Customer Reviews

Greatest Hits

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

 

 

Fans of Faithfull's post-1980 work may not appreciate this breezy pop music, but if you love the kind of 60s/70s pop of artists like Petula Clark, Mary Hopkin and even Francoise Hardy, these tracks will totally enchant you. The music has the same dreamy quality as that of the aforementioned singers, and the choice of material is excellent - most of these songs have beautiful melodies and strong hooks, while the lyrics are often poetic too. It includes the Stones' As Tears Go By and the one that she co-wrote with Jagger/Richards, Sister Morphine, the only song that feels a bit out of place here in its dark subject matter, although her delivery is stunning. Quite appropriately, it rounds off this collection. Her version was released as a single some months before the Stones' version appeared on their Sticky Fingers album. Other famous compositions include The Beatles' Yesterday and the Mamas & Papas' Monday Monday, both very well rendered by Marianne. Other tuneful numbers include This Little Bird, Summer Nights and Come and Stay With Me, but my top favorites here are the three sad songs Go Away From My World, In My Time of Sorrow and the powerful Is This What I Get For Loving You? The production and arrangements perfectly complement her voice, to provide a wonderful listening experience. This is truly the crème de la crème of sixties pop and goes to show that pop music can be timeless too.

What can I say about Faithful's voice post 60s? She essentially went from one breed of singer (like a Nico, Vasthi, Ross Hannaman or other tonal folksy female singers) to another entirely just by "trashing" her voice smoking so much! Not even like Marlene Dietrich or Julie London who started out "youngish-sounding" and then the vocal damage added a bit of mystery to their later recordings; Faithful just (to me) sounds horrid trying to re-record anything she did from this era now! I agree that "Sister Morphine" would have been better replaced by her version of "I'm a Loser" which was still at her peak of youthful vocal quality. Also that this would be better titled as "Greatest from the 60's" or "Early Years", but one camp likes her later works, etc.. I'm just glad both levels were recorded in her singing career span and those that like each of her efforts can have that available.

A compilation of her 1960's recordings, this collection belies the brilliant storm to come. Thirty years ago her voice was a pleasant if limited Mary Hopkinesque instrument, and the folk-pop material included here serves her well. Only Sister Morphine offers any hint of the Dietrich meets Patti Smith material that began to surface ten years later.

... like I am, you'll enjoy this CD. The last song doesn't seem to belong here, though. But the rest of the songs are comfortably familiar. You just have to be in the mood to listen to her young voice from back then.

Had this album been released in 1970, its title would have been totally appropriate. Today, it makes it seem incomplete. A better title would've been "Marianne Faithfull's Greatest Hits from the 1960s".

Keeping the above in mind, the album does deliver. I'm not a Faithfull fan, but all her sixties hits seem to be there. The order is not entirely chronological, but it starts with "As Tears Go By" and end with "Sister Morphine" nonetheless. These are also the songs I was interested in, as they were written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards (with a little help from Andrew Loog Oldham and Marianne herself, respectively). Her version of "As Tears Go By" is, in my opinion, inferior to The Rolling Stones' later version, but "Sister Morphine" is very good here, and deserves its own place alongside the "Sticky Fingers" version (by the way, there's also a live version on "No Security" that you'll probably like if you like Marianne's version). Other good songs are "Summer Nights", "Something Better" and "Monday Monday".

And just to end this review in the cheesiest way possible:

Yours Faithfully

Length:: 0:56 Mins

.....and I loved it!! This is vintage Marianne at her best! There's only two losers here and those would be "Some Other Spring" and the dreadful "I Had A Love"....everything else is perrrfect though! Esp. "Come Stay With Me" "Go Away From My World" "Summer Nights" "Something Better"....Heck they're all good!!

The title is EXTREMELY misleading, this is her greatest hits of the 60s! NOT after, which is when Marianne really shines. For a beginner, get broken english. This one is definitely for a faithfull fan like me who wants a decent compilation of her 60s stuff. Includes the classic "Sister Morphine" though, which seems like it shouldnt even be on the album. If you are an experienced faithfull fan, 2 thumps up.

If you're interested only in Marianne's hits which include Come and Stay with Me, This Little Bird, As Tears Go By, and covers of hits I have A Love, Monday, Monday, Some Other Spring, then this is the cd for you. For a strong fan I'd recommend giving this a miss and purchasing only 1 or 2 songs that you may miss if you purchase her 40 song collection (some other spring, sister morphine, and something better) or like me you'll end up with come and stay with me like three or four times.

If you had the vinyl album, you will remember that the Greatest Hits record had all of her radio hits. This is really the only collection to have since she didn't have a very long career. The CD has some added "cuts" to fill out the play time for CD format. Frankly, the added cuts aren't very good. Check out your old vinyl jacket cover for the origianl songs and stop the CD when you get to the last original song. Otherwise, this was a nice trip down memory lane.