Best of Schoolhouse Rock

Schoolhouse Rock was famous for its clever, insidiously catchy songs -- songs that were so entertaining, two generations of kids didn't realize they were learning as they memorized the tunes. For years, collections of the Schoolhouse Rock songs were unavailable, until Rhino released the four-disc box set Schoolhouse Rock! in 1996. It was a terrifically entertaining collection, bogging down only when it reached the latter-day '80s cuts, but it was too much for the average consumer. Thankfully, two years later, they released Best of Schoolhouse Rock, a concise, 17-track collection that contains nearly all of the great songs -- "Schoolhouse Rocky," "Three Is a Magic Number," "Conjunction Junction," "No More Kings," "I'm Just a Bill," and "The Body Machine," among others. Gen-Xers will certainly love the collection, but that misses the point -- although it certainly evokes the '70s, this is timeless music that is perfect for kids of any generation, since it both entertains and teaches.