Don McLean - For the Memories (1997)

In his liner notes, McLean claims he is "primarily a singer who occasionally writes songs," as opposed to, one presumes, a fully hyphenated singer-songwriter. That was the motivation for this collection, which consists entirely of his interpretations of love songs from the '30s, '40s, and '50s, given the full adult contemporary treatment, with some background vocals from the Jordanaires. Not only does McLean manage to effectively neuter the classic versions of hits identified with Sam Cooke, Hank Williams, Buddy Holly, Elvis, Ricky Nelson, and Patsy Cline, he also has a go at Gershwin, Berlin, and Hoagy Carmichael. If you're into Don McLean, it's largely to hear folk-flavored soft rock with a fair amount of original material, not a forgettable exercise such as this. Available for only a brief time after its 1989 release as For the Memories Vol. 1 & 2 (the label, Gold Castle, folded weeks later), it was reissued on CD as just For the Memories in 1997, with a previously unreleased bonus track medley of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow/Brother Can You Spare a Dime."~For the Memories Review by Richie Unterberger