Unknown Artist: Celebrate Dayton (1990)

These days when cities want to "put themselves on the map" they tend to get behind big spectacle events (which almost invariably run over budget, don't make the promised returns and gouge rate payers for decades afterwards).

However in 1990, Dayton in the Miami Valley had another idea. Put out an album in which the city's history and achievements were enumerated and have the story punctuated by uplifting pop sung by local artists.

The album Taking Pride in Dayton was underwritten by sponsors (Zephyr Awning and Home Improvement, Voss Chevrolet, Value City, Marathon Petroleum, City Mattress, Wendy's etc) and those good folk who headed the companies had their photos on the inner sleeve.

The president of the Dayton Chamber of Commerce also write the little intro -- heavy on emphasising how creative, innovative and talented Daytonians were -- and he too got his photo on the nside cover.

The producer, engineer, project coordinators, cover atist and script consultant are also named, as are those who do the narration.

Someone however forgot to include the names of the talented and creative people who actually sang the songs.

But it's all uplifting stuff. Songs include the title track, This Town, We've Got a Dream, This City's Movin' and, with great relief we note, We'll Be Here Tomorrow.

Maybe as a promotional idea it worked, but even if it failed, it didn't gouge ratepayers for decades.

And it must have worked to some extend. The album -- just $4 -- made it as far as a secondhand store in Auckland, New Zealand.

So . . . where is this Dayton of which you sing?