Customer Reviews

Greatest Hits 85-95

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(27)

 

 

There's no passive in-between when it comes to Michael Bolton: people either love him or hate him. Like Celine Dion, he's an easy target for the latter: his lyrics are blindly lovestruck, his production slicker-than-slick, and he's got the nerve to cover songs that were considered definitive in their original form. And then there's those superemotional, bombastic vocals. But those who have an ear for a well-crafted pop tune with a passionate vocal no doubt have a soft spot for Bolton, and this generous, 17-track set argues their case considerably.

Bolton's writing chops and vocal skills are in equally fine form on ballads like "That's What Love is All About," "Soul Provider," and "Missing You Now," and even adult rock is in safe hands on the likes of "How Can We Be Lovers," "Time, Love and Tenderness," and the Bob Dylan co-write "Steel Bars." As far as the remakes are concerned, Michael tears into "Georgia on My Mind," "When a Man Loves a Woman" and the chill-inducing "Sittin On the Dock of the Bay" with such authority and passion it's obvious he loves the songs deeply; comparisons are inevitable but completely unnecessary, as Michael clearly has no intention of creating new classics but rather paying tribute to old ones.

And for a greatest hits package, Bolton serves up a healthy dose of new tunes: the country-tinged "I Promise You," the atmospheric "This River," and the aptly-titled "A Love So Beautiful" are lush ballads to treasure, and "I Found Someone" finds him cleverly remaking his own tune a la "How Am I Supposed to Live Without You" (the songs, both written by Bolton, were originally made hits by Cher and Laura Branigan, respectively). But a real surprise is found in the eyebrow-raiser "Can I Touch You...There?," as Michael lays down a sensual vocal over a sparse, hip-hop flavored track laced with pan flutes and ethereal keyboards. The dark, moody cut proves once and for all that even a middle-of-the-road pop artist can't be completely pigeonholed. In fact, the album as a whole proves that notion, as it becomes unavoidably obvious that even though Michael Bolton may have had the hair and vocal register to invite criticism, he also had the songwriting technique and pure, honest passion to silence it. Fans of mature pop music can't do much better.

I think that Michael Bolton has a beautiful soulful sounding voice. I don't understand why so many people are upset about him recording his versions of Otis Redding, Ray Charles, and Percy Sledge. I love Otis, Ray, and Percy, but I also love Michael Bolton. I feel that he is honoring these R & B stars when he sings their songs. I don't see anybody bashing Whitney Houston when her remake of Dollie Parton's I Will Always Love you became a mega hit. All of these reviewers that criticized Bolton and gave him one star must have some other motive behind their opinion of him. (maybe like being a little jealous) Michael Bolton is handsome and talelnted with a great voice. He's also intelligent and sensitive. So all of you player-haters just stop hating on this handsome hunk of talent, and just let the man do his thing.

I have a gazillion CD's but this one is my absolute favorite. I hate loud music but when I put this on I crank it up, can't get enough of it. No one can come close to the power and soul in Michael's voice. I am a professional singer myself and am a pretty good judge of vocal ability. I strongly recommend this recording.

Please tell the Amazon.com review writers that five star is excellent and a single star is terribly poor performance. So that when they write glowing reviews they will use the right stars to represent what they have to say. They gave the man an overall score of less than five stars for goodness sake. However, when you read what they have to say, they are swooning and drooling like lovesick puppy dogs over the man's songs. Although I do understand the swooning and drooling - Michael Bolton does that to you. So do the review right or do not write at all.
In regard to Bolton and this CD "I GIVE HIM FIVE STARS".

During the 1990's, there remained very few contemporary singers in the music industry. Sadly, most of the artists that dressed too sexy on the inside, like the Playboy posing Britney Spears, and Pop acts like Nsync. However, there are some artists that really let the music sell for itself. In the case of Michael Bolton, he stated that fact that still shows on since his image change early in his music career.

His Greatest Hits 1985-1995, is truly a magnificent collection of 17 classic Bolton tracks that still state the mighty Michael Bolton's popularity. The album consists of 12 of Bolton's biggest hits including Time, Love And Tenderness, How Am I Suppose To Live Without You, and Soul Provider. The collection also has five other great songs, including Can I Touch You There?, and a cover of Cher's mega-hit, I Found Someone.

For this collection, of Greatest Hits, it follows as a good companion album, with Michael Bolton's 2001 Love Songs collection. Nevertheless, many people may not like this album, even though I like it a whole. Only time will really tell if people still think of Michael Bolton as a very significant soul singer.

Michael Bolton is like the Barry Manilow of the 1980s' and early 1990s': critics hated him, the public loved him. His songs were called dreck, yet he still managed to rack up an impressive 16 top 40 hits in a period of 14 years.

