The Death Keeps On Coming

If you know me at all, you know that I'm an obsessive compulsive nutcase. Take, for example, my recent purchase of The Very Best of Teenage Death Songs. This is not to be confused with Dead! The Grim Reaper's Greatest Hits. In my newfound quest for the best compilation of teenage death songs, I found The Very Best of Teenage Death Songs on eBay after enjoying Death! for a while and being intrigued by some of the other death songs that weren't on the latter compilation.

A total bootleg with a 72dpi nasty raster graphic for a front cover, The Very Best of Teenage Death Songs sounds a lot better than it looks. Sure, the typical death songs such as "Teen Angel", "Dead Man's Curve", "Last Kiss", and "Tell Laura I Love Her" are here but so is the Skeeter Davis answer to Ray Peterson's song; "Tell Tommy I Miss Him". There's also "Black Denim Trousers", a completely rocking song with a killer drum riff from The Cheers, and "Moody River", a syrupy death ballad done by crooner Pat Boone.

Overall, this compilation has a few more parody/novelty songs than Death (including "Running Bear" and "Leader of the Laundromat") but still pulls some heartstrings and makes you scratch your head with wonder at the ardent morbidity of some of these whacked out songs.