Dance Part - Music For The Entire Family

Dance Party
Entertainment For All Ages
Music For The Entire Family
Hit Songs For Every Popular Dance Style
30 Dance Hits
Somerset (Manufactured by Alshire International) SF 314

The most budget album ever? Maybe not. Somerset manufactured and advertised (on the back cover of this jacket) an entire collection (12) of these "3 record sets" including a set titled Polka Extravaganza. The dark cover on that set features only typography for art. I can only imagine the sonic thrills contained on those discs.

None of these sets seems appealing on any level. The music featured on this set of discs is so poorly thought out, so cheap... that Somerset not only recycled their lowest-end orchestral "dance" tracks, for one disc (the "dance party" disc), they also included an entire Ken Griffin (organist) "tribute" disc on which Griffin is not featured, but only covered by Ashley Tappen. The remaining disc is titled "Party Sing-Along" which features male chorus doing up the most boring tunes in the most banal fashion. Of course, Somerset was too cheap include a lyric sheet, so good luck with your "sing along".

However, what makes this package so much fun, so CHEAP... is that, when I picked the album up in the store, I noticed that the seams had come unglued. I then noticed, that something was printed on the inside of the jacket. Someone at Somerset, probably through a printer rep, decided to save money by recycling a pile of A&M label Cat Stevens Foreigner jackets. Apparently there was over-run or a problem with that job. Somerset's printer took these cast-off jackets and printed a thinly inked black bar across the art to obscure the original and then printed Somerset's art on the back, the matte side of the stock, which is why the jacket doesn't feature any gloss. Now that's BUDGET!

I decided to extend the "cheap-out" and not post a sample track because even the track titled Hawaiian War Chant (a tune that is hard to ruin) was, in fact, ruined by a cheap arrangement.

So budget...