This is my second time blogging about music in a month. Surely something must be wrong with me. I'll tell you this about my musical tastes -- I'm eclectic, I love a little bit of everything. My MP3 player has everything from The Carpenters to Def Leppard. My PC has over 2,300 songs on it, but guaranteed I couldn't tell you the name of the guitarist for more than 5 of the bands.



Among my albums I have one CD that I would consider to be the "worst" in my collection, because I bought it for nothing more than the wretched nostalgia. It was one of those "I'm Mystie -- I must own this" moments that I often have when I see pink electronics or kits that claim I can use the contents to make my own glitter soap. I picked it out of the "$5 and under" bin at a local used music store. I believe that the color stripe indicates it was 50% off, and that I paid a whopping $1.50 to own the 1991 Bad4Good CD Refugee.



It wasn't that I really had any recollection of the band or it's music. Back when I was heavy into trading TV shows via mail I obtained every episode of Salute Your Shorts on VHS, and at the end of one of the videos is a bunch of promotional pieces from Bad4Good. I'm sure a good YouTube search will bring them up for you. The reason they were on my Salute Your Shorts videos was because the lead singer for the band was one Danny Cooksey also known as Bobby Budnik. I can not tell you how much of a Budnik fan girl I was. Well, yes I can -- let me say this.... somewhere on the internet is an old Salute Your Shorts erotica fic written by yours truly under a pseudonym. CONGRATULATIONS, THERE'S YOUR TMI MOMENT FOR THE DAY! I can pick a Danny Cooksey voiceover out like I'm getting paid to do it. My friend Mariella once made me a Bobby Budnik LiveJournal avatar. He's probably my favorite ginger kid ever. Diff'rent Strokes be damned, Salute Your Shorts was where he shined.



From what I gather, despite the backing of Steve Vai, the CD was a flop. I've listened to it, the songs aren't really that bad, I think it's just the marketing. The inside of the CD cover folds out to a mini-poster of all the boys in the band without their shirts on. And not in a TeenBeat kinda way that's hot for adolescent girls. It's so pedophilic that I feel dirty posting it on here. Even though I was alone, I was looking over my shoulder as I scanned it like I was doing something wrong.

One of the cool tidbits I love about the whole thing was of course, that it was backed by Steve Vai. Any Salute Your Shorts fan knows that there was an extremely deep scene in season 2 at the end of the Budnik and Dina love affair in which Dina pretends to use his lucky Steve Vai guitar to make a glitter-encrusted earring.  Another tidbit -- Christine Cavanaugh played mail lady Mona. She was the voice of Gosalyn in Darkwing Duck AND Chuckie in Rugrats!!

I feel bad for Danny Cooksey because by all means, he was at least a decade before his time. Nowadays it you're a Nickelodeon actor and can carry a tune, you're pretty much guaranteed your own musical tour. I'd take Bad4Good over the Naked Brothers Band a thousand times over.