Customer Reviews

The Definitive Collection

5 star:		(65)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a great album for Lionel Richie fans, and for all you people who were partying seriously through the eighties. It's got the songs that made you grab that special someone and head for that one single, special tile on the dance floor, where you remained swaying together for the entire slow session.

Hands up if you remember dancing to "Say You, Say Me", "Easy", "Three Times a Lady", "Still", "Endless Love", "Stuck on You" and "Hello".

Alright, now put your hands down before you ruin your circulation, remember you're getting on in age, old-timer.

However, before you rush off and buy this, maybe you should have a look at the UK version of this album, which consists of two discs packed with music. Here's the list:

Disc: 1
1. All Night Long
2. Say You, Say Me
3. My Destiny
4. Running With The Night
5. Dancing On The Ceiling
6. Don't Stop The Music
7. Love Oh Love
8. Ballerina Girl
9. My Love
10. Love Will Conquer All
11. Do It To Me
12. Cinderella
13. Tender Heart
14. Don't Wanna Lose You
15. Closest Thing To Heaven
16. I Forgot
17. Angel
18. To Love A Woman

Disc: 2
1. Three Times A Lady
2. Easy
3. Endless Love
4. Hello
5. Still
6. Sail On
7. Stuck On You
8. You Are
9. Truly
10. Just To Be Close To You
11. Sweet Love
12. Penny Lover
13. Oh No
14. Lady (You Bring Me Up)
15. Wonderland
16. Machine Gun
17. Brickhouse
18. Too Hot To Trot
19. Flying High
20. Zoom

It's available at Amazon.co.uk, and at a great price too.

Get the full story - cross the pond for the REAL collection.

Amanda Richards, December 10, 2004

This is Lionel's 3rd compilation following Back To Front (1992) and Truly-The Love Songs (1997). 12 of Back To Front's songs are on this 20 track collection. If you own Truly, than 12 of its songs are also on this CD. But Definitive Collection digs a little big deeper than those other two. It adds "Dancing on the Ceiling" and "You Are", both Top 5 solo hits that weren't on the other CD's. Some might wonder why 5 Commodores songs are included when 2 Top 10 solo hits: "My Love" and "Love Will Conquer All" are not here, but my only complaint with this strategy is that they left off Lionel's first ballad hit with the Commodores: 1975's "Sweet Love". The 2 new songs are good and don't sound out of place on this collection. The liner notes are 2003-up-to-date with a lot of looking back from Richie himself. This is Lionel's best and best-sounding compilation. SPECIAL NOTE: the initial versions of this CD included a 5 track bonus CD. The track listings are: Commoders - Zoom (long version alternate mix), Commoderes - Oh No (original version), Lionel- Can't Slow Down (different take on title track from album), Lionel- Lady (1998 version of Kenny Rogers' #1 hit that Richie wrote), and Commodores - Brick House (original version).

This is the best Lionel Richie collection available to date. The Definitive Collection consists of 25 tracks (5 song bonus disc included): 8 songs from the Commodores and 17 by Lionel Richie. The previous hits collection, 1992's single disc "Back to Front" is completely covered here, minus "My Destiny" and "Love, Oh Love". Also the 1997 compilation, "Love Songs", is all here except for "Love will conquer all" and the Commodores hit "Sweet Love". Its hard to quibble with the exclusion of "Sweet Love" and most anything by the Commodores considering the several extensive anthologies and hits albums available by that group. The problem is the Commodores' love songs sang by Richie are considered by many as Lionel Richie songs, hence the reason the biggest ones are in this collection. The collection is not chronological, starting off with Richie's "Hello" from '83 followed by the Commodores' "Just to be close to you" circa '76, but it still works because the theme and mood of the songs are similar. Two new songs finish off the main disc: "To love a woman" (with Enrique Iglesias) and "Goodbye". The 5 track bonus disc includes three more from the Commodores: an unreleased alternate mix of "Zoom","Oh No", and a hidden track #5 - a classic from the Commodores (can you guess what it is?) and two more from Richie: early working version of "Can't Slow Down" and "Lady", which many people probably think Kenny Rogers wrote. The Definitive Collection should please any fan, casual or not, and its the best way to get all the essential Lionel Richie tracks in a single reasonably priced CD.

Warning: Track 15 may actually make you want to try to dance on your ceiling, but I wouldn't advise it. It didn't work either time I tried it. I got hurt.

Look, obviously this is a good collection, almost if not all the hits are here, fidelity is fine.

