Very Best Of [Import, Best of]

Well after listening to the new CD that's just out I have to say I am very disappointed and an opportunity missed, I think this production has been hurriedly done on the cheap..several of the tracks are almost on the point of distortion notably "Greenfinger" "The First Time" "We Are In Love" they have also put on the Mono versions of "Big Time" "What Now" "Idle Gossip" "To Make A Big Man Cry" & "Just Mention My Name" when they could have used the Stereo versions, and I don't know why they used that version of "My Last Wish" I think this must have been an Out-Take because there is a far better recording than that on the John Barry Hit's & Misses CD.

What's happened to "Brother Heartache & Sister Tears" it's not

there! No sorry I'm not impressed with this CD when I think with a little more thought they could has done so much better.

Why don't they listen to the fans of Adam Faith and ask them what they would like to see on a CD, I personally think that for EMI to save face they should withdraw this CD immediately and start again.

A Dedicated Adam Faith Fan

Once upon a time, there was a single CD titled Very best of Adam Faith, which I bought and later reviewed on Amazon. Eventually a double CD was released with the identical title. I decided to buy that too because I wanted to hear the tracks that weren't on the original single CD, but I found that I couldn't write a separate reviews because Amazon links the products for review purposes. I have therefore rewritten my original review to cover both compilations. Part 1 discusses Adam's music in general, after which Part 2 discusses the two compilations. Assuming that you want to buy some of his music, you can then decide whether to go for the single CD or the double CD, according to your requirements.

Part 1 - the music.

Tommy Steele was the first star of British rock'n'roll. Others followed including Cliff Richard, Marty Wilde (father of Kim Wilde), Craig Douglas and Billy Fury. By the time Adam Faith burst on the scene as an apparent overnight success at the end of 1959, Tommy was already looking for a new career direction. Actually, Adam had been trying to establish himself as a singer for three years before, during which time he recorded two unsuccessful singles for EMI's HMV label. HMV dropped him, but he later secured a deal with Parlophone, another EMI label, and this was much more successful.

Adam peaked at the beginning of his Parlophone career with the song for which he is best remembered, the British number one hit, What do you want? (Bobby Vee covered this song and released it unsuccessfully as an American single.) Adam followed this success with another British number one (Poor me) and a number two hit (Someone else's baby). He never scaled those lofty heights in the British charts again, but his next four singles all made the top five. Subsequently, he had three further top five hits, a top ten hit and five others that just missed the top ten, peaking at eleven or twelve. He also had several lesser hits. My favorites among all his hits are What do you want?, Someone else's baby, Message to Martha and Lonely pup in a Christmas shop, but not necessarily in that order.

Adam's early hits were mainly up-tempo rockers, but he gradually switched his recording policy and his later hits were mostly ballads. He was never really a balladeer, though, and he eventually abandoned his singing career, becoming a successful businessman.

Apart from his own musical legacy, Adam's other claim to fame is that he gave Sandie Shaw her big break. Chris Andrews wrote several of Adam's sixties hits (The first time, We are in love, If he tells you, I love being in love with you) and he subsequently provided Sandie with several of her hits. Chris preferred song writing to performing although he had a few hits of his own, most notably Yesterday man, one of the songs that he wrote for Sandie but that she rejected.

Adam's last British hit was Cheryl's going home, a cover of a song by Bob Lind, who is most famous for Elusive butterfly. Only three more Adam Faith singles were released after that including Cowman milk your cow, a Bee Gees song, and To hell with love, a John D Loudermilk song. Fortunately for the Bee Gees and John D Loudermilk, the failure of these songs didn't damage their respective careers.

Part 2 - the compilations.

Those people who follow charts can have no complaints about the single CD as it contains all his UK hits, major and minor, including both sides of two double-sided hits without any un-credited B-sides or album tracks.

The double CD compilation includes all of Adam Faith's A-sides, whether they charted or not, together with all the B-sides from the singles that charted and one of the B-sides from his two early unsuccessful HMV singles.

Both compilation have all the tracks in chronological order. So if you want to hear the music of Adam Faith, one of Britain's first generation of pop stars, all the essential tracks are available on the single CD. The double CD gives you all those, plus the A-sides that didn`t chart and some of the B-sides.

Being a fan of Adam for many years I'm not the one who's saying this is truly the best of Adam Faith. But the collection is worth his money. I love the songs backing by John Barry more then backed the Outlaws. That's why I don't give 5 stars for this album.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 4 reviews  3.5 out of 5 stars