Customer Reviews

The Best of Robert Palmer: 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection

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This budget priced collection is a good place to start with Robert Palmer. Universal's various Millennium collections are geared toward the consumer curious about an artists' music, but who don't want to venture in to their non-hits catalog. At 38 minutes this could have been a couple of songs longer. I miss "Simply Irresistable", "Johnny and Mary" and "Some Like It Hot". But the 10 tracks chosen are fine. Decent liner notes and excellent sound make this a fine way to check out Palmer's varied sounds: Rock, Pop, New Wave and R&B, he tried it all. If you like what you hear also look out for my 2 favorite Palmer albums: Secrets and Riptide.

1999's Millenium Collection set is rather weak 10 song compilation of past singles from Robert Palmer's career. First, several major hits are not present, including Palmer's 1988 US Top 10 hit "Simply Irresistible" or the singles "Early In The Morning" and "Mercy Mercy Me/I Want You", both US Top 20 hits for the singer. Likewise, major UK hits such as "She Makes My Day" and "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight" are excluded. Palmer's numerous forays into world music are almost completely ignored except for his minor US hit single "Man Smart, Woman Smarter" from 1976. In addition, you wont find any of the romantic standards or jazz oriented material the singer did on this set either. For a more complete retrospective look at Robert Palmer's career, fans should seek out the 2 CD Anthology set released last year or pick up the separately released Addictions Vol 1 and Addictions Vol 2 sets from 1989 and 1992 respectively. More casual fans interested mainly in the hit singles should seek out The Very Best Of Robert Palmer collection released in the mid 90's.

I don't know who makes the picks for these "Millennium" cd's, but this selection could be better, and longer. Where is "Simply Irresistable", "Get it On (bang a gong)", "Johnny and Mary", "Mercy Mercy Me/I want You", "Some Like it Hot", "I'll Be Your Baby Tonight", and "Know By Now", among others? I'm no fanatic, these are basic "hits". Though what's on here is good, I would go for "Addictions Volume 1", or the two disc "Best of Both Worlds 1974-2001", or the excellent, but out of print "Very Best of Robert Palmer". That's "Simply Irresistable". R.I.P.

Here's the reason for buying this collection - these are the original versions!

Yes, this collection is wa-a-ay too short in both playing time & song selection. I mean, something purporting to be the best of Robert Palmer that is missing Simply Irresistible, is simply irresponsible. But at least what is here hasn't been remixed or rerecorded. I don't like it when artists or record companies want to mess with history. Since many of these 10 songs were hits, obviously a lot of folks liked them just the way they were. That's why I'm not pleased with both volumes of Addictions, or Anthology, or The Very Best Of, because many of the songs are remixed or as in the case of Addicted To Love, a whole different version that's neither the original single or album version.

Come on, Island, stop trying to switch the originals for imitations. These great songs by Robert Palmer are simply irreplaceable.

This was a good cd, but I was a little disappointed that it didn't have anything of his after I Didn't Mean to Turn You On.

I've been a fan of Robert Palmer since the early days of MTV when they played videos (Do they still do that?) One of the first singles I got was the soulful "Every Kinda People", and then saw and got hooked into "Looking For Clues". Of course the rest they say is history. These are the original Island recordings in a nice package, and not the remixes released on other hits collections. I highly recommend this album for those looking for the roots of Robert Palmer. Enjoy, and Stay 2nd :-)