Best Of [Original recording remastered, Best of]

The reason that "Strange Thing" or "Walking In My Blue Jeans" or for that matter "Lose Your Way" which was placed #61 on the Radio and Records year-end AC chart for the year it was promoted to radio was not put on this "Best Of" set is because Hawkins owns all the masters to "Timbre" after parting ways with SONY and ostensibly any material fromt that "Timbre" period is a sore spot for Hawkins and SONY. SONY knows it blew a good thing when Hawkins left and is trying to capitalize on a very profitable catalog artist with the release of its latest set.

If only SONY were lucky enough to still have Hawkins on its roster and could release the rousing fourth album on its way from Hawkins within the next few months, then maybe it would not have to issue a Greatest Hits package for an artist even in whose absence it still makes the dubious and shameful mistake of pigeonholing as a catalog artist yet profiting from -an all too typical and convenient practice.

In the liner notes of this set, Hawkins states,"I would like to thank everyone at SONY who supported me through the years and remain in my heart, and a special acknowledgement to ( X, Y, and Z) for putting this compilation together". Hawkins had people championing her at SONY, however couldn't whoever was instrumental in assembling this set also realized that if they were going to throw in B-Sides as filler that they should not forget even one of the worldwide hits? "Don't Don't Tell Me No" was a hit in England which is the third biggest singles-sales market in the entire world, and that is not even to be found here.

Despite that oversight, Hawkins fans -including myself- will be delighted by the notion that the set features album cuts that have been "remastered" including a song entitled "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" originally done by Joan Baez which never appeared on any of her three studio albums but on a benefit album .

The music is fantastic on this set no matter which way you slice it and the fact it is being reissued is a testament to what SONY knows it alienated by alienating the progressive diva. Despite the fact that even when her last full-length studio album was on the brink of release it still said it did not "need to promote her" because she was "a catalog artist" this did serve to underscore the degree to which SONY did not know how to approach someone with as much raw talent as Hawkins. Even in her absence SONY contines to make the same mistake.

SONY presumes that because it claims all the material is remastered that is what will entice Sophie's ardent fans to buy this rehash. It thinks it's going to make a difference to a legion of devoted fans who already own all of Sophie's three studio albums on which most of this material already appears and to whom are eagerly awaiting Sophie's first entirely new album of new material since "Timbre" tentatively entitled "Sweet Cantaloupe".

One major problem with this set is that elements of her #5 Billboard Hot 100 Pop Smash "Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover" are lost in the remastering. Elements and vocals that were once forward are either no longer present or are blepped out. It may sound smoother, but aspects of what made the song raw are lost. Others songs do not sound drastically more improved from the originals enough to warrant a "remaster".

What it comes down to is that the material was always perfect to begin with and SONY is wasting its time thinking that it can make reparations to members of Sophie's legion of fans -dubbed "The Cracker Army"-by trying to profit yet again off an artist it owed so much more to by issuing a "Greatest Hits" package as if Sophie's career ended when she left SONY - clearly, the best is yet to come. Buy this to support Sophie and not SONY.