My Ten Favorite Crazy Album Titles: You Can Tune a Piano But You Can't Tuna Fish (#10)

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How about a new series? We usually look at songs here in these series, or occasionally acts, but this time I'm turning the focus to albums. More precisely, crazy album titles. Some of these make the "worst album titles of all time," but hey, I liked 'em. And, I own (or owned) all of these, too. #10: You Can Tune a Piano But You Can't Tuna Fish - REO Speedwagon Hokey title, complete with a hokey album cover (a tuna with a tuning fork in its mouth), but hey, this was a good album! This is back when REO Speedwagon was a good rock band instead of the smaltzy "power ballad" band they became in the 80s. (If you're following @JohnRobert 's new series on Heart, you'll see he has the same complaints about that band. Hey, it happened...way, way too much: good 70s rockers became lame 80s poppers.) This album contained my favorite REO song, "Time for Me to Fly." It also had the great FM rock song (back when FM rock played more than the same 2-3 songs by any band), "Roll With the Changes." Hot on the heels of their live album You Get What You Play For, which had other FM rock staples (at the time) like "Ridin' the Storm Out" (it was years before I heard the studio version of that song), "157 Riverside Avenue," and the great "Golden Country," REO was building quite a reputation for itself. And, of course, they threw it away for the "power ballad." Infighting between the two creative forces in the band, lead singer Kevin Cronin and lead guitarist Gary Richrath, split the band into a shell of its former self. Richrath died in 2015. The band, when it was at its prime, was terrific. I got to see them in 1978, as part of my second-ever rock concert, when they were promoting this album. I'm glad I saw what they were instead of what they became. You Can Tune a Piano But You Can't Tuna Fish Recorded by REO Speedwagon Released in 1978 Here's a live version of "Time for Me to Fly" from this album: