William Hung - Miracles: Hung In The Sun (CD)

All Music Guide

Thousands of years from now when the world has changed five times over and our current state of popular music is archived in a museum, there's a highly percentage chance that the name William Hung will emerge representing music in the early part of this millenium. The logic behind this reasoning? Like the strongest and most hideous of cockroaches, Hung just simply refuses to give up and expire. And while there's usually merit in tenacity and persistence, sometimes a cultural phenomenon needs be put to bed; regardless of how desperate it is to hang on to threads of relevancy and cash itself in. So now we come to this: Hung's third record in almost two years, kicked off with an atrocious rendition of Barry Manilow's "It's A Miracle", complete with backing session band that could be mistaken for a MIDI file. And the trauma doesn't let up either; songs by 98 Degrees, Tony Orlando and Dawn, Billy Ray Cyrus, Richard Marx and Randy Newman all fall into the jaws of Hung and emerge maimed and m...ildly recognizable from their original form. When Hung goes for the high notes on the Beach Boys' "Surfin USA", it is an unapologetic blasphemy to Brian Wilson that the producers would even let him near a microphone to desecrate such a summer anthem with his vocal excrement. Tiny Tim was an eccentric novelty with a shroud of surreal charm around him, and Hung is no Tiny Tim by any means; because that would be a significant improvement over Happy Summer From William Hung. Without the help of Simon, Paula andRandy, Hung would still be just another fixture at the local karaoke night; further proof that television on FOX does more harm than good. Hopefully Hung will fade into the mists of bad pop culture references Read more Less