In his liner notes,
McLean claims he is "primarily a singer who occasionally writes songs," as opposed to, one presumes, a fully hyphenated singer-songwriter. That was the motivation for this collection, which consists entirely of his interpretations of love songs from the '30s, '40s, and '50s, given the full adult contemporary treatment, with some background vocals from
the Jordanaires. Not only does
McLean manage to effectively neuter the classic versions of hits identified with
Sam Cooke, Hank Williams,
Buddy Holly,
Elvis,
Ricky Nelson, and
Patsy Cline, he also has a go at
Gershwin,
Berlin, and
Hoagy Carmichael. If you're into
Don McLean, it's largely to hear folk-flavored soft rock with a fair amount of original material, not a forgettable exercise such as this. Available for only a brief time after its 1989 release as For the Memories Vol. 1 & 2 (the label, Gold Castle, folded weeks later), it was reissued on CD as just
For the Memories in 1997, with a previously unreleased bonus track medley of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow/Brother Can You Spare a Dime." ~ Richie Unterberger