Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Flowers In The Rain - Dan Grech-Marguerat, Kaiser Chiefs, David Arnold, Simon Francis
2. All Along The Watchtower - John Lawler, The Fratellis, Barry Wallace, Gordon McRory, Giles Hall
3. Cupid - Amy Winehouse
4. Lola - Robbie Williams
5. Your Song - The Streets
6. Betcha By Golly, Wow - Lucas Secon, Sugababes, Pete Hofmann, Martin Jenkins, Darren Simpson, Heidi Range, Keisha Buchanan, Amelle Berrabah, DON-e
7. You're So Vain - The Feeling
8. Band On The Run - Foo Fighters
9. Love Is The Drug - Kylie Minogue
10. Let's Stick Together - KT Tunstall
11. Sound And Vision - Franz Ferdinand
12. Teenage Kicks - The Raconteurs
13. I Can't Stand Losing You - Armand Van Helden, MIKA
14. Too Much Too Young - Kasabian
15. Under Pressure - Keane
16. Town Called Malice - McFly, Tom Fletcher, Danny Jones, Harry Judd, Dougie Poynter, Jason Perry, Julian Emery, Alex Medi Clarke, Richard Cottle
17. Come Back And Stay - James Morrison, Nikolaj Torp Larsen, Nikolaj Juel Christiansen, Jakob Falgren, Kristoffer Sonne, Martin Terefe, Iain Hill, George Tandero, Thomas Juth, Greg Moore
18. Careless Whisper - Gossip
19. The Power Of Love - The Pigeon Detectives
20. Don't Get Me Wrong - Lily Allen

Disc 2:

1. You Sexy Thing - Stereophonics
2. Fast Car - Mutya Buena
3. Lullaby - Editors
4. Englishman In New York - John Cornfield, Razorlight, Richard Woodcraft, Johnny Borrell, Bjorn Agren, Carl Dalemo, Andy Burrows
5. Crazy For You - Groove Armada
6. It Must Be Love - Paolo Nutini
7. All That She Wants - The Kooks
8. All I Need - Mark Ronson
9. Stillness In Time - Calvin Harris
10. No Diggity - Jamie Reynolds, Klaxons, James Righton, Simon Taylor, Steffan Halperin, Al O'Connell, Antti Uusimaki
11. Lovefool - Just Jack
12. Ray Of Light - Natasha Bedingfield
13. Drinking in L.A. - Gavin Monaghan, The Twang, Stephen Harris, Simon Francis
14. The Great Beyond - The Fray
15. Teenage Dirtbag - Girls Aloud
16. Like I Love You - Maximo Park
17. Don't Look Back Into The Sun - The View
18. Toxic - Hard-Fi
19. Father & Son - Enemy
20. Steady As She Goes - Corinne Bailey Rae

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1779 in Music
• Released on: 2007-10-01
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: Box set
• Dimensions: .25 pounds
• Running time: 144 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Radio 1 certainly isn’t short of detractors these days and all but the most vehement Moyles groupies would probably agree that its glory days are now a matter solely for historians. But out of the nostalgia whipped up by their 40th birthday celebrations came one fine idea that could only really have been pulled off with the aid of their unique clout (and, of course, the licence fee)–-40 of today’s biggest acts covering tracks from each of the station’s 40 years in existence, and building on the popular Live Lounge franchise in the process. The Raconteurs’ bash at infamous Peel favourite "Teenage Kicks" has gusto and a genuine southern twist, Lily Allen’s "Don’t Get Me Wrong" is sweet and suits her talk-to-the-hand nonchalance, Editors’ version of The Cure’s "Lullaby" is endearingly brooding, Foo Fighters’ "Band on the Run" is as effective and Foo Fighters-esque as you might expect and Maximo Park’s slick reworking of Justin Timberlake’s "Like I Love You", as strange a premise as that might sound (and thus key to this album’s appeal), just works. On the downside some contributions are inevitably pedestrian; Razorlight’s "Englishman in New York" is anaemic and unfeeling, The Street’s utterly misjudged "Your Song" is room-clearing karaoke playing to none of his strengths and what exactly is the point of The View covering The Libertines anyway!? But all in all it's a unique collection from a station still in a unique, if no longer important, position. --James Berry

Customer Reviews

Looks great...........but...................
Saw the line-up and thought, I must get that CD! There are some great versions on it, but with 40 tracks, 5 great ones isn't anywhere near enough!

I found that most didn't really give it any thought and just plodded through their performance. Razorlight is a prime example, Johnny Borell's vocals are so weak. Stereophonics slowly rambles through and then ends up doing some fast guitar rubbish that don't fit the song!

The Fratellis are the best on the album. It's a difficult one to cover and do it justice, but they did with ease. Keiser Chiefs are also great, but then the song they are covering is rather cool anyway!

The other moan I have is, who selected these tracks? Why are the biggest bands not covered here? Where are OASIS during the 90's? Where are Duran Duran or Adam & the Ants cover songs for the 80's?

If you are torn between this and the Live Lounge CD's, then please get the Live Lounge! So much better, then the artists would have to be, they are playing live to an audience of millions aren't they!

Wasted opportunity - is this really the best of 40 years?!
Covers in my opinion are only valid if they fill one of two criteria:-
(a) they do a different take on the original (often possible - I can't stand Joss Stone but Fell In Love With a Boy is so completely different to the White Stripes it's a passable effort) or much more rarely (b) IMPROVE on the original.

Sadly next to none of these tracks or artists manage this, it's a mix of conservative choices by bland artists. We get a bunch of bland musicians doing cheesy bland tributes to their heroes. What really is the point of Robbie Williams warbling through Lola or Keane dumbing down the vocal highs of Under Pressure? Foo Fighters taking on Britney, Kylie doing Iron Maiden or even The Wurzels sprucing up the Sugababes - that's what I want to hear; not this pile of treacley nothingness.

To me this album stinks of the mediocrity of bland noughties Britpop and cynical backroom execs pumping out more soulless trash.

The main thing that this album underlines is how uninspired our allegedly "indie" music scene truly is - there's not a breath of originality or interest.

Strange song choice, but some good covers
Compilation albums are problematic: it's very rare that you will find an album that entirely caters to your tastes, and this seems to be the case here. With such a broad variety of music that the station plays, we are given a rather disjointed and occasionally 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 and '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, and they cover it with aplomb - and 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.

Overall 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 and 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.