There's a lot of evidence that a whole bunch of so-called adults have no intention of growing up -- no matter how old they get. Witness full-grown women wearing baby barrettes, the teeniest of wee backpacks and anything that involves Hello Kitty. Meanwhile their male counterparts do things like race each other in miniature cars made out of plywood and recite all the verses to their favorite episode of "Schoolhouse Rock" while eating massive bowls of Captain Crunch.
Forget agonizing over getting older: an entire generation yearns to return to the halcyon days when their only responsibility was getting dressed all by themselves. Which leads us, naturally enough, to Saturday Morning Cartoons as interpreted by a passel of Alternative Nation Types. Thankfully, the album's execution is better than the treacly sound of the concept, actually enhancing still-familiar cartoon anthems and reviving them from the pop-culture graveyard where they've moldered for decades.
Best of the bunch is the "Underdog" theme song as passed through the twisted prism that is the Butthole Surfers, who bend the tune into a surreal, vaguely threatening romp. The Surfers pummel the lyrics, speeding them up subtly with each verse while guitars screel and blare, building into a blat of sheer weirdness. It's exhausting, exhilarating and even a bit disturbing -- as any classic cartoon should be when viewed in retrospect.
The Ramones contribute a faithful rendition of the "Spiderman" theme song (sped up, of course, in inimitable onetwothreefour style), with the unforgettable lyrics, "Is he good?/ Listen bub, he's got radioactive blood." And the Reverend Horton Heat's demented take on the tag-team "Johnny Quest/Stop That Pigeon" is a hilarious example of what happens when breakneck speed meets the Reverend's propensity toward pandemonium.
More disposable are predictable offerings from Tanya Donnelly and Juliana Hatfield ("Josie and the Pussycats"), Matthew Sweet's "Scooby Doo, Where Are You?" and Frente's saccharine "Let the Sun Shine In" (a tune "recorded" by the Flinstones' Pebbles and Bam Bam). But on the whole -- especially for those legions determined to muck about in childhood's effluvia until well into their latter years -- "Saturday Morning Cartoon's Greatest Hits" hits the chord it set out to twang.
By Julene Snyder