Customer Reviews

Belinda Carlisle - Her Greatest Hits

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Initially, I purchased this disc to add the hits "Heaven is a Place on Earth" and "Mad About You" to my collection. Then, as so often happens, I found that the best music on the album lay elsewhere.

Belinda Carlisle possesses an incredibly smooth, powerful voice, equally effective in mainstream rock/pop efforts and more sedate ballads. Probably the best track on this album is the enchanting, hypnotically intricate "Circle in the Sand". However, there are two magnificent ballads, "Summer Rain" and the touching "Vision of You".

Belinda isn't at her best with hard-charging rock but, for those who like that sound, the punchy "Live Your Life Be Free" is included, alongwith "Do You Feel Like I Feel?" and "Gotta Get to You." There is also the catchy, regae-influenced "I Feel Fine."

Any Greatest Hits album is a dicey effort for a record label, but when you combine Belinda Carlisle's beautiful, sensual voice with one terrific track after another, you've got a winner. Belinda Carlisle-Her Greatest Hits takes home the Blue Ribbon.

Belinda Carlisle possesses a unique pop voice and style that might've been more at home in the swinging sixties than the late eighties. As such, much of her solo music capitalized on her trilling delivery and poured on the sixties-style melodies. There's some great solo work here, unmatched by cookie-cutter girls on today's charts. The packaging is cheap and useless - Belinda was blacklisted from MTV during a dispute, her sales plunged, MCA dropped her like a rock and rushed out this collection. Bet you didn't know that, did you? Funny thing, the European hits package debuted at number one in the U.K. and guaranteed a new beginning for Carlisle abroad. Incredibly underrated singer, but that tide has changed somewhat in the past few years.

I had known of Belinda's formerly being the lead singer of the Go-Go's for a while, hearing their popular early '80's staple "We Got The Beat" at the beginning of the movie "Fast Times At Ridgemont High". Anyway, I am very glad that Ms. Carlisle decided to pursue a solo career in the mid and late '80's, because she has a great sounding voice and has made some truly cool rock songs, most of which are included here on this album. Of course, her biggest solo hit is here first, being "Heaven Is A Place On Earth", but I do admit that I've grown a little tired of hearing it quite a few times over. Then there's "I Get Weak", "Circle In The Sand", and "Mad About You", all of which I heard on the radio before. However, my top three favorites are ""Half The World" (very dreamy), "Summer Rain" (very funky), and my absolute favorite, the last track, but the very best, the excellent rock ballad "Do You Feel What I Feel?". But since this was relased in 1992, I'm am not aware of Belinda's more recent material, and I read that there was a temporary reunion (! ) with the Go-Go's sometime in the '90's. Why, I wonder? She's a lot better-sounding on her own, I think. Get this CD today!

Belinda Carlisle's greatest hits from her four I.R.S. and MCA solo albums just showed her growth. Most of the attention has been on major hits Heaven Is A Place on Earth and Mad About You, but my true favorite from her is Circle in The Sand, which is on here. I still love that song any time it plays in a store or if I play it on a stereo. Imagine yourself on a beach when you hear that song instead of just straight up listening to it. It has such an airy landscape for a pop song, and I like the acoustic guitar playing on it as well as the sound effects of water splashing on the beach. I remembered hearing it a lot between April and June of 1988. This made me accept Belinda more as an artist and more than just being in the Go-Go's. Carlisle matured a lot on the '87 album and just got better on the next couple of albums. While her later stuff hasn't created the buzz as her first efforts, this is a good collection of Belinda's best records.

Her Greatest Hits is fifty minutes and four seconds long and war released on September 7, 1992. Her Greatest Hits did not chart. The label is misleading. Four of the thirteen songs did not even chart; at least not in the United States. The cassette cover the years from 1986-1991. On Her Greatest Hits are three songs from her album Belinda, four songs from Heaven On Earth, three songs from Runaway Horses, and three songs from her album Live Your Life Be Free. I did not even know she had a greatest hit cassette until I bought it at a Goodwill store. The music on Her Greatest Hits is good to listen to and if you only want her best then by the tape. Below is a list of songs on the cassette follow by how high they went on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart and the album the song is from. Her Greatest Hits by Belinda Carlisle gets a B+.

Side One

Heaven Is A Place On Earth
#1 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles
#7 U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary
#1 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Airplay
#18 U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales
#1 Cash Box Magazine Top Singles
Heaven On Earth
I Get Weak
#2 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles
#9 U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary
Heaven On Earth
I Feel the Magic
#82 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles
Belinda
Half the World
Did not chart-Live Your Life Be Free
Gotta Get To You
Did not chart-Belinda
Leave A Light On
#11 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles
#8 U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary
Runaway Horses
Circle In the Sand
#7 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles
#5 U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary
Heaven On Earth

Side Two

Mad About You
#3 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles
#29 U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary
#21 U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play
#19 U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales
Belinda
I Feel Free
#88 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles
Heaven On Earth
Summer Rain
#30 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles
#29 U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary
Runaway Horses
Live Your Life Be Free
Did not chart-Live Your Life Be Free
Vision of You
Did not chart-Runaway Horses
Do You Feel Like I Feel?
#73 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles
Live Your Life Be Free

Why can't I find an album which has the best of Belinda Carlisle's solo material together with her greatest hits while still with the Go-Gos? People like me love her in both incarnations and we don't want to have to seek out two different greatest hits compilations with completely different material on each one. Surely some budget label could combine all of the above. Maybe they do that in England, where (or so my friend told me recently) Belinda C. is still considered a major force in pop, selling thousands of records a year. Talk about an alternate universe!

