The Essential Heart

Heart | Format: MP3 Download

Product Details

• Original Release Date: November 26, 2002
• Number of Discs: 2
• Label: Epic/Capitol/Legacy
• Copyright: (P) 1976,1978,1985,1987,1990,1991,1993,1994,2002 Capitol Records,Inc., 1977,1978,1980,1982,1983,2002 Sony Music Entertainment Inc.
• Total Length: 2:37:44
• Genres:
• ASIN: B00138CQR8
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (89 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,807 Paid in MP3 Albums (See Top 100 Paid in MP3 Albums)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

58 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Essential Plus Non-Essential, March 28, 2003

By 

Lonnie E. Holder "The Review's the Thing" (Columbus, Indiana, United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Essential Heart (Audio CD)

When I review a `greatest', `best of', or in this case, `essential', CD I try to consider two aspects of the CD. The first aspect is whether the CD is good in and of itself, and the other is what the CD brings to the collected works of the artist or artists.

This collection is more comprehensive than Heart's previous greatest hits collection. Thus this collection adds another CD of material, much of which is good and worthy of having. Of course, you can hardly go wrong with any Heart music, hard rockers that have been around since the mid-70s. Many of their songs are now standards on classic rock stations and rate as some of the best songs in rock. While nearly anyone reading this review should know those classics, some of the better known are `Barracuda' (that riff is absolutely classic), `Magic Man', `Heartless', `What About Love', `Alone', `Never', and if I don't stop now I'll be repeating the entire CD list. All of their biggest hits are on this CD.

The difficulty is whether this CD meets the standard of `essential'. Certainly the `essential' part of the CD is here, but so are a number of songs that might be good, but are hardly essential. However, I've noticed that some business manager somewhere has creatively figured out that if Heart offers greatest hits CDs with few greatest hits, and they offer this one with two CDs worth that truly contain the greatest hits with some other songs to fill out two CDs, the choice will force most people looking for depth to buy this CD. It's unfortunate that the original Heart CD `These Dreams: Heart Greatest Hits', which really had the greatest hits on a single CD, no longer appears to be available.

The music industry has recognized that one way to milk music that has sold a lot of CDs in the past is to keep repackaging the music in various ways to get people to buy the same music over and over. In the case of this CD, the artists are true greats, the music is great, and the CD was truly unnecessary to release, given that there was a previous CD. This CD gets 4 stars because the music is awesome and well done, subtracting 1 star for overly clever business practices that will anger people and wonder whether they should buy any music at all.

39 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great overview (and response to another post), December 13, 2002

By 

Mickey Frith (Nashville, TN) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Essential Heart (Audio CD)

I know there have been way too many Heart collections released as of late. (I think they must be in a competition with Donna Summer to see who can repackage their material the most.) However, this is still by far the BEST compilation out there. All the hits are represented--even lesser known ones--and I'm THRILLED that they included the reprise of "Dreamboat Annie" since the orchestral part towards the end of the song is absolutely gorgeous. They also included the great "Allies" from PASSIONWORKS, as well as one of my favorite Heart rockers, "Wild Child" from BRIGADE. There are also several great photos of Ann, Nancy, and the band from earlier in their career (no big-hair photos from the 80's, fortunately) and well-written liner notes. My only complaint about this collection and every other one out there is that there was a version of "There's the Girl" I heard on the radio that added the following lines to the chorus: "She's setting you up, my friend. She's gonna break your heart again," and I have yet to find any collection that includes that special version. Oh well....

In response to the other poster who was upset over the different vocals represented on disc two, please remember that "Never" and "Nothin' At All" had both an album version and a single version. This collection represents the ALBUM versions of the tracks, so there was no messing around on Sony's part. When I got rid of my silver disc of HEART and purchased the gold disc several years back, I noticed that they had replaced the album versions with the single versions (with the different vocal). No big deal to me because they're both good. If, however, you're partial to the single versions, I recommend hunting down the gold disc of HEART or GREATEST HITS: 1985-1995.

As a general rule, these ESSENTIAL collections are outstanding. The only one I DON'T recommend is the Neil Diamond collection, but you can read for yourself other reviews about that one. The Barbra Streisand, Johnny Cash, and Kenny Loggins collections are superb. (Pardon the digression. :-))

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heart's best of many "Greatest Hits" compilations, July 28, 2006

By 

R. Gorham "RCG2" - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Essential Heart (Audio CD)

THE BAND: Ann Wilson (lead vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards, violin, harp, percussion), Nancy Wilson (guitars, vocals, mandolin, bass, keyboards) and assorted band members throughout the decades - including Roger Fisher (guitar), Steve Fossen (bass), Michael DeRosier (drums), Howard Leese (guitars, keyboards), Mark Andes (guitar, bass), Denny Carmassi (drums).

THE DISCS: (2002) 37 tracks on 2 discs (disc-1 at 79:15, disc-2 at 78:44). Included with the discs is a 6-page foldout containing several band pictures, a 3-page intro from 'Rolling Stone' editor David Wild, what songs came from which albums, and thank you's. Digitally remastered sound. Previous labels include Mushroom, Sony and Capitol. This release - Epic/Capitol label.

ALBUM REPRESENTATION: Dreamboat Annie (4 songs), Little Queen (4), Magazine (1), Dog & Butterfly (2), Bebe le Strange (1), Greatest Hits: Live (3), Private Auditions (1), Passionworks (2), Heart (5), Bad Animals (4), Brigade (5), Rock The House - Live (1), Desire Walks On (3), The Road Home (1).

COMMENTS: Heart is in the same ranks as several other well known artists (i.e. Aerosmith, Chicago, Rush, Motley Crue and Kiss come to mind) with their "Best Of" compilations - and I have to ask how much is enough? To date I know of the following Heart compilations: "Essential Heart", "Greatest Hits: Live", "Greatest Hits 1976-83", "Greatest Hits 1985-95", "The Collection", "The Definitive Collection", "Love Songs", "Ballads & Greatest Hits". With that being said, hands down, this "Essential" collection is THE best one of the bunch. It covers their entire career - from their debut in 1975 ("Dreamboat Annie") through 1994's live and unplugged "The Road Home". Every studio album between these dates are represented (with the exception of "Jupiter's Darling" released after the fact in 2004). All the staples are here - "Crazy On You", "Barracuda", "Magic Man", "Love Alive", "Heartless", "Straight On'", "Tell It Like It Is", "What About Love?" "Never", "These Dreams", Who Will You Run To", "There's The Girl", "Alone", etc. As well as a few hidden live gems with "You're The Voice", "The Road Home" and a cover of Led Zeppelin's "Rock And Roll". Heart has always sounded great 'live'... even in 2005-06 touring in the small venues... Ann's voice is still an extremely powerful instrument decades later. No compilation is perfect... if there's one out there I haven't seen it. This "Essential" collection is extremely close to being dead on accurate. I've noted only a few minor things wrong: 1. Three glaring song omissions - the live or studio version of "Mistral Wind" (the live track was on "Greatest Hits: Live" and it's a truly chilling version of the song); the title track from the album of the same name "Bebe Le Strange" or "Even It Up", and a deeper (not so glaring) track "RSVP" (from "Bad Animals"); 2. Five songs from "Brigade" is crazy, and 3. One song from "Private Auditions" was probably one song too many (but I respect the fact that they did include something from this mess of an album). There are so many great songs on this set of discs... you will absolutely not go wrong. A great introduction for the beginners, as well as having so many wonderful songs all in one jewel case for the veteran Heart fans. Classic any way you slice it (5 stars).