4 Covers + 6 Stores = 100 Singers

Last month, Rolling Stone released special issue "The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time," a collector's edition featuring four covers. I first held (but didn't buy) a copy at The Great Escape -- resulting in a nonpurchase that I've come to regret. The used media store had two copies with the Aretha Franklin cover in stock. Not yet ready to commit to a cover, I figured I'd pick one up in the near future after contemplating which cover I wanted most. I determined to buy a copy of the Aretha cover, in honor of the lone lady in the mix -- the No. 1 pick (of the 100). In my subsequent visits to five other stores, I never saw another Aretha cover -- just Bob Dylan, John Lennon and Elvis Presley. In desperation, I returned to Great Escape a few days later, only to find that both Aretha copies were gone. The Queen out of grasp, I settled for The King and called it a day.