Audio Train Wreck of the Month: Can I Call You My Girl?

"Can I Call You My Girl?"
PC Quest
from the album "PC Quest" (RCA, 1991)

Quick -- What's the sappiest teen-pop love song of all time? If you answered "Please Don't Go Girl" by New Kids On The Block, you're in for a surprise. That one definitely comes close, but I put today's download up against the sickly-sweetest schmaltz anyone has to offer. Seriously ... if you're a diabetic, you may want to make sure you have an emergency insulin injection handy before you try listening to this song.

Sonic saccharine reached critical mass in 1991 with this ditty, from co-ed teen pop group PC Quest, featuring Chad Petree (yes, the same Chad Petree who's now part of the genuinely cool synth-rock band Shiny Toy Guns) on lead vocals. I almost hate to upload this song, 'cause he's probably just now lived down this dubious part of his music career ... but then, how can he feel like he's accomplished something without looking back at the embarrassing stuff he's done in the past? See, I'm helping him feel good about himself. Besides, PC Quest must not have been too traumatic for Chad, 'cause he was willing to go with the same three-guys-and-one-girl configuration when assembling Shiny Toy Guns.

This song's not completely horrible; for one thing, you have to admit that, even back in his early teens, Chad had a great singing voice. And the guitar solo (from Drew Nichols, later of The Graham Colton Band) rocks too, in a semi-lame teen-pop sort of way (probably not his fault ... after all, how hard would the producers let him "shred" it on that kind of record?). The other songs on the album are kind-of cool, if you can overlook the very dated early '90s sound, and the same goes for PC Quest's follow-up album, "Directions".

Hmmm ... all of my Audio Train Wrecks so far have come from the early '90s. It's gotta be a coincidence ... I don't hate early '90s music, 'cause plenty of it was good. I'll see if I can tune my crap-o-meter in to other musical eras ... and I think I may do an "early '90s month" theme for my Songs of the Week soon, just to show you that there really was some good stuff to come out of that time period.