Customer Reviews

Greatest Hits

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3 star:		(2)
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The world's best song stylist singing his greatest hits ... how could it be anything short of great? These are the hit recordings except for "That's My Desire," and "That Lucky Old Sun" (which were originally recorded for Mercury). The remakes were recorded at Columbia in the 1950s and, in my opinion, surpass the originals. This album is a must for anyone starting a Frankie Laine collection.

Frankie Laine's Greatest Hits is a fair to middling CD that is currently out of print. This may not cause too much of a problem, though, because it's hard to take just twelve numbers and refer to them as Frankie Laine's "greatest hits." This is certainly not a complete package and that disappoints me. However, the sound quality is very good and the artwork is very thoughtfully done.

"Moonlight Gambler" starts the CD; and Frankie Laine sings this like the pro he always was! Frankie's uncanny sense of timing enhances his performance and the percussion helps to mark the beat, too. "Jealousy (Jalousie)" is a beautiful ballad when Frankie Laine sings this with all his great sensitivity; and the brass helps make the melody very pretty. "Jealousy (Jalousie)" is easily a highlight of this album; Frankie sings it all THAT good.

"High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me)" puts Frankie Laine squarely in the spotlight; and he certainly doesn't shy away from that position! Frankie does this up right and he never sings a superfluous note. "High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me)" shines beautifully when Frankie sings it. In addition, Frankie Laine performs "Your Cheatin' Heart" with a lot of passion; his heartfelt emotion on "Your Cheatin' Heart" sounds wonderful and this country flavored ballad works so well.

"I Believe" showcases Frankie Laine's fine ability to deliver a song right alongside the best of them; the background chorus enhances the melody and they bolster Frankie's performance as well. "Jezebel" gets a fine treatment from Frankie Lain and the guitar work couldn't be better! The percussion is great and overall "Jezebel" is an excellent song by Frankie Laine.

"That Lucky Old Sun" is a ballad I first heard when Ray Charles recorded it; but Frankie also makes this tune very beautiful by playing just a bit with the tempo and keys. Frankie does this to also put his own stamp on this number and he pulls it off very smoothly. "Rose, Rose, I Love You" is another love song with a country flavor added into it for a great effect! "Rose, Rose, I Love You" is a catchy, upbeat ballad and Frankie never skips a beat.

"That's My Desire" showcases Frankie's ability to sing a very mainstream love song--he delivers this well as he swings slowly to make this number stand out. The CD also ends nicely with Frankie Laine performing "Answer Me (Mutterlein)." Great!

Frankie Laine could really bat out different types of songs; we get ample proof of that on this CD. However, this cannot be considered a true "greatest hits" compilation because it's too short; for that I would suggest the CD called I Believe: 20 All-Time Greats and diehard fans will also want CDs like The Frankie Laine Collection: The Mercury Years in their collections.

I hadn't been able to regularly listen to Frankie Laine for over two decades but have always had really fond memories of hearing his songs. I finally got around to purchasing this CD and have been very pleased to find that his songs have not diminished over time in their impact on me.

"Moonlight Gambler" has been my favorite song of his all these years but, with this CD, I've found some close competitors. His powerful voice and the great arrangements make for some terrific songs. I highly recommend this CD!

If you are new to Frankie Laine, this CD will expose you to some of the various styles of music he performed.

Mr. Laine was a very powerful and versatile singer who excelled at Western Ballads, 1940's Jazz, Spanish-flavored songs, etc.

My two favorite songs on this disc are "Jezebel" and "Granada".

For anyone who has ever been tormented by a woman, the song "Jezebel" just about says it all!

I had this album on 33-1/3 many years ago. Was so glad I found it at Amazon on CD. If You like Frankie Laine, this is one of his best! Digitally remastered sound better than origional.

Having been a young teen in the early 1950s, I grew up listening to the likes of Frankie Laine, and in those years of 1949 to about 1955, he was among my favourites. But, having said that, and having become a devoted collector of oldies hit singles, I have to say that, trying to pin down the original renditions of his many hits is almost as difficult as it for B. B. King. Because, while these two artists could not be further apart in terms of styles, never mind musical genres, they do share one thing in common, and that is, multiple re-recordings of their many hits over the years, registered for several different labels. And so often these re-recordings have appeared in albums blaring "greatest hits" and "best of."

Frankie, for example, had 22 hit singles for Mercury from 1947 to 1951, then another 39 for Columbia from 1951 to 1963, and 12 more for ABC from 1967 to 1969.

And, just like another Columbia release under the title "greatest hits" this one - a CD release of an earlier vinyl LP - also includes re-workings of two of his Mercury chart-toppers, these being That's My Desire and That Lucky Old Sun. That, combined with the paucity of tracks and the absolute omission of any recording details, including dates, label numbers and backing orchestras, not to mention liner notes, makes this a dinosaur insofar as CDs are concerned these days.

What we need is an Ace Of London, Jasmine, or Acrobat treatment of his best, with their usual abundance of tracks (upwards of 30) and copious and informative liner notes. These simply do not cut it anymore.

A part the old weared out LP's, I have a a number of CD's of Frankie but the quality of this one beats them all.
Frankie's perfomances are for me among the best he recorded and they are finally well carried by a good stereo sound, yes "stereo". The sound is clear fresh stream water blended in what I call a "weak stereo";perfectly balanced, smoother than the original mono and light years away from the terrible fake stereos = voice on the left,all the rest on the right or viceversa.
I hope COLUMBIA Records will treat this way many other of Frankie's songs.
This wonderful CD would be perfect with just one more song..."A woman in love".
Since the wonderful voice of Frankie is out of discussion I preferred to tell you how you can enjoy it closer to what it really is.

Ciao,
Franco

I was really impressed because the songs were just the way I remembered them when I first heard them. I hate when they change the tempo, or other things on songs, but Frankie left everything...guess he also believed in..if it's not broke, don't fix it...

I love Frankie Lane, since I was a teenager, I heard him and loved him then, and still get goose bumps when I hear him. They dont have singers like that any more.

We are enjoying this CD it brings back a lot of happy memories for us.My parents used to play this on LP