Customer Reviews

Definitive Greatest Hits

5 star:		(20)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Mr. Green has a sensual style that seems to be sadly missing in much of todays music. His voice blends well with romantic ballads. "Lets Stay Together," was one of the best songs of the 1970's. "Take Me By The Hand, & Lay Your Head On My Pillow," also have their own distinctive appeal depending on ones mood. These songs have a smooth pleasant feel of a less hurried era, when you need a lift stop here & listen.

As decades go the 1970's was never among my favorites. I have always felt that save for a handful of artists the music of that decade left an awful lot to be desired. For about three and a half years in the early part of that decade, Al Green and his producer Willie Mitchell collaborated on some of the finest and most memorable soul records ever made. Finally, Capitol records has seen fit to do justice to the music of this extremely important American artist. "Al Green: The Definitive Greatest Hits" features 21 of the finest recordings spanning Al Green's entire career. By any standard this disc truly should be considered essential to any serious collection of American popular music.

What seperates "Al Green: The Definite Greatest Hits" from previous anthologies is that it offers selections spanning the entire length and breadth of Al Green's remarkable recording career. Of course this disc includes all 7 of Al's Top Ten tunes from the early 70's including "Look What You Done For Me", "I'm Still In Love With You", the #1 smash "Let's Stay Together" as well as my personal favorite "You Ought To Be With Me" from 1972. Add to these other great hits like "L-O-V-E (Love)", "Here I Am (Come and Take Me)" and Al's first big Hi records hit "Tired of Being Alone" and you will quickly understand why Al Green is such an important American recording artist. One of the things that really impressed me about this collection is that Capitol chose to include Al Green's very first chart record from 1967. At that time, his name was Al Greene. His backup group was the Soul Mates. Al released "Back Up Train" on his own label and you can clearly hear why Al Green was destined to become a major star. In 1976, Al Green decided he wanted to pursue a career in gospel music. This change in musical direction would cause Al and his long-time producer Willie Mitchell to part company. His final charted record at Hi would be a tune called "Belle". The gospel influence on this tune is quite apparent. I had never heard it before and I must tell you that I absolutely loved it. Shortly thereafter, Al Green would leave the music business altogether to become a full-time minister in Memphis. In 2002, Al Green and Willie Mitchell decided that they wanted to make music together again. They would record in the very same studio in Memphis where they had made magic and history in the early 1970's. As an added treat, Capitol has chosen to add a pair of these new tunes to this collection. As you will see, Al Green has not lost it one little bit!

"Al Green: The Definitive Greatest Hits" includes a thoughtful 12 page booket that features some marvelous photos and very informative biographical information. I had completely forgotten that Al Green had a hand in writing virtually all of his hit singles! His was Southern Soul at it's absolute best! It is also worth mentioning that the remastering job is first rate. As I recall, the fidelity on those old Hi 45's was never the best. So whether you are a life-long fan or a younger person just interested in sampling this music then "The Definitive Greatest Hits" would certainly be a great choice. Highly recommended!

Let's see... when last we left off in 1995, 'Al Green's Greatest Hits' had the original album plus 5 extra tracks for a total of 15. Apparently that wasn't enough... and it wasn't! No "Take Me to the River".
Well this time round they got it right. Now we get that song plus 5 MORE songs for good measure.
So, if you're like me, you need the upgrade. If this is your first exposure to Al Green, this has everything you'd ever want or need by the man.
Now the only thing I have to get used to is a different track order...

First thing's first: Whatever you do, don't buy the original version of this Greatest Hits album. They heartbreakingly cut off the climax of Let's Get Married and didn't bother including Take Me To The River. That aside...while an improvement over the shameful original issue of this package, the compilation still falls short! Where's For The Good Times? Where the heck is How Can You Mend A Broken Heart?? Any Al Green collection that doesn't include both, not to mention even one of, Al's most compelling and beautiful slow numbers is INCOMPLETE! Instead, they put relatively obscure songs on here like Keep Me Cryin' and Oh Me, Oh My. Do these compilers even listen to Al Green? It would be worth it to borrow or steal this, if only for the DVD live performance of Love And Happiness in 1978. It captures Al in top form in Chicago with excellent clarity and camera work. Do yourself a favor and buy the Motown Compact Command Performances, which includes all the truely essential tunes with a better track order. Then buy Let's Stay Together and I'm Still In Love With You.

Al Green is a soul legend. That's a fact. But I never found a compilation of him as perfect as this fine one. Here you can find all the great hits from this soul king born in Forrest City, Arkansas in 1946. From "Back Up Train" with the Soul Mates, to "Perfect To Me" recorded in 2004. The sound is perfect (all the tracks have been digitally remastered) and the photographies included in the cd are simply amazing.
21 tracks complete this strongly recommended cd from a man who symbolized the secular and the sacred that gave soul music its emotional power.

This guy is still amazing after all these years. I recently ( as I'm sure many of you did) seen The Rev. throw down on the BET music awards...a show that was headlined by every New RAP ARTIST that's out today and it was a 70's Soul icon that broughtthe house down! Here you get all his greatest hits including the classics "Let's Stay Together", "Still In Love" and "Love & Happiness"to name just 3 classics. Let's get married, Call me, Here I am, Tired of Being alone are also classics that will never die. In todays world of lack luster artisits and empty lyrics this is a great way to revisit the BEST OF SOUL music from one of the best ever. Rev. Al Green is soulful, powerful and is one of the most influential R&B Artists of all time. This is a great compilation for beginners and If you've never heard Al Green and you want to get into the way music use to be when it had real soul...look no further..."Sha-La-La"

don't get me wrong -- any al is good al, but 'greatest hits' comes up short (again) -- even with the extra tracks. the 'hi and mighty' 2CD import set on hi records uk is the one to get -- 37 great tracks. it uses the original masters and the sound is much better than 'greatest hits.' you get almost all of green's best tracks in one package. i do, however, like the cover photo on this one -- it's a classic. and if you have a dvd-audio player, definitely get the dvd-audio version with 5.1 surround -- it sounds great.

I also have The Absolute Best as well as the Definitive Al Green. Both are digitally remastered. You may not think this is a big deal but it is! I also had a few of his CDs that were produced in the 90s with some of these same songs. The newer digital remastered versions have full sound especially on the high end. Even if you don't have a fancy stereo you can still hear the vast improvement. In some ways I am upset that I now have to purchase remastered versions of many of my cds but it seems to be worth it. For those of you who don't know how the remastering process works...The original master tapes are pulled from the vault. An engineer painstakinly goes thru each track and makes the needed adjustments using computers as well as his trained ear. The track that has been remastered is now digitally recorded at 24 bits, 48KHZ or higher. It is then mixed backdown to the normal cd 16bit/44Khz. If all went well the new product sounds like a new recording. Voices are clear and precise as heard on the master tape. The new result sounds shockingly better than any record or old cd! All 1960s, 70s recordings can benefit from this process. Surprisingly some 90s recordings do to.

I found the quality on this recording excellent. If you like Al Greene you will love this one.

Absolutely gorgeous. Al Green defines soul and this collection of his classics is a must have. We listen to it all the time and it never fails to move me.