Customer Reviews

Best of Dark Horse

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is actually George Harrison's second "best of" collection. Culling his best from 1976 through to 1989, this represents a far more upbeat and varied series of songs than the former Beatle used to write. Harrison breaks away form the Beatles sound and even his early seventies Phil Spector period.

There are the usual big hits like, "Blow Away" and "Got My Mind Set On You", but there were plenty of other songs that were just more than quaint; these being "Crackerbox Palace", a lovely ditty and "Here Comes The Moon". Another big plus is the formerly unattainable "Cheer Down"; a great song previously only available on a soundtrack. The most endearing songs are the two lamentable, but joyous recollections of the Beatles days. "When We Was Fab" is almost like listening to a photo album of images and "All Those Years Ago" is a bouncy number with a great keyboard and guitar solo. As poignant as these are, George seemed to only look back in wonder and joy on those days.

This is a rare set and although there are sure to be future "best of" collections of George Harrison's work, many of these cuts will probably not make it. If you can find it, grab it.

I love this CD! Many Harrison purists have scoffed at this one because it's not his best work -- but I found it a wonderful collection anyway. Although most of my favorite songs are also available from the CLOUD NINE collection, there was enough additional material to make it a worth while purchase -- especially CHEER DOWN which was only available on the LETAL WEAPON 2 soundtrack. This album was particularly hard to find! Get it while you can!

This cd collection of the dark horse, is more complete what the best of george harrison, because contains more hits.
Best of dark horse includes the george solo's work in his own company, Dark Horse Records, which were distributed by Warner Brothers Records, and the The Best of George Harrison on Capitol / Apple Records, contains George's hits in the early years of his solo career, and with the Beatles / unfortunately not include all of his best work. So Best of Dark Horse, contains greatest hits of 1976-1989 years, like: BLOW AWAY, CRACKERBOX PALACE, CLOUD NINE, ALL THOSE YEARS AGO, LOVE COMES TO EVERYONE ........
The only glaring ommision i noticed was THIS SONG from the 33 1/3 album, wich is one of solo Harrison's best songs and was also a fairly big hit ins his own right.
This album is perfectly and wonderful!

As a big fan of George Harrison's solo work, I think its a shame that one of his hit singles, as well as other lesser known gems, are not included in this "Best of Dark Horse" collection.

The most obvious song missing from this collection is the single "This Song", from the record "33 1/3." It's a catchy pop song that charted quite successfully in 1976. Why they chose to include more obscure songs in this collection and omit this one is truly baffling to me.

Also, two beautiful love songs, "Learning How to Love You" from the previously mentioned LP, as well as "Your Love is Forever" from the 1979 LP "George Harrison" deserved to have been included too. I honestly feel these are the two best love songs George Harrison ever wrote as a solo artist.

I'm sure if you are a Harrison fan you have other favorites that you wish were included on this CD. This collection is far from complete and doesn't include all his best music for this period.

I hope one day that this CD, along with the "Best of George Harrison" collection, will be permanently deleted from the Harrison catalog. In their place they should release a comprehensive "Best of" double CD collection that spans his ENTIRE solo career from 1970-2000, including his two Traveling Wilburys records.

I think George Harrison deserves a much better "Best of" collection that truly showcases his talent as a musician, singer and songwriter.

This is a solid collection of Harrison's work from 1976 to 1989 and is a nice compliment to "The Best Of George Harrison" (which covers his pre-1976 work). There is one major omission from this CD, "This Song" from the 33 1/3 album which was top 40 hit in 1976. Other than that, this CD contains all the highlights from the period.

However, Harrison's work deserves a new, comprehensive collection spanning his entire solo career with all his hits and important songs in a single collection! His work merits it and his fans deserve it!

