Brookens Junior High 8th Grade Concert Choir
People Make the World Go 'Round (Crusade Enterprises 520)

If you're an avid collector of school chorus albums (as I am: current total, three), you well know that it's more likely than not to find one that has a great single but is otherwise clogged with filler. (My general advice is to buy the 12" single whever possible … current favorite is "16 Tons (vic20 reconstruction)" by St. Adalbert Elementary, although these extended mixes and "bonus beats" are all but impossible to find anymore except on the black market).

Oh, yes, back to reality. Brookens Junior High ate its way to the top of the dead baby heap with its first release, People Make the World Go 'Round. Savvy and sassy one moment, pious and abstinent the next, most cuts on this album deliver with the power and effectiveness of a high-priced call girl. "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" puts the Albert Brooks version to shame (?), while the solo vocal efforts of Kenny Bledsoe and Judy Wingler (on "Brandy" and "Ben," respectively) playfully rub your aesthetic belly 'til your leg is flying uncontrollably in the air and a steady stream of urine begins to appear.

It's nice to see junior high kids once again caring about something. *sniff* Truly, this must be one of the better school chorus albums I've yet found. Being from the early 70s, the record is predictably stale in parts but amazingly affecting in others (especially "Brandy," which I've put on so many mix tapes it may as well be a Billboard Top 100 single).

I wonder how many people, even those that bought this when it was first pressed up (assumedly by the school music director), have listened to it in the last twenty years? Five, maybe? Even Ken Bledsoe himself has said "It's ancient history, man" (during The Loud Bassoon's aborted attempt at an interview regarding the album … though it was somewhat incredible enough that we located the guy in the first place).

Brookens, too, is ancient history now, but fortunately there's at least (and most) five people keeping the flame alive by playing this album every once in awhile.

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Review by Quinzio