But if you love the ending of the version of "All Night Long" on the original album "Can't Slow Down," you won't find the full ending here. The editors have cut it 15 or 20 seconds early, starting the slow fade sooner. One of the nicest things about this track in its original form is the way it faded in the end with the horns. The original gave the horns full play and then slowly faded, while on "Definitive Collection" the fade out starts almost as soon as the horns begin playing.

I do wish people would stop dicking with songs on the margins on Greatest Hits Collections. It is happening everywhere. It's getting to the point where you just can't trust a Greatest Hits collection to deliver the full goods anymore.

Curses to whoever edited this album!

Hello. This is a great compilation of Lionel's music spanning a variety of musical genre. It includes songs from his days with the Commodores as well as the smooth ballads from the 80's that Truly revealed the Endless Love for his music. It is Easy to relax while listening to songs like Just To Be Close To You, Ballerina Girl, and Running With The Night. Being a longtime Richie fan, I purchased it without first looking at the songs included. His sexy vocals make me feel like Three times a lady when he sings his new song, To Love A Woman (featuring Enrique Iglesias). I can listen All Night Long to songs like Penny Lover, Say You, Say Me and Dancing On The Ceiling. His other new song will make you feel like the Angel he sings about and is guaranteed to get Stuck On You. I am sure he will Do It To Me one more time with his next release this fall. As you can see, there are no parts of the album I dislike, but if You Are not a fan, just Sail On and don't hate on it. Goodbye

Long-time Lionel Richie fans will cherish this ultimate collection of hits from his solo days as well as his days with the Commodores. I adore his two new songs, "To Love A Woman" (with Enrique Iglesias) and "Goodbye". Fans will REALLY love the five-track bonus disc which features Lionel's version of "Lady", the number-one smash he wrote for Kenny Rogers. All in all, this "Definitive Collection" should be a "must buy" for all his fans. OUTRAGEOUS!

The American version of this is not as good as the British version. The American version could have produced a far better compilation with more of Lionel Richie's hits in it. The British (UK) version is a far better version comprised of a double CD package with lots of Richie's hits along with several of the Commodores hits. This makes for better listening pleasure. The UK version covers Lionel's entire career not only as lead singer with the Commodores but as a solo artist. I would definately recommend the UK version of this compilation over the US version. If you can't get the UK version, then I guess you will have to settle for second best.

This is a fine collection of the best of the best of Lionel Richie. I had forgotten how rich and mellow many of his biggest hits were. " Dancing on the Ceiling" was on of the best party records you could spin at any party! Every song brings back a flood of fun and you know the words. This is well worth owning.

Lionel Richie finally gets a fitting retrospective with THE DEFINITIVE COLLECTION, which covers more ground than BACK TO FRONT and TRULY/THE LOVE SONGS did. Besides his trademark ballads (which to be honest, I love "Hello", "Easy", "Penny Lover", "Stuck On You", "Say You, Say Me", "Do It To Me", "Ballerina Girl", and "Goodbye"; I can't stand "Endless Love" and "Three Times A Lady" because they're too saccharine and so overplayed, and the rest are ok.) But the uptempo songs are just terrific. "All Night Long (All Night)" was the first Lionel Richie song I ever heard; that song brings back so many good memories. "Running With The Night" sounds like a great slice of 80's synth-pop with all those layers of keyboards and the obligatory guitar solo. And "Dancing On The Ceiling" is a guilty pleasure, a goofily infectious new wave dance track (back in '88 I bought the tape of DANCING ON THE CEILING and it reminds me of long road trips between Houston and El Paso that I used to take with my family.) The two new tracks are decent; "To Love A Woman" is a soulful duet with Enrique Iglesias which sounds like a leftover from Iglesias' ESCAPE, while "Goodbye" is a classic Lionel Richie Ballad in the mold of "Hello" and "Truly". The limited edition bonus disc contains 5 tracks: "Zoom", "Oh No", "Can't Slow Down" (early working version), "Lady" and, as an unlisted track, "Brick House", which makes the bonus disc a keeper. This collection could have easily been a full 2-disc collection, maybe that will surface in the future. Anyway, this is the best Lionel Richie CD ever.

As a Lionel Richie fan I found this CD to be a farce, a misnomer. This release is anything but "Definitive", for one simple reason, when one comes to the selection, "Still", it is a shorten version for radio play, not the original.

Shame on you Motown, for this is nothing short of a ruse, a sucker play. This is why I gave this release only three stars.

Otherwise this is a good collection of Mr. Richie's hits.