Customer Reviews

18 Greatest Hits

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What can a true Sandra fan say about 18GH, except that it's great and 18 is just too little! This album had the following effect on me; it made me go out and eventually buy all of Sandra's albums, from her first "The Long Play" to her final "Fading Shades'. The songs here are the "gems" of the previous albums, although all of her songs are true "gems". Thanks to her songwriter and husband, Michael Cretu of Enigma, we get to enjoy Euro-pop at it's finest. From her early (1985) "In the heat of the Night" to her later "Don't be aggressive" (1993), one is taken into an abyss of amazing rhythm, melodies, and sheer pleasurable power with the music. The amalgamation of synthesizers, drumo-computers and Sandra's voice is perfect, with nothing sounding out of proportion. By far the most enjoyable for me is "Heaven can wait", which is the song that introduced me to Sandra when I was only 11! It's certainly rated as one of her best, amongst her fans that is. Most of the album consists of music from the period 1985 - 1990. Times change, and the difference in style between "Don't be Aggressive (Close to Seven - 1993)" and the rest of the album is noticeable. It's amazing that the songs sound so different, and are all still so nice. The music is fast paced, which reflects how she used to sing in the 80's. Her albums used to contain at most 1 ballad, if that. In this album, one gets "Stop for a Minute" which CANNOT be found on any other album except this. Sandra doesn't cahnge her voice from song to song, as for e.g. Teri Nunn does. Many may have only heard "Maria Magdelena". While this is a superb song, there are others, which are better. The only thing better then this album, is the Video (18 Greatest Hits). Here we get to see Sandra singing these great tracks, along with the band members. Seeing Sandra move is also great! It reflects the true glitz and glamour of the 1980's, big hair, lots of jewelry, makeup and superb outfits; look for these in "Innocent Love (Mirrors - 1986)". Once again, the best video is "Heaven can Wait - (1988)", which uses the blue paradisiacal waters and rocky outcrops of Ibiza, Spain as it's backdrop.

I fell in love with Sandra in the second grade in Poland. She was on the top of charts with the album Paintings in Yellow and her light, danceable music got to me fast. All of her songs are poppy, light and pleasureable but she knows how to write songs also. From Johnny Wanna Live, to Hiroshima to When the Rain Doesn't Come, Sandra knew how important animal and people abuse is and she truly created touching songs on those matters. Her voice is rare due to its sheer, slick glide and her face compliments both her beautiful songs and voice. Maybe it is good that she did not become so commercialized and popular because the uniqueness might have been lost by being copied or altered. From her 70's Arabesque days to the grown up lyrics in the 90's, my love for Sandra will live for ever.

I was a student in France in 1986 and Sandra's songs were absolute HITS while I was there. I left a year later and returned to the US never to hear her again (excpet for the last minute of Maria Magdalena that I had taped before leaving) until aout 5 years ago when I stumbled upon this cd in an import store. This was before the height of the intenet, amazon.com etc. I snatched it up, and immediately went home to put on Maria Magdalena and let that voice come back to me. Every song is great, but I lent it to a friend a year ago and he lost it so I am buying it again! Her music reminds me of a time when I was a young American student living in France listening to her, Eros Ramazzotti, Modern Talking, Etienne Dhao and so on.

When I was on the other side of the globe, Sandra was very big, but here in the US, thanks to the terrible promotion Virgin is doing, she is unknown. She can sing, and her voice is different than ANY voice you ever heard. Very sensational, very romantic, and very seductive! I still listen to her music until this day, and can't get enough of it!

Her husband, Michael Cretu, is the producer of Enigma Group (even Sandra herself did vocals for Enigma), so he knows his way around with music. The result: A sensational voice on electronized music background, something lightyears ahead of its time, and you will never ever hear anything like that!

The album includes basically her major hits. All the songs are great, especially "Maria Magdalena", "in the heat of the night", "stop for a minute", and so much more! I can go on and on but I am telling you, you MUST listen to this! So if you are sick and tired of the so called "music" of today, get this CD, sit down, and enjoy the journey of Sandra music!

