First, the Misfits were a legendary punk band, that inspired many bands after them. Then, the split up. And reformation, this time with unknown youngster Michale Graves to replace Glenn Danzig as the lead singer. Then, Graves left the band, followed by the drummer and the guitarist, and the Misfits kind of split up again. However, somebody apparently did a good job embalming Jerry Only, because the Misfits’ original bass player is still going strong. He convinced punkrock veterans Dez Cadena (ex-Black Flag) and Marky Ramone (ex-Ramones. Really!) to join him for this project: an album filled with Misfits-remakes of ‘50s classics.

Featured here are songs you might remember from times long gone, such as Del Shannon’s “Runaway” (my personal favorite), Jay Black’s “This Magic Moment” and “Great Balls Of Fire”, which is of course a Jerry Lee Lewis song. At first, I found it extremely weird to hear the words “I want a girl to call my own” in a Misfits song (almost all the songs on the album are about love or females), but after a while you get kind of used to it. Only exception is the cheesy Frankenstein/Dracula-song “Monster Mash”, which already appeared on previous Misfits-releases. Unfortunately, I do not know all the songs presented here since I am not THAT old, but I quite like what the ‘Fits have done with the ones that I do know.

Both “Runaway” and “Great Balls…” get spiced up with piano, while a saxophone provides additional notes in “Diana”. Finally, Jerry Only sees one of his dreams come true when legendary producer Ronnie Spector sings along with him on “You Belong To Me”. While some songs just sound like fun - modern versions of old songs - others actually remind me a lot of the original work from the band from New Jersey. Although this record is far from essential and a bit short as well (only ten songs of two and a half minutes average? I would think that a man of Jerry Only’s age might want to do more songs from his youth, but hey…), it should still appeal to die-hard Misfits fans and people who enjoy punk-coverbands in general.

There will always be people who bitch about the absence of Glenn Danzig, but screw them. My version of the album came with a free bonus-DVD, which contents mainly consist of the Misfits playing live at some snowboard festival in the US. Watch in horror as Jerry Only gets pelted by snowballs! All covers, so no rating.