Subject to the dictates of the pop singles charts and the coupling restrictions that prevent the inclusion of recordings by some key artists, Time-Life Music's Singers & Songwriters series attempts to chronicle the singer/songwriter movement that came to the fore in the early '70s. The initial set of five releases covered two-year periods in the '70s, then came a volume of 1960s precursors. Having gone before the beginning, the series now moves after the end, in a sense. By the early '80s, the singer/songwriter trend had been subsumed into a general pop style called "adult contemporary," the work of its highly individual writer-performers intermingled with the power ballads of rock groups and formulaic light pop. That is reflected in this collection of Top 40 singles from 1980-1982. Members of the varsity roster like Paul Simon, America, Don McLean, and Carly Simon, and head cheerleader Linda Ronstadt, are still present (though only the two Simons are represented by self-written material), and there is a promising crop of rookies in Rosanne Cash, Dan Fogelberg, Bruce Cockburn, and Steve Forbert. But the major recurring presence on this album is the smoky-voiced mainstream rocker Michael McDonald. He is heard singing lead vocals on the Doobie Brothers' "Real Love," which he co-wrote, and on his debut solo hit "I Keep Forgettin' (Every Time You're Near)," as well as backup vocals on Christopher Cross' "Ride Like the Wind." And he also co-wrote Kenny Loggins' "This Is It." Curiously for an album in a series on singer/songwriters, there are quite a few songs that date from before the mid-'60s, when the trend toward writer-performers really began. The McDonald track, McLean's "Crying," and Ronstadt's "Hurt So Bad" are all revivals of hits from the early '60s. And then there are tracks by rockers like Boz Scaggs, Foreigner, and Steve Winwood that have little or nothing to do with the series' concept. Certainly, there was plenty of good singer/songwriter music being made in the early '80s, but not all of it was making the upper reaches of the pop singles charts and some that was -- notably songs by Jackson Browne, the Eagles, and Crosby, Stills & Nash -- seems to have been off-limits to this compilation. So, the album ends up being an often satisfying collection of the soft rock of the early '80s, some of it quite good, but not a true chronicle of the best songwriting of the period. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide