Customer Reviews

Solo Collection

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I probably am in the minority, but when I look at the legendary Rock band The Eagles, I look at the sum of the parts as exceeding the whole. This is not a negative factor on the Eagles - I do think they are an all-time great band. When I look at the individual solo work, I see some very high quality work that often gets overlooked because The Eagles had achieved such great success. Two of the main components of The Eagles are Don Henley and Glenn Frey. This duo basically made up the nucleus for the band. Following the split of band in the early 1980s, Henley and Frey would embark on solo careers. For the most part, it's Henley's solo career that is in the spotlight. Henley's efforts would be more of an 80s Rock sound - and would often be interspersed with some social commentary (i.e. his song "Dirty Laundry"). In addition, Henley would often bring in many top notch studio musicians to collaborate with him - helping to enhance a powerful nucleus of music that had already written. Frey would take a very different approach - he would bring more of a combination of R&B, Soul, Blues, and even some Folk to his music. Frey didn't bring the big name studio musicians like Henley - but there was no loss of quality. Frey brings an equally impressive portfolio of solo work and this is highlighted on the greatest hits compilation entitled "Glenn Frey - Solo Collection". Perhaps the different approaches to music were why the nucleus of Henley and Frey worked so well with The Eagles.

Glenn Frey has released four main solo albums in his career. These albums are all represented. They are: "No Fun Aloud" ("The One You Love"; "The Allnighter" ("Sexy Girl", "Smuggler's Blues"); "Soul Searchin'" ("True Love", "Soul Searchin'"); and "Strange Weather ("Part of Me, Part of You", "I've Got Mine", "River of Dreams", "Rising Sun", "Brave New World"). There are two songs that Frey did for Soundtrack albums. They are "The Heat is On" (on the "Beverly Hills Cop" soundtrack) and "You Belong to the City" (on the "Miami Vice" soundtrack - this soundtrack also included "Smuggler's Blues as well). It is also worth noting that "Part of Me, Part of You" was on the "Thelma and Louise Soundtrack" Finally, Frey includes four solid new songs: "This Way to Happiness", "Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed", "Common Ground", and "Call on Me". One observation is that there is definitely a slant toward Frey's later works. There are five tracks from what was Frey's least successful commercial album "Strange Weather", however I consider that album Frey's best album - so I look at that as a positive (quality over commercial sales). There is an exclusion of many of Frey's early work - most notably missing is the classic Frey tune "Party Town" from "No Fun Aloud".

There is another greatest hits collection by Glenn Frey called "20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Glenn Frey". The "Millennium" Collection does include This is a shorter compilation and does include "The Allnighter" and "Love in the 21st Century Tracks". "Millennium" also includes a live version of "The One You Love". Overall, I'd still recommend "Solo Collection" because it does contain the four new tracks as well as some of the focus on the "Strange Weather" material that is often overlooked.

Normally I prefer my Greatest Hits collections to have the tracks arranged in chronological order. This allows me to see how the artist has progressed and evolved over time. "Solo Collection" comes close to this, but slightly misses the mark. The new songs are listed are the first four tracks. It is with the fifth track that the songs start to chronicle chronologically starting with 1982's "The One You Love". It would have definitely been better if the new tracks were at the end. One other quirk is that the new tracks are in reverse chronological order (the first three were recorded in 1994 while the 4th track was recorded in 1993).

The new songs are worth mentioning. They continue much of the trademark blend of music that has been seen throughout Frey's career. The opening track "This Way to Happiness" is interesting - it almost summarizes Frey's sound. While this song has his trademark R&B sound complete with horns, you almost get a sense of Country and Folk with Frey's vocals. "Who's Been Sleeping in My Bed" is a very bluesy song - also featuring the trademark horns. "Common Ground" starts out with a Country/Folk sound, but then evolves into more of a Folk/Rock sound. "Call on Me" was a theme song from a short-lived Television Series that starred Glenn Frey called "South of Sunset". Despite a Bluesy sound, I consider this the weakest of the four tracks.

The popular songs from the mid 80s are on here - "The Heat is On", "Smuggler's Blues", and "You Belong to the City". These songs are often unfairly criticized. While "The Heat is On" was penned by Keith Forsey ("The Breakfast Club") and Harold Faltermeyer (composer of "Axel F"), this song seems tailor-made to Frey's style. "Smuggler's Blues" is one of the most original songs ever - sung from the point of someone involved in the Drug Smuggling trade.

The material from "Strange Weather" is also worth mentioning. You will continue to hear Frey's trademark sound, but this contains some of the best songwriting he did. This represents some of the strongest material by Glenn Frey. I was pleased that the short instrumental intro "Rising Sun" is included as a segue to "Brave New World".

The liner notes list each of the songs and provide musician and production credits. There is a short one-panel write-up by Frey himself. If there was more material from "No Fun Aloud", this would have been the perfect compilation. Still this is the best of his compilations out there. Highly recommended.

...you won't find all of it here. But Frey's "Solo Collection" is a great place for casual fans to get "Smuggler's Blues", "The Heat Is On" and "Part Of Me, Part Of You" (from the 'Thelma & Louise' soundtrack).

Almost all of Frey's top 20 hits are here, alongside three previously unreleased songs, and while "Sexy Girl" has dated pretty badly, most of these numbers hold up very well. And the new songs are actually among the best of the lot.
Don't expect this to be "The Heat Is On" times 16, though; that one was far from Frey's usual style. After the breakup of the Eagles, Glenn Frey turned himself into a smooth AOR singer with a pinch of R&B and quite a lot of soul in his music, writing most of his songs with fellow musician Jack Tempchin.
That partnership resulted in hit singles like "You Belong To The City", the blue-eyed soul of "The One You Love" and the hard-rocking "Smuggler's Blues", as well as numerous other great songs which would have been nice to have on this album.

The Eagles occationally play some of Frey's songs in concert, stuff like the ballads "Lovers' Moon" and "Let's Go Home", and that low-key side of Glenn Frey is not really represented here...but check out his live album, which is simply called "Live", and then, if you're hooked, his four studio albums "No Fun Aloud", "The Allnighter", "Soul Searchin'" and "Strange Weather".
Besides - a CD can only hold so much, and the "Solo Collection" is a very consistent album and a fine introduction to founding Eagle Frey's years out on his own.

Glenn Frey's silky voice is absolutely awesome. Solo Collection has a little bit of everything. From the bluesy "The One You Love" to the rocking "Smuggler's Blues," this record is a must buy for the serious music fan.

Wow, I found myself listening to this for a week straight. I have all Glenn's solo CDs and they are all good but very inconsisstent. I bought this for the songs I didn't have and found them all very good. I really like the 4 new songs, especially Who's Been Sleeping... and the songs from Strange Weather are terrific!! The only 2 songs I don't like are Sexy Girl and I HATE Smuggler's Blues. Overall a terrific collection.

In early-mid 1980's former Eagles drummer Don Henley, song writer and, singer was enjoying the success of this 1982 and 1984 releases. At the same time former Eagle Glenn Frey had some of his post-Eagle solo success. Glenn had a couple of hot sellers himself. In my opinion it wasn't until Glenn co-stared with Don Johnson and Phillip Michael Thomas in one of the final episodes of the first season (1984-1985) of Miami Vice called "Smuggler's Blues". Glenn was not only the co-star of this episode he also used his hit song "Smuggler's Blues" in it making this one of the most popular Miami Vice episodes, likewise with the song. After that I thought Glenn should have tried to get into TV and movies on top of writing and recording great music. The TV show was so happy with the popularity of "Smuggler's Blues" that Glenn was asked to write a song that would capture a scene in history in both television and pop music. The scene is Sonny Crockett walking the dark, steamy streets of a hot summer night while in New York city on a mission to link the NYC drug lords to the big players in Miami. The song "You Belong To The City" which is one of the best songs ever written and recorded not to mention written and recorded for a soundtrack. Though Frey does not co-star in the two hour second season (1985-1986) opener of Miami Vice title "The Prodigal Son" which is sold as a VHS right here on Amazon he hits a nerve with this song. It fits this scene and captures the moment to perfection. "You Belong To The City" gives me goose bumps, it's my favorite song. It's the type of song you listen too on a summer night with the top or windows down feeling the cool breeze blowing threw your hair drivin' home from your girlfriends house or from a day on the water in your Scarab cigarette boat (no pun intended, yeah it was). The song is a masterpiece that will always have a place in pop and television history. I bout this CD just for that song to be honest, especially since it's so rare that you hear it on radio stations. But I really love and respect Glenn's talent to write and record. His voice is smooth and crisp. The man writes material that hits you in the heart. It's almost like he knows you personally and he's writing a soundtrack to your life or something. There are many other great songs on this CD like "Sexy Girl", "The Heat Is On" from the movie "Beverly Hill Cop", "The One You Love" which is a soft rock classic, and the over song I love is "I've Got Mine" which sounds much like a continuation of "You Belong To The City" and could almost continue the "You Belong To The City" story line from Miami Vice with Crockett years later or something. Think of your own story lines to the songs. That's what is so wonderful about Glenn Frey's music, you could be the main character, the star, be creative with it. Bottom line... these songs are magical and inspirational. If you like Gelnn Frey you'll like Phil Collins (also Genesis), Richard Marx, Billy Ocean, Lionel Richie, Don Henley, Brian Adams, Peter Gabriel, and there are many others that's just to name a few. Oh and I'm not 40 or even 30. I'm 20 hard to believe, eh? Buy this CD!!!

