Audio CD review:
Melissa Manchester - Melissa Manchester Platinum & Gold Collection

Melissa Manchester - Melissa Manchester Platinum & Gold Collection

Band: Melissa Manchester Title: Melissa Manchester Platinum & Gold Collection Rating: Release Date: 2004-01-13 Media: Audio CD Tracks: 1: You Should Hear How She Talks About You - Melissa Manchester, Pitchford, Dean 2: Midnight Blue 3: Just You and I 4: Don't Cry Out Loud - Melissa Manchester, Allen, Peter 5: Just Too Many People 6: Better Days 7: Theme from Ice Castles (Through the Eyes of Love) - Melissa Manchester, Hamlisch, Marvin 8: Nice Girls - Melissa Manchester, Buckingham, Jan 9: Whenever I Call You Friend 10: No One Can Love You More Than Me - Melissa Manchester, Britten, Terry 11: Be Somebody 12: Stevie's Wonder

Closer, but not there yet Here, as one in BMG's mid-line "Platinum and Gold" series, this piece comes closer to achieving the goal than its predecessors but still misses the mark. Melissa Manchester compilation CD's have come and gone over the CD-era but none of them have been comprehensive or anywhere close to covering even her charted hits, a pretty basic tenet when it comes to "best-of" packages. While its limited track count precludes a comprehensive gathering of even her charted Arista hits, still, the compilers have opted to ignore certain singles in favor of album cuts. To its credit we finally get "Better Days" and "No One Can Love You More Than Me" on a compilation CD but still missing after all these attempts are "Rescue Me" and "Pretty Girls", to say nothing of her later Casablanca and MCA charting entries that are beyond the scope of BMG's range. All in all, with its liner notes and decent sound quality, this piece does represent an adequate, if not extraordinary, effort in bringing Manchester's music onto a single CD. However, fans and collectors have to remain patient until some label manages the task of comprehensively gathering up the musical output of this CD-reissue-challanged artist. Remastered Success They are 12 song colections of the artists' most popular tracks and songs of substance. In addition to her other recent collections, this package is part of the Arista Platinum & Gold series. This one complements Manchester's other colections, The Essence and Midnight Blue: Encore Collection by adding first time CD tracks like her 1976 single Be Somebody written by Manchester and featured on LP Help Is On The Way. Her last Arista chart hit No One Can Love You More Than Me was on an Austrailian Greatest Hits Import, but available here for the first time. Other tracks include her tribute to Stevie Wonder, Stevie's Wonder and her top 10 AC hit Better Days. She used to sing that song accapella at the end of her concerts, in the day! Nice Girls which was excluded from her other collections is here. It was her top 45 follow-up to You Should Hear How She Talks About You. I wish they released the rare single version of Theme From Ice Castles (Through The Eyes Of Love) on this collection, but maybe someday we'll hear it once again. They excluded other hits like Fire In The Morning, Pretty Girls, If This Is Love and Lover's After All (with Peabo Bryson). Her first 2 Bell singles, Never Nerverland and the rare single version of O Heaven, would have been a worthy addition. They could have added her post Arista hits as they did for Angela Bofill's collection, like Mathematics, Just One Lifetime, Thief Of Hearts, Theme From Out Of Africa (Music Of Goodbye) (with Al Jarreau), Walk On By and In A Perfect World. And of course, ironically forgot, the standard Come In From The Rain. There were 2 versions recorded by her and can be both found on her other 2 collections. So since we are not releasing the catalog of her Arista, MCA LP's on to CD, we may as well enjoy the collections they give us! The sound is great and the pic's are black and white, but nice. You can see a complete list of all Melissa Manchester discography, or go back to the Melissa Manchester tabs