Thousands of years from now, when the world has changed five times over and the state of popular music in the early part of the new millennium is archived in a museum, there's a good chance that the name
William Hung will emerge as its representative. 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 some merit in tenacity and persistence, there comes a time when a cultural phenomenon like
Hung needs be put to rest; regardless of how desperate he is to hang on to threads of his relevancy and cash himself in. And then comes
Hung's third record in almost two years, 2005's Miracle: Happy Summer from William Hung, which kicks off with an atrocious rendition of
Barry Manilow's "It's a Miracle," complete with a backing-session band that could be mistaken for a MIDI file. And the trauma doesn't let up, either; songs by
98°, Tony Orlando & Dawn,
Billy Ray Cyrus,
Richard Marx, and
Randy Newman all fall into the jaws of
Hung and emerge maimed and only mildly recognizable. When
Hung goes for the high notes on
the Beach Boys' "Surfin USA," it is an unapologetic blasphemy against
Brian Wilson that the producers of
Miracles would even let
Hung near a microphone as he desecrates such a timeless summer anthem with his vocal excrement.
Tiny Tim was an eccentric novelty with a shroud of surreal charm about him, and
Hung is no
Tiny Tim. Even a mild resemblance to
Tim would be a significant improvement over "Happy Summer From
William Hung." Without the help of Simon,
Paula and Randy,
Hung would still be just another fixture at a 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 and trends (anyone remember the Dell guy?) sooner than later. Otherwise, we'll have a rather serious problem on our hands. ~ Rob Theakston