The "Solo Collection" is not only a very good "Best of" album, it also includes some very clever choices from the (only) four Frey albums which have been available to date plus four brand-new tracks. The overall high quality of Glenn Frey's songs shines through very clearly on this collection. This is a nice mixture of rockers and ballads which proves that Glenn Frey is a masterful tunesmith with a feel for hit material beyond the Eagles classics he co-wrote and sang lead vocals on.

Unfortunately, no new material has been released from Glenn since the 1994 Eagles reuinion tour. Glenn, it's high time for another one!

OK so everyone has different tastes but to my mind some of Glenn`s best work did not make the cut on this album. Instead we`ve been given work which has`nt appeared in any of Glenn`s previous releases, Common Ground, Who`s been sleepin in my bed etc, which while good pale beside I Volunteer, That Girl, Some Kind of Blue which all sound like they could have been Eagles tunes. Having said that it is a good album although I would recommend Soul Searchin, Strange Weather ahead of this one. Further proof that the Eagles whole is better than its parts

As with most Greatest Hits collections, the record company leaves off just enough hits to make you wonder "What they were thinking?" They also put on a few tracks that make you wonder "What were they thinking?" Here, there are some obscure tracks that clearly are "filler" while omitting some of his best tracks from rock radio and even Top 40 Hits? Where is I Found Somebody? (Oops, that was only his first Top 40 "hit") Where is "Partytown"? (Probably his best party song and a big hit on AOR radio in the early 80's). "Don't Give Up" was also a rock radio track and a great song from his first album. I would title this album "Some Hits, Some Mediocre Stuff, Some Stuff Sorely Missing, Sorry." Now, where is that Eagles box set we have been waiting 20 years for?

This is a decent collection for fans looking to acquire Glenn's biggest hits. Songs like "The Heat Is On," "You Belong to the City," "Smuggler's Blues," "The One You Love" and "True Love" - all classic '80s tunes that you've probably heard countless times before - are all present and accounted for. The Top 20 hit "Sexy Girl" is also here. Plus "Solo Collection" has the fantastic album track "I've Got Mine," a moody, synth-laden gem which as another reviewer noted, sounds like it could have been Part 2 of "You Belong to the City." Unfortunately, the good news ends there. Amongst the glaring omissions are the Top 40 hits "I Found Somebody" and "All Those Lies" from the "No Fun Aloud" album, AOR staples from back in the day "Partytown," "Don't Give Up," and "The Allnighter," and fan-favorites "Somebody Else," "Lovers Moon," "Some Kind of Blue" and "Love in the 21st Century." All of those should rightfully be here. Add to that that the collection is not sequenced in chronological order and falls well shy of the 80 min. mark and you can imagine what could have been had the compilers put a little more effort into this project. As for the 4 previously unreleased tracks...while it's certainly nice to have those available on CD someplace, they're mediocre at best and have no business taking the place of any of the aforementioned missing tracks. The best bet if you really want a truly definitive collection of Glenn's music is to buy all the original albums or burn your own Greatest Hits. Still, if all you can really handle is a single disc, and you're looking for the best bang for the buck, "Solo Collection" is a much better choice than the paltry "20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection" or the "Classic Glenn Frey" or "Superstar Collection: The Best of Glenn Frey" imports (which are the same album, by the way, just repackaged) which blow it by not including ANY tracks from Glenn's debut album, "No Fun Aloud" (even the version of "The One You Love" used is not the original studio version, but rather a live cut culled from the 1993 album "Glenn Frey Live"). So "Solo Collection" is still the best of what's out there, but hopefully Universal will do us all a favor and correct that in the future.

Frey has put out some great songs inbetween The Eagles work. He has a voice full of soul and heart. This is in a way a very good introduction to Frey`s solo stuff. My favourite all time Frey album is Soul Searching. The title song is also included here. When Glen Frey sings about Soul Searching he realy means it. This is so coool, so soulfull, it realy put you in the right mood. My ultimate Frey song, so to speak. Many of the other hits are on this one like The Heat is on, Smugglers Blues, etc, are also on this collection. This is pure 80 th`s big city, urban, soulfull music. The ultimate music experience when you drive long distances in your car. One of the voices from Eagles wich has soul, heart, musical talent all over. That`s a fact folks. And dont forget The title song from Thelma and Louise Part of Me and Part of You, and then you know what the ultimate track is when you start up youre car on a cold day. This is the lonesome drivers music, and of course others too.