Marshall Crenshaw - The Human Jukebox, Volume 1: Cover Songs, 1982-1983

I've posted a couple of Marshall Crenshaw albums at this blog already. But those were one-offs (a stray tracks album and a BBC album), and this is the start of a big album series. He's put out lots of albums of mostly or all original material ever since his first album was released in 1982. But he also has a history of performing cover songs in a wide variety of styles, so much so that he's occasionally been nicknamed "The Human Jukebox." As you'll see from this series, this is someone who clearly must have a vast music collection and a deep understanding of the history of popular music. 

This series collects all the covers he's performed that I could find with excellent sound quality, except for the occasional instances of covers that he'd put on his studio albums. I've avoided those so this hopefully won't interfere with the sales of those albums.

Crenshaw's popularity peaked early, with hits from his first two albums, in 1982 and 1983. This album corresponds with that era of his music career. Only three of the performances here are officially released, although there are some official versions of some others here that I avoided using. "A Big Hunk O' Love" eventually appeared on a live album, "Rave On" was a B-side, and "Rock On" appeared on a movie soundtrack.

The rest generally come from concert bootlegs. Happily, I was able to find soundboard versions of most of these songs, and the sound quality is generally pretty high. Tracks 13 and 14 come from an in-person radio show appearance, so there's no audience noise on those. Most of the songs here are from the 1950s and 1960s, including some obscurities. But an interesting exception is "Every Breath You Take." That was a current huge hit by the Police at the time. Crenshaw commented before playing the song that he knew it wasn't cool to play it, but he just really liked the song.

This album is 48 minutes long.

Here's a list of the original artists for each song:

01 A Big Hunk O' Love - Elvis Presley
02 Rave On - Buddy Holly
03 Got a Lot of Livin' to Do - Elvis Presley
04 Move It - Cliff Richard
05 Honestly Sincere - Dick Gautier & Company (from the Bye Bye Birdie musical)
06 Love My Life Away - Gene Pitney
07 Rock On - Giorgio Moroder
08 Look at What I Almost Missed - Parliaments
09 Stop Her on Sight [S.O.S.] - Edwin Starr
10 Brown Eyed Handsome Man - Chuck Berry
11 White Lightning - Big Bopper
12 Here I Am [Come and Take Me] - Al Green
13 Every Breath You Take - Police
14 That's It, I Quit, I'm Moving On - Sam Cooke
15 Little Sister - Elvis Presley

Here's the usual song list:

01 A Big Hunk O' Love (Marshall Crenshaw)
02 Rave On (Marshall Crenshaw)
03 Got a Lot of Livin' to Do (Marshall Crenshaw)
04 Move It (Marshall Crenshaw)
05 Honestly Sincere (Marshall Crenshaw)
06 Love My Life Away (Marshall Crenshaw)
07 Rock On (Marshall Crenshaw)
08 Look at What I Almost Missed (Marshall Crenshaw)
09 Stop Her on Sight [S.O.S.] (Marshall Crenshaw)
10 Brown Eyed Handsome Man (Marshall Crenshaw)
11 White Lightning (Marshall Crenshaw)
12 Here I Am [Come and Take Me] (Marshall Crenshaw)
13 Every Breath You Take (Marshall Crenshaw)
14 That's It, I Quit, I'm Moving On (Marshall Crenshaw)
15 Little Sister (Marshall Crenshaw)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15929639/MarshallC_1982-1983_ThHumnJkeboxVolum1_atse.zip.html

The cover photo of Crenshaw was taken in Coney Island, New York, in 1982.