Destined to Win

Editor’s Note: This is part of a series on “Great Greatest-Hits.”

For the next installment of our Great Greatest-Hits series, we come to a band that certainly has had quite a number of hits over their nearly two-decade career. Having said that, Degarmo and Key has had more than one hits collection (as many other artists), and Destined to Win is without a doubt their greatest greatest-hits collection.

This 1992 14-song album, which celebrated the band’s 15th anniversary, makes intentional use of the Side 1/Side 2 concept (back when CDs and cassettes were nearly equal in popularity) with a brand new pop/rock song, “Color Me Gone” (when the “color me” expression was a mildly popular way of saying “call me…”) which fits in nicely with the album’s mid-to-late 80s sound that permeats this collection. Another new song, “I’ll Come Out Fighting For You” is a nice ballad that opens Side 2, bringing a radio hit for those two CCM genres.

Side 1 continues with their popular-song-that-tried-to-be-a-catch-phrase-but-was-slammed-by-Newsboys-but-was-still-one-of-the-band’s-most-popular-songs, “Boycott Hell.” What redeems this song from its somewhat tacky lyrics is that it’s still quite a rocker. Besides, a lot of artists of that time had equally tacky lyrics, and well, it was actually kind of fun and clever if you took it with the tongue-in-cheeck spirit for which those songs were intended. Next is the cassette and radio version of one of their most rockin’ hits, “Rock Solid,” the name of their 1988 tour and subsequent concert video/album. This is one of a very few hit songs (the only one on this collection) which features Eddie Degarmo sharing lead vocals. Next is the exuberant “Every Moment,” which starts this reviewer’s favorite D&K album, Streetlight. The song might be somewhat of a copy of Bryan Adams’ “Summer of ’69” but oh well, the boys do a good job of still making this one their own, and is a joyous tribute to life itself.

Another famous song from Streetlight follows next, “Addey,” which may or may not be a copy of The Police’s “Roxanne.” The Police song was originally released in 1978 in the UK, but later in the US. “Addey” was originally written and released for D&K’s 1978 This Time Thru album. Regardless, like “Every Moment,” it’s still one of D&K’s best and certainly deserves to be included in this collection. Originally, “Addey” was a somewhat typical 70s acoustic upbeat ballad, but the 80s version (which is on this album) gives it quite a bit of modern electronics and kick.

Without getting bogged down with each and every song, Side 1 finishes with 1989’s tender ballad, “I’m Accepted,” and a nicely done remix of their claim-to-fame/first-Christian-rock-video-on-MTV-which-was-banned-for-graphic-content, “Six, Six, Six.” No, it wasn’t graphic, even for its time. But somehow, in 1983, MTV thought so (but weren’t they airing Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” and Ozzy Osbourne stuff at that time?). Anyway, after “I’ll Come Out Fighting For You,” Side 2 continues with the album’s namesake and the band’s most memorable song, the anthemic “Destined to Win” featuring the late gospel singer Jessy Dixon.

The tracklisting goes back in time a little further with 1984’s “Ready or Not” and then 1979’s “Long Distance Runner.” The latter seems a bit peculiar considering it’s the only song from the band’s 70s era on this collection. It seems a bit out-of-place and any number of other 80s hits such as “Activate,” “Allelujah Christ is Coming,” “Out of the Danger Zone,” “Let’s Get Upset” or anything from their previous 1991 Go to the Top album (which had no songs represented in this collection) could have been a more fitting selection. But considering that’s the only real disappointment on this CD, then we’ll take it.

The album concludes with more anthemic pieces, “Hand in Hand,” “Casual Christian” and “Let the Whole World Sing.”

For anyone wanting a taste of 80s Christian pop/rock music and for some reason had never heard Degarmo & Key, this is a pretty good place to start.