Customer Reviews

Best of

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Sparks first hit the limelight in about 1974 with the quirky This Town Ain't Big Enough, a powerful hook-filled pop song with dynamic falsetto vocals. It was a UK Top 20 hit but didn't do much elsewhere. Other seventies successes included Amateur Hour, Never Turn Your Back On Mother Earth and Something For The Girl With Everything.

Sparks continued to make music throughout the 1970s but remained fairly obscure until 1979 when the groundbreaking electronic synth-masterpiece Number One In Heaven (produced by Giorgio Moroder) gained them critical respect and commercial success again. Tracks like Beat The Clock, Number One Song In Heaven and Tryouts For The Human Race are drawn from that one while the equally enjoyable Cool Places comes from 1983.

These tuneful songs are enough to make this compilation a winner, but it gets even better with songs like Tips For Teens and Funny Face. Sparks are masters of unusual but addictive melodies, clever lyrics and spectacular arrangements. That's probably why their music has aged so well. It sounds very contemporary today. If you like pop music with a bit of brain, this album is the right place to start exploring Sparks.

This should be called "the best of Sparks 1977 - 1984"

There are 4 songs included from before 1977, but this does not come close to adequately representing their AMAZING records on Island - Kimono My House, Propaganda and Indiscreet. All of these albums are must-own. The pre-Island Bearsville albums are pretty interesting as well, and 2 of the best Bearsville singles are on this comp.

What you get with this CD is a great, killer comp of some of the catchiest Sparks singles from their post-Island classic period. They are a wonderful pop band. This is a great CD for fans of the new wave Sparks.

Also worth picking up is an album by Lio called Suite Sixteen, which has lyrics written by Sparks and music by the wonderful Telex. It's excellent hyper Valley Girl pop from the early 80s.

A Sparks best-of would have to include at least 80 percent of the songs on the first five albums, "gone with the wind" (b-side), "my other voice" and probably the rest of No 1 in Heaven, maybe a couple of the catchy 80s tracks to show they could do the cars or the go gos almost as well as the real thing, 1 or two songs each from Gratuitous Sax, Plagiarism, and Balls ("The Angels," "More Than a Sex Machine"), and maybe half of Lil B. This collection misrepresents their melodic genius and makes them sound like a cute if rather cliche new wave pop band with unsubtly goofy lyrics. They were the best band on earth at times, and deserve better. Sorry kids.

This CD brought Sparks into my life. All their best songs together with great sound.

this CD contains wonder girl. a little bit different mixdown but it sounds close to the hit single version, as played on the radio. this CD is not too bad. I got it for Wonder girl, but there are some other songs on it, that I like.

I was not aware they had had hits? Apart from of course the obvious one. However I bought this album after I fell in love with another album of theirs - and in my humble opinion that would get a 6 out of 5!!! The other thing I didn't realise is that this stuff is so old - well 70's? I had no idea they had been around that long - so it has been educational. Anyway if you want the best of Sparks, and lets be honest you'd be silly not to trust me on this one - buy buy buy 'LIL BEETHOVEN'. Buy it, NOW!

They can be irritating b**tards that can drive you mad by their instrumentation.

Admittedly I decided to buy this CD purely for the silly song titles and that's effectively what I got - silly songs. Some of them are nice but some of them can be a real pain in the ass.