I decided to add Sandra's "18 Greatest Hits" to my CD collection simply because Michael Cretu produced it and wrote many of the songs. I wasn't familiar at all with her songs and I knew hardly anything about her except that now she is the world famous "Voice of Enigma" and is now Michael's wife. The songs on this album are absolutely gorgeous and have Mr. Cretu's mark all over them. When you combine Sandra's darling and yet seductive vocal talents to Cretu's technical wizardry, you have one dynamic combination. You will hear hints of Enigma on many of the songs and infectious keyboard and percussion arrangements. Sandra's albums were immensely popular all over Europe between 1985 and 1991 but mysteriously absent from the charts in the U.S. My absolute favorites on this album are "Maria Magdalena", "In the Heat of the Night", "Around my Heart", and "Life can be (A big Insanity)". Sandra simply oozes sexuality on this album and the sound of it never gets old. Michael, you are one lucky guy! I sincerely hope you and your beautiful wife will make beautiful music together for many years to come.

This is a very good collection for any Sandra fan or someone getting introduced to her. There is another collection out called My Favourites, it's a double CD. If you can, get that collection too. It contains a few remixes that were done exclusively for that CD. The remixes are very well produced.

I have All of Sandra's cds and love them all. Her voice is so sexy. The music,is totally awesome. One of my favorite is Seal It Forever. This song brings tears to my eyes each time I hear it.It always reminds me of how much I love my x-boyf. I still do. Can anyone please tell me how I can buy this video? I all her videos or dvds. It is so hard to find it on the net. I see it but they don't tell me how to order it. If you like Sandra,visit this website I found.....sandranet.com......pretty cool site on her.lots of pics and facts about her...

To the fan from NYC, June 20: Just for the STRAIGHT record, Sandra IS German, and we all, true fans, know it... anyway, this album is the most representative of Sandra's music, however, you should also get "My Favorites," containing her latest tracks and also really good remixes of the older songs. I am really dissapointed that Sandra had said goodbye to her fans, and I am anticipating her new-image come back... Let's hope that it will be a good one! =)

I started listening Sandra since I was a kid. At the begining she sang with a trio called Arabesque (in The Netherlands). Her husband, Michael Cretu is not French, he was born in Romania and immigrated to Germany; later on he went to live in France. His real name is Mihai Cretu (cretu means curly in Romanian and Mihai is the Romanian for Michael). This info is for the fan from NY.

Although, I only learned about this mysterious German pop-singer through her affiliation with Enigma a few years ago, she is still one of my favorite vocalists. It's a shame she was never introduced to the U.S. market in the mid to late eighties at the height of her solo career. I can now fully understand why Sandra has many devoted fans globally (including import enthusiasts like myself in the U.S.). She represented a very sensual and seductive image without ever crossing over into raunch or disgust ( early Madonna). She was the epitome of the girl next door that every guy like me would have loved to have had as a girlfriend in high school or college. Though her vocal range does not lend itself to the same abilities or heights as Mariah Carey's or Whitney Houston's she still radiates plenty of vocal sensuality with her velvety, smooth and fawning tone. With all this in mind, 18 Greatest Hits is the ultimate Sandra collection package without any gimmicks, re-mixes, or unnecessary filler. It chronicles her European top hits from her 1985 Madonna-like Long Play album debut to the 1992 Enigma-sounding Close To Seven album. The best highlights and favorites are Maria Magdalena, Little Girl, Loreen, Everlasting Love,Secret Land,One More Night and Johnny Wanna Live.

Her range of styles include everything from pop-rock, dance, R&B, to slow, yet enchanting and enticing love ballads (One More Night can give anybody the "warm fuzzies") !

Then, again, on the other hand I can also guess the possible reason why she was not marketed in the U.S.--Too many Madonna wannabes back in the early to mid 80's ( Paula Abdul, Kylie Minogue, Samantha Fox, Debbie Gibson, etc., etc.). She probably would have been perceived as such by U.S. music buyers.