Johnny Cougar: Chestnut Street Incident (MCA-2225)

JOHNNY COUGAR is a comically inept singer who unfortunately takes himself seriously. His debut album is full of ridiculous posturing with virtually nothing to back it up. His Elvis Presley imitation on 'Jailhouse Rock' adds nothing to a great song which already has been mishandled by too many lousy bands. The hurried, denuded cover of Roy Orbison's 'Oh, Pretty Woman' is nearly sacrilegious — Cougar invokes this tension-packed classic without vaguely understanding the subtle edge of terror Orbison masked so well with his vocal swagger. Versions of 'Do You Believe in Magic' and 'Twentieth Century Fox' are so unspeakably lame they defy belief.