Customer Reviews

Very Best of, the

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This really is truth in advertising; few Best Of albums necessarily are, and I have always preferred actual albums, but this particular "Best Of" plays like a real album. I suppose I date myself, because I remember when you couldn't delete tracks from a playlist, or rearrange the songs, and I still have a taste for playing albums straight through, which I do with this one. I even have two copies of it, so I can keep one in the car, and one in the house.

That said, I'll admit I would probably listen to Judy Collins sing "Close to You" or "The Best of the Brady Bunch." She has of one those rarely beautiful voices that is a national treasure. I hope she will take her vitamins, button up her coat in the winter, and avoid driving in the rain, to make sure she is around for a long time to come.

One thing I will say for CD players is that I can loop this album to play over and over, and the grooves don't wear deep so that I have to replace it from time to time, which would be the case if I had this on vinyl.

I'd recommend this to any Judy Collins fan, but especially to people who don't know her music well, and need to be acquainted with her. Which is everyone.

Judy Collins is the conservative's Joni Mitchell. She arrived on the music scene a bit early to be fully indoctrinated into the countercultural movement, cutting her first recordings with Electra Records in 1961. Blessed with a golden voice, she represented a key voice in the mainstream of traditional folk music from the mid-1960's into the mid-1970's.

Sweet Judy had a string of hits from 1968 through 1979, but none charted better than her remake of Mitchell's 'Both Sides Now', which rose to number eight nationally. She tapped Mitchell's songwriting talents a second time in the following year, bringing 'Chelsea Morning' to number 78. The hits continued with 1970's 'Amazing Grace' (#15), 1971's 'Open the Door' (#90), 1973's 'Cook With Honey (#32), 'Send In the Clowns' which charted in both 1975 (#36) and 1977 (#19), and finally in 1979 'Hard Time For Lovers' reached number 66. All seven songs, and 9 others comprise this somewhat limited compilation.

While Collins is best known for her signature vocal gifts, and is often pegged as a cover artist, this collection does demonstrate her capacity as a composer as well. Several fine songs from the disc, 'Since You've Asked', 'Albatross', 'My Father' and 'Open the Door' are all Collins compositions. But certainly her greatest success has involved covering the work of reknown composers such as Bob Dylan ('Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues'), Leonard Cohen ('Suzanne'), Ian Tyson ('Someday Soon'), Stephen Sondheim ('Send In the Clowns'), and Pete Seeger ('Turn! Turn! Turn!', which features Byrd Roger McGuinn lending his trademark 12-string guitar to Collins' rendition).

Collin's special talents have brought other reknown artists into the studio as well. Most notable is Stephen Stills, who was so deeply involved in a personal relationship with Collins that he penned perhaps his greatest work 'Suite: Judy Blue Eyes' for her, contributed lead and bass guitar work for her 'Who Knows Where the Time Goes' album. Three tracks from that disc, which also features Derek and the Dominos drummer Jim Gordon, are offered on this disc.

While Collins work is exemplary, and certainly difficult to be critical of, I find myself still preferring the original artists renditions of the tracks she is covering here, and of her own original recordings I find a lack of boldness in the mix. While there is a place for light and soft, it needs to be reinforced with some dark and tough. When 'Who Knows Where the Time Goes' is as rugged as you get, you better be in the mood for some smooth sailing.

Thank you Judy Collins for recording this song. I have lived most of my life humming this song by you. I plan to have it played at my funeral(100 years from now)as everyone who knows me knows how much I have always loved it. My Son, Brett, who was killed seven years ago, bought me everything that pertained to your song. To me you are the only-one who can really sing it. Thank you.

I was a Judy fan from her debut, but really got into her work with her third LP. I stayed involved until about 1975, when she left my favorite folk/protest stuff behind. Since then, she has been a bit artsy for my taste, with her voice going higher and higher, her notes lasting longer, the songs seeming slower and slower. But this collection goes from that beloved "Judy Collins #3" through 1975's "Judith." I saw Judy in concert three times in the '60's, and each time she did fewer bold folk songs and more and more "literary ballads." This collection has some of both forms on it, and it is very listenable. Her strengths are as well-showcased as her (to me) weaknesses are. Even the songs and performances I don't personally love are well-crafted. For one disc, covering her 12 years of highest fame, this one is a good job. My favorites on here are "So Early, Early in the Spring" and "Suzanne" and "Both Sides Now" and "Someday Soon" and "Chelsea Morning" and "Farewell to Tarwathie" and "Cook With Honey." But I cannot argue against the other songs I like a little less.They are still fine. I would have liked "Hey Nelly Nelly" and "Come Away Melinda" and "Simple Gifts" added on, and there is probably just enough room. But the hour-plus this gives you is a good value.

I've always loved and always will love COLORS OF THE DAY, but THE VERY BEST OF JC outdoes COLORS with its very well coordinated harmonies--I've never really liked "Someday Soon" at the beginning of COLORS and in VERY BEST it fits perfectly. A must for those who love the songs and voice of Judy Collins.

These sixteen tracks encompass all of Judy Collins' most popular and familiar songs and make for delightful listening. There are covers of songs by The Byrds (Turn! Turn! Turn!), Leonard Cohen (Suzanne), Dylan (Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues) and Joni Mitchell (Both Sides Now) and Judy transforms them all with her beautiful voice. It's hard to pick favourites, but I love her version of Who Knows Where The Time Goes and Send In The Clowns more than any other versions. This graceful album concludes with her stunning a cappella rendition of Amazing Grace, a song that amazingly made the UK Top 20 in 1971. Once you've heard these songs, you'll want to investigate further and you won't be disappointed since Collins had a prolific output, all of which is good, most of which is great.

True, you can't really fit all of Judy's best on one disc, but this comes very close. I believe this is the only collection that has all of her top 40 hits on it. (Even the two-disc anthology leaves off "Cook with Honey," which is present here.) Highly recommended for anyone looking for a single-disc retrospective.

This is a reply to another review. The cowboy song is on this album (Someday soon). What is missing is (Pack up your sorrows).

One of the problems of "The Best of" type albums is what someone else thinks is best is rarely what you think is best. The songs on this CD are all very good. It is the absent songs that irritated me. Most notable by its absence is her song about the Colorado cowboy that was played by radio stations much more frequently than many of the songs included on the CD.

I cannot think of another popular singer in the last 40 years who shares so much love by putting so much heart in her voice and choosing these songs to sing (and in some cases write) in the first place. If there were four lines to symbolize the joy in this album they may be from "Open the Door" : "And when I see you happy / Well, it sets my heart free / I'd like to be as good a friend to you / as you are to me"

Many of these songs are important to me because they remind me of how important special people like friends, lovers, and family are to me. I searched the internet for the lyrics of six of the songs, printed them twice, and bought another copy of CD for a friend. Hopefully, she will play the album, read the lyrics, and learn to sing along.

A joyously wonderful album! Buy it for a friend or lover.