So what do all these points go to show? That Michael Bolton is a real musician who takes pride in his own work rather than caring about what other people think about him, the mark of a true artist, in my opinion.

"Greatest Hits 1985-1995" takes us through all the high points of Bolton's succeasful career in about 70 minutes.

Though he had been a fixture on the music scene since 1983, Bolton didn't break through commercially until 1987 with the release of "The Hunger". Buoyed by two hit singles, the hauntingly beautiful ballad "That's What Love Is All About" and faithful remake of Otis Redding's "(Sittin' On) The Dock Of The Bay", the album sold well and put Bolton on the map.

1989's "Soul Provider" proved to be an even greater success, yielding five top 40 hits. The first single, the title track (with awesome sax by Kenny G), climbed into the top twenty, but it was the next single that was the icing on the cake. "How Am I Supposed To Live Without You", a ballad written by Bolton that Laura Branigan had a hit with in 1983, climbed to number one and stayed there for three weeks. Add to that two additional top ten hits (the rockier "How Can We Be Lovers" and "When I'm Back On My Feet Again") and a soulful cover of Ray Charles' classic "Georgia On My Mind", Bolton was officially a superstar.

1991's "Time, Love And Tenderness" continued the hit streak, by going to number one and providing four top twenty hits. The first, "Love Is A Wonderful Thing", is not included because of a lawsuit by the Isley Brothers. Then there was the soulful title track, followed by a update of "When A Man Loves A Woman" that became Bolton's second number one hit. The fourth hit from the album, "Missing You Now", happens to be my favorite Bolton song. I love the mellowness of this song, especially Kenny G's sax. Beautiful song. Also included is the hard rocking "Steel Bars", co written with Bob Dylan.

1993's "The One Thing" yielded Bolton's last significant hit in the top ten smash "Said I Loved You...But I Lied", whose video became pretty famous and parodied.

When this album was released in 1995, Bolton added six new songs to the mix, but only three songs really stand out. "Can I Touch You...There?" provided Bolton with another top forty hit and is a major departure from all his other work, with heavy traces of hip hop backing it up. Very sensual song. "I Promise You" is a beautiful ballad whose bad lyrics are overshadowed by Bolton's passionate performance. And finally, "I Found Someone" is a new version of the Bolton penned 1987 Cher hit, which is nowhere near as good as Cher's but still good.

So, ignore the bad reviews and give this album a try. I was pleasnatly surprised with what I heard, and hopefully you will be, too.

Michael Bolton, (I first knew him mistakenly as Michael Dutton from a radio announcement) was the singer behind a vast number of major hits that dominated commercial radio during the 1980s and 1990s. He first came to prominence with the sudden high entry of his version of "Dock Of The Bay" (I used to sing it as "Top Of The Bay") onto the charts in 1988.

In 1990, Bolton began to dominate the airwaves with a vast string of hits, of which the upbeat songs like "How Can We Be Lovers" and "Time, Love And Tenderness" were rather painless to listen to though they certainly were extremely pompous, Bolton's voice certainly appeared to convey some real emotion. They were also undeniably catchy and could bear hearing on commcercial radio.

However, as time went by, Bolton moved onto softer and softer, airier and airier ballads that really did make his voice sound painful, grating, even tuneless. The early "When A Man Loves A Woman" is barely distinguishable from a version by Australian Jimmy Barnes but really has little tune, whilst the flyweight "Said I Loved You But I Lied" is even harder to listen to as Bolton mumbled through both verses and chorus in a way that ought never to impress.

"How Am I Supposed To Live Without You" was more of the same, but the then-new tracks are just awful even compared to Bolton's earlier output. There is not a single memorable hook in the new tracks, and Bolton's voice, really best designed for hard rock or heavy metal, falters trying to sing a tune with any gentleness in it at all, yet alone such flyweight songs as these.

Pleasant, yes, memorable, anything but. Look elsewhere for something that will keep you listening.

This is priceless.Where can you get this kind of
music and have all the greatest music on it?I will
tell you.No place.It has everything that makes it
truly unique.Makes you happy and makes you cry
and laugh.One of a kind.

Many songs make me cry. Many songs rekindle mariatal memories. Many songs rediscover my youth. Operatic notes accompained by words I don`t even understand shatter my senses. CONCERTS that make me re-evaluate my very existence and being....all of these emotions keyed to this man`s music.There is one other singer who touches my emotions this thoroughly..Ray Boltz.I believe they too are guided by HIM.

Sometimes I lay awake at night and just dream of this cd...It fulfills my every dream and i eat breakfast, lunch, dinner, and the occasional snack to this cd. I don't think I have ever taken this cd out of my player ever since I got it. Whenever I hear this cd it makes me cry so hard that it's like I was at Niagara falls all over again. I can't imagine my life without this cd, and if I ever lost it I would commit sepeku all over the place and not even think twice about it.