Cheap birthday pop

If you're like me, after a while you get used to the list of celebrities sharing your birthday. Mine's an eclectic mix, ranging from Houdini to Alyson Hannigan to Peyton Manning and Mike Vanderjagt to the Undertaker. On the musical end, right now, I know of two notable ones because they're celebrated every year on the retro lunch hour radio show I listen to. One is Nick Lowe, who was recently feted on Coverville, and if it's an annual thing to hear "Cruel To Be Kind," that's fine by me. The other is Nena (or more specifically lead singer Nena Kerner), where hearing "99 Luftballons" every year elicits a different response, so it's interesting that VH-1 Classic is going to be a couple of days late in celebrating her birthday by playing her one big U.S. hit non-stop for an entire hour. It's actually part of a Katrina benefit, but you have to wonder who's really benefitting here?