In the meantime, until my next trip to a British record store that is, I will be playing this collection--a lot. When ever I'm down or depressed, all I have to do is listen to "Heaven" and I get high right away. Besides being a feel good song, it unveils any number of intriguing theological speculations: "They say in heaven that love comes first, we'll make heaven a place on earth." Belinda begs the question of how to conjoin the two different worlds, but I think the upfront romanticism of the track is what has made it a favorite of gay men all over the world. We all are looking for a world without borders where "love comes first." And that ain't happening here on this planet, not anytime soon. Indeed the walls keep climbing higher and higher. "The world's alive with the sound of kids on the street outside." I'm not a kid any more, and neither is Belinda I'm sure, but we still cherish our dreams of youth when anything seemed possible.

The whole LP is filled with brilliant touches and the ecstatic lyricism of the 1960s combined with the persuasive synthy percussions of the 80s. Today these sound a bit out of place, but the LP has the power to move you back in time. Her best tracks evboke the poetry of California beach life, its transience and ecstasy, like "Circle in the Sand" or the Spector-influenced "Summer Rain," with its claustrophobic, hypnotic mantra, "Every time I see the lightning/ Every time I hear the thunder/ Every time I close the window/ When this happens in the summer, the night is so inviting/ I can feel that you are so close I can feel you when the wind blows right through my heart." We've all had that epiphany, and whenever summer comes along it's always time for a good dose of Belinda Carlisle.

This compilation showcases Belinda Carlisle's solo success after her departure from being the lead singer of the record-breaking all-girl rock band, the Go-Go's. This collection includes her first top-five smash single "Mad About You", as well as four highlights from her sophomore album 'Heaven On Earth', including the worldwide #1 hit "Heaven Is A Place On Earth", the top-five ballad "I Get Weak", the summer hit "Circle In The Sand", and concert favorite "I Feel Free".

The collection also gives us three of the best from 'Runaway Horses': "Leave A Light On", "Summer Rain", and "Vision Of You", as well as danceable hits like "Live Your Life Be Free" and "Do You Feel Like I Feel?" from her 1991 UK smash 'Live Your Life Be Free'.
Overall this album is very good, but instead of including more hits from her 1989 'Runaway Horses' album, more songs from her 1986 'Belinda' album were included, but all & all it's very entertaining...and VERY catchy.

It's your basic 13 track collection. It's not in chronological order, but at least the good stuff is mostly here. The hits "Mad About You", "Heaven is a Place on Earth", and "Leave a Light On" are all present. Plus numerous other singles. The non-single I miss most is "Love Never Dies". That is on "Heaven on Earth", which I would also recommend, and I believe is her most popular album. Of the songs I didn't know, I really like "Half the World" and "Summer Rain". In short, this is a fine collection of hers, and complements her recent pictorial in Playboy very well.

I was always a fan of Belinda's power-pop masterpiece of a song "Heaven Is A Place On Earth," but never got around to buying this despite that. But after purchasing this, it has quickly become one of my favorite Cds in my collection *and it's a very large collection.* An awesome "Greatest Hits" album if ever there was and one of the best pop singers of the last few decades. This covers the best of her first four solo albums Belinda (1986), Heaven Is A Place On Earth (1987), Runaway Hourses (1989), and Live Your Life Be Free (1991).

Of course, you get Belinda's signature hit, the #1 80's classic "Heaven Is A Place On Earth" which still sounds fun and fresh to this day. Two other top 5 hits are present and those are the Diane Warren penned power ballad "I Get Weak" and Belinda's breakthrough hit, the upbeat "Mad About You." And who can forget the top 10 hit "Circle In the Sand?" But these aren't the only good songs. "Leave A Light On" from the Runaway Horses album was a moderate hit back in '89 and ranks right up there with HIAPOE. Very catchy and uplifting. "Summer Rain" was also a top 40 single and a good inclusion. The 50's-ish "I Feel the Magic" was a minor hit for Ms Carlisle and is also present. One of my favorites has to be the beautiful lush ballad "Half the World." It was taken from Live Your Life Be Free which never got the attention it deserved due to the altering music climate of the early 90's. A real shame. "Vision of You" is also a very pleasent ballad that adds to the set.

Sure, Belinda Carlisle wasn't the best vocalist ever or anything, but her voice had such a distinct quality making her and her songs instantly recognizable. She was a real joy to the pop charts and with the right song, I'd love to see her make a comeback to the mainstream. Do not hesitate on this one!!

Belinda Carlisle is one of the best pop singers. At times, her voice sounds absolutely angelic. This greatest hits collections is a great CD of her work as an individual artist. She sounds better than she ever did with the Go-Gos. You can feel the emotion she is putting behind her vocals as she sings, especially on "Mad About You" and "I Get Weak". I loved her version of "Live Your Life Be Free". A great CD for any fan of Belinda's or the Go-Gos.