Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Flowers In The Rain - Kaiser Chiefs
2. All Along The Watchtower - The Fratellis
3. Cupid - Amy Winehouse
4. Lola - Robbie Williams
5. Your Song - The Streets
6. Betcha By Golly, Wow - Sugababes
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 - MIKA
14. Too Much Too Young - Kasabian
15. Under Pressure - Keane
16. Town Called Malice - McFly
17. Come Back And Stay - James Morrison
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 - Razorlight
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 - Klaxons
11. Lovefool - Just Jack
12. Ray Of Light - Natasha Beddingfield
13. Drinking in L.A. - The Twang
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: #321 in Music
• Released on: 2007-10-01
• Number of discs: 2
• Format: Box set
• Running time: 145 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

Oppurtunity missed the knocker
Scarey to say but I have been around for just a bit longer than Radio 1 and 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 and 90's. Mr Peel died far too early and 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
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 and 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 and Kylie's versions are sophisticated and 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 and Maximo Park's Like I Love You is awesome. Ironically, 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 all time - is actually one of the best covers on here. It might not match the original but it's an extremely good attempt.

I think overall, those covers that stay most faithful to the originals are the best on here, the Klaxons and Keane being prime examples. The Keane version of Under Pressure especially 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 and forgettable and many are outright bad. Prime examples is the awful Mika/Armand Van Helden dance version of the Police and the Streets version of Your Song is just a complete and utter joke (probably the worst one on here). Just Jack's Lovefool and 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 and there are elements of it which work but overall 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 and people who aren't open to covers will despise this but i think for a project it makes for an interesting compilation and is worth buying for the tracks which work well.

All the other reviewers are muso miseries....this album is great fun
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 Tunstall doing 'Let's Stick Together' again, but this album has some great moments. Shame everyone else seems to have lost their sense of humour!