Born to be on Air T01

Flower Power: Born To Be Wild, a Various Artists Compilation. Released 2007 on Time Life Music.

Born to Be Alive Review by Bret Adams [-]
Patrick Hernandez didn't have one of the biggest, most iconic one-hit-wonder disco smashes, but he did have one of the best. 1979's hypnotic, gold-selling "Born to Be Alive" reached number 16 on the Top 40 pop chart, yet it's not often cited as one of the genre's definitive songs. It doesn't show up on many disco compilations either, with 1993's Double Knit Dance Hits being an exception. The song is, of course, the centerpiece of its parent album, Born to Be Alive. With the full seven-and-a-half minute album version, you get more of what makes the swirling song a winner over the edited single. The vocals of Hernandez (a Frenchman of Spanish, Austrian, and Italian heritage) are infectious, but the deftly arranged musical hooks tie the song together – nimble guitar lines and dramatic dive-bomb power chords, three-chord piano fills, pulsating synthesizer, multi-tracked handclaps, hyperactive percussion, crisp strings, and siren-like horns. Most disco artists' albums tended to have the hit surrounded by filler, professionally performed by studio musicians and expertly crafted by the producer and arranger, but filler nonetheless. Born to Be Alive basically follows that well-worn path. "You Turn Me On," a duet with Herve Tholance, is brightly tinged with calypso and Latin touches, but it only temporarily delays the descent of Born to Be Alive into repetitive formula. But give the title track its due. On a historical note, Madonna performed with Hernandez as a dancer early in her career before achieving superstardom.

Born to Be Hurt: The Anthology 1966-1982 Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
At 29 tracks on a single CD, Raven's 2004 release Born to Be Hurt: The Anthology 1966-1982 is by far the biggest Sandy Posey collection yet released, and it's also the most comprehensive, being the first collection to cover all of her major labels. Prior to this, the two main Posey CDs, Collectables' 1996 release The Best of Sandy Posey and RPM's 2002 disc A Single Girl: The Very Best of the MGM Recordings, covered only her MGM recordings, which admittedly were her most popular work, containing the hit singles "Born a Woman," "Single Girl," "I Take It Back," and "What a Woman in Love Won't Do." However, her story did not end there. After leaving MGM in 1968, she turned toward country, signed with Columbia, and went through several labels during the '70s – Monument, Warner, and, finally, Audiograph in the early '80s – before leaving the music business, and Born to Be Hurt is the first time any of this material has been released on CD.