Customer Reviews

Skaboy JFK

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I was first introduced to the Cherry Poppin' Daddies sometime in 1998 when I saw them appear on David Letterman, I, unlike a lot of people was completely done with MTV by this point, and for a great deal of time, commercial radio, so I didn't really understand what was going on in popular music at this time. I never cared much about what was popular anyhow. I did, however find The Cherry Poppin' Daddies style and sound really cool, little did I know that swing was all the craze at this time. I thought the melody was really cool, so the next day I decided to pick up their current album "Zoot Suit Riot" - After a few listens, I determined there wasn't a bad song on the entire album. It was a solid listen all the way through, which I can't say for a lot of albums, even by some of my favorite bands. One thing confused me, however, was that this album was a collection of "hits", the "swingin' hits" to be precise. After a little investigating, I determined that The Cherry Poppin' Daddies in fact went back some years!

I found more info out about them through their website (remember what websites looked like back then?) and after a visit to a few different local record stores, I scored "Ferociously Stoned" - another solid listen from start to finish, and another thing struck me, there wasn't much swing music. A little, but certain not an album's worth! The Daddies pummel your brain with a barrage of genre bending songs by the time it's over. Totally awesome, in my opinion. Needless to say, as I type now, I have all of their albums, including this one, "Skaboy JFK". The Melodies on it don't fail, Steve Perry is great at singing a song that sticks in your head for hours after hearing it, and the songs on "Skaboy JFK" are no different. While this album is consists primarily of songs swiped from other albums to make an entire album of their ska variety tunes, there are some new songs that we've never had on a daddies album before, most notably, "Pool Shark" - which has been a staple in their live set for years, and a really cool tune as well.

This album won't disappoint. It's very strong in it's catchy-ness, it's complexity, and depth. Buy this record, and then go buy all the rest of the Daddies' records. You'll never be disappointed. Even if you don't dig the music, you have to appreciate the uniqueness of The Cherry Poppin' Daddies, and their, in my opinion, very accomplished 20 some odd year career.
Skaboy JFK. Do it.

P.S. When you hear "Cherry Poppin' Daddies" you think "aren't they the ones who did that swing stuff?" yeah, but they rule so much outside of that.

Boy, there's one lame review amongst this bunch, and I'll clue you in. It isn't mine. Some moron here thinks Cherry Poppin' Daddies is a swing band. Uh... not, they're not. For anyone who loves the range of what you can do with horns in music, delve into some of their releases. There's an EP worth of new/rarer compiled stuff here, and then ska tracks from their other albums. "Don Quixote" is one of my favorite ska songs. Moron from Pearl Harbor who says swing is cool and ska sucks... well, get a bit of a life/education before you open your pie hole. The music (ska) began in Jamaica in the 60's, and the Cherry Poppers give it an interesting twist. From swing to ska, I hope they start dabbling more in Caribbean on future releases to hit a new genre. This here, though... great ska.

The swing album was great, everything else since has been weak attempts at ripping of different genres and the clichs therein. Why was Zoot Suit the swing album great? Because swing is great, it was immensely popular here at one time and still has a following. Ska was NEVER popular here and nobody cares about a third rate ripp off ska band. This is worse then their Caddilac Daddy grunge album.