grant and Wynonna!
Deb, clearly SEARS was aiming this music CD at an older demographic. Your suggestions of Joan Jett, Chrissie Hyde, Patti Smith, and Stevie Nicks would have made a wonderful WOMEN ROCK! CD!
So awful I don’t have the heart to attack it.
Michael, this SEARS music CD shows that they had no idea about women who rock. They also lost their way in the retailing business, too.
If I were President, they’d play “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” instead of “Hail to the Chief.”
That’s my platform. I hope I can count on your vote in November.
Dan, you’ve got my vote!
I’m with Deb, as usual. “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” would be it for me, though Heart is OK too. No “I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll”?
Jeff, there are some curious choices on this SEARS music CD. Someone in SEARS management really liked HEART.
Strange selection imho, not much which I like.
If you want to hear (and see …) a woman who makes me happy – Susan Tedeschi!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wVWjl9Kq6U
Wolf, thanks for the link!
Wolf, we’ve seen Susan Tedeschi in concert with her husband Derek Trucks and Warren Haynes.
Jeff, I envy you!
Just have them on a few DVDs – like with Eric Clapton’s Crossroads concerts which are my wife’s favourites …
Can you imagine that with a woman (now 75 years old …) who grew up and spent her first 45 years under communism?
We still listen to Blues and Rock every day …
Wolf, Eric Clapton has always been a favorite!
Not my favorite women of rock but …
Strangely enough, Heart hasn’t held up for me. Back in the day, I had several of their albums. Now I switch channels when their stuff comes on.
I think the women of rock right now – Pink, Katy Perry, Sara Bareilles, Taylor Swift to name a few – are a much stronger presence.
Beth, I just ordered Taylor Swift’s remake of her FEARLESS CD. Swift intends to re-record all of her early CDs so she can control her music.
George, I totally agree that women rock! Wait. Were you talking about music?
Jerry, I’ve known some women who rock…and roll!
I started boycotting Sears in the eighties!
Bob, SEARS made plenty of Bad Decisions on their way to ruin.
Can’t hate it for a pop album. There are MUCH worse choices that could be made. Now, if this was free at Sears, I’d pick it up. But I wouldn’t pay more than a dollar for it, fi that.
On a pop album, I’d like the Go-Go’s, the Bangles, L7, maybe one of the Roches’ more rocking numbers–“Gimme a Slice”, say, Blondie (even if they only had one woman), likewise the Cranberries, Klymaxx (vastly more rocking than Destiny’s Child, much less Amy Grant), Joan Jett and Chrissie Hynde usually had no other women in their bands (aside, of course, from the Runaways). Bandits (hey, they toured after the movie) …since it was digging back as far as Heart why not Fanny, Joy of Cooking, et. al….it would be too much to ask to have Spitboy/InstaGirl, Bikini Kill, Estrojet, Alice Bag Band, the Slits or even the Au Pairs. Donna Summer and Aretha Franklin at least, if not also Nina Simone in more pop/R&B moods. One can go on for hours
Todd, I have no idea how much the SEARS music CD cost. Maybe it was free, but I doubt it.
Ah…my second comment awaits moderation! (please feel free to delete this third comment…)
Todd, I have no pending comments or any comments awaiting moderation so I don’t know what WORDPRESS is doing to you.
Grr.
Todd, I Grrrr a lot at WORDPRESS, too!
I was mostly talking up the best of this sort of commissioned album I have, Johnny Cash’s 1975 DESTINATION VICTORIA STATION, which is a Columbia Special Products LP that ends with a pleasantly mediocre expansion of Cash’s jingle for the restaurant chain into a full song (I had never heard of the chain when I bought the album at a thrift sale…they apparently hadn’t made it to New England much in the ’70s, I bought in Hawaii, which might’ve had some but I didn’t know about them), but otherwise was a clangorous survey of Cash’s train-song recordings for CBS up till then. I’ll try to add the track list in a subsequent comment, since that’s what seemed to mess me up in the wee hours this morn.
Tracklist
Casey Jones 2:39
Hey Porter 2:34
John Henry 2:46
Wabash Cannonball 2:37
City Of New Orleans 3:41
Folsom Prison Blues 2:41
Crystal Chandeliers And Burgundy 2:23
Wreck Of The Old 97 2:05
Waitin’ For A Train 2:23
Orange Blossom Special 3:04
Texas 1947 3:10
Destination Victoria Station 2:20