By 1989 George Harrison hadb been recording his music on his own lable, Dark Horse Records, for 13 years. He had also experienced a comeback in the music industry, with his first solo album in nearly five years, Cloud Nine and a collaboration with various other clebrities called The Traveling Wilburys Vol. 1, so now, with age cathing up, it was seemingly the perefet time for a solid recap of the Dark Horse Records years. To this end Harrison, or perhapse because he really wanted to retire, he compiled and released George Harrsion: The Best of Dark Horse, 1976-1989. Read on for the review. George certaintly suceeded this time and all of the songs are top notch George material. Favorites of mine include: Gone Troppo (1982), Got My Mind Set on You (1987), Cheer Down (1989), That's The Way it Goes (1982) and more. But there are three tracks in particular that I wanted to mention as I feel that at least two of them don't get as much credit and recognition as they deserve. The three tracks to which I refer are all from the 1989 period and two of them have not seen album release outside of this compilation. First off is Cheer Down (1989, by the way all three of these tracks are from 1989). Ths song was first heard in the 1989 movie Lethal Weapon 2 (great move, especially in directors cut version) and was made available on the soundtrack album for the film. With that soundtrack album ( and this compilation) out of print, this song has become very hard to find in its studio version ( there is a live version on the Live In Japan CD George did in 1991.) It's great! The Harrison-Petty lyric is razors sharp in terms of humor, and it, combined with the thumping rythm and guitar work by George make it an all-around feel good song about being happy (yes as far as I can tell eternal optimism no matter what the circumstances is the song's on and only message!) Cheer Down is well-liked and respected by Harrison fans and pretty well known for an 80s movie song. 5/5 Next up is Cockamamie Businsess by George Harrison. This 1989 track seemes as though its George complaining about the stress of being in show biz, as it were. The lyric is classic later George, whith tipical wit and mild cynasism. Its a fine song that really brings home the hard bpart of being in the buisnes from the point of view a witty, slightyl grumpy experienced old artist. The final touches of bass backing vocals and wonderful guitar work make a could-be classic, a great track well-produced and very enjoable. 4/5. Finally, my favorite track from 1989 tied with 'Cheer Down' the amazing Poor Little Girl. Written by Harrison this tune which redefins pop, is about saddness and lonlines and how horrible it is to watch people who are sad and lonley go about daily life. Sad and terrible as it might seem, it has a great melody and lyrics ( bonus points for using the word "horny" in a pop song!) Plus, agian, the message hits home with the exlllent and ever-extending refrain. Overall, its a great song , spreading warm feelings about love and care and how humans should care for each other and not stand by watching others got through life lonley and sad. All in all, love is a univewrsal feeling and Poor Little Girl earns the full 5/5 -- thus says Mr. Kertis the younger.

I really like this album, and I bought it when it was still a reasonable price. Cheer Down and Poor Little Girl are great, and Cockamamie Business is good too, the latter two are only available on this compilation.
The Dark Horse Box Set has two mysteries, IMHO. The first is, only Live in Japan is a hybrid SACD (why not all hybrid SACD?), the second is why weren't the three aforementioned tracks remastered and included with the box set?? (there are more tracks, too, like Lay His Head, that should have been included)
But should you pay an unreasonable price, if you have money to burn, go for it, even if you're just in it for the great music, they're not...

This is a well-put-together compilation of 1 song from Thirty-Three and 1/3 (Crackerbox Palace), 3 from George Harrison's self-titled album, 2 from Somewhere in England, 3 from Gone Troppo, 3 from Cloud Nine, 1 from the motion picture Lethal Weapon 2 (Cheer Down), and 2 that only appear in this Best of album (Poor Little Girl and Cockamamie Business). The most popular ones here are Got My Mind Set on You, All Those Years Ago, When We Was Fab, and Cheer Down. This is some of the greatest material to come from an ex-Beatle. It definitely rivals The Best of George Harrison, which consists his single Bangla Desh, along with his best Beatles recordings. As much as I like the Dark Horse group of songs, it would be great if a record company would compile a 2-album set documenting his whole solo career, as is the case with John Lennon (Working Class Hero), and Paul McCartney (Wingspan). You may also consider Ringo Starr's Photograph compilation.

One of my favorite albums of all time. Some of the tunes are familiar and some are not when you first listen to the album. What makes a great album is that you will have varying favorites over time. This album is no exception as I have had at least six favorite tunes through the years of owning this album; there is not even one weak album cut. George was just great, and this album is a testimony as a collection of tunes which reflected his genious.

This CD gets played all the time. It contains some, if not all, of George's popular songs and melodys. George Harrison was the most melodic of the four lads from Liverpool, he was responsible for most of the guitar work with the Beatles and when he became independent he could really let loose. He died to soon.