Customer Reviews

Totally Hits 2

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Let's start off with the track listing, since it seems to be missing:

01. Maria Maria - Santana (Featuring The Product G&B) 02. Genie In A Bottle - Christine Aguilera 03. Never Let You Go - Third Eye Blind 04. Falls Apart - Sugar Ray 05. Amazed - Lonestar 06. Mambo No. 5 - Lou Bega 07. Beautiful Dreamer - Madonna 08. My Love Is Your Love (Jonathan Peters' Radio Mix) - Whitney Houston 09. Take A Picture - Filter 10. Dear Lie - TLC 11. Hot Boyz - Missy Elliot 12. Natural Blues - Moby 13. Girls On TV - LFO 14. I Drive Myself Crazy - 'N Sync 15. U Know What's Up - Donell Jones 16. Right Here Waiting - Monica Feauturing 112 17. The Great Beyond - R.E.M. 18. I Will Remember You (Live) - Sarah McLachlan

If there was a single radio station that played this variety, I'd listen to it all the time! I've never supported the virtual apartheid of American radio where music is limited to narrow and exclusive genres. It's like eating nothing but mashed potatoes - very quickly boring.

This is a smorgasbord of music: a touch of country (Lonestar genuinely sweet ballad, which, if it hadn't crossed over, would eventually have been a BSB hit), MOR (Sarah McLaughlan's best song, originally released on the obscure "Brothers McMullan" soundtrack), rap (Missy Elliot's set the record for most weeks at #1 on the rap chart with this track), smooth soul (Donell Jones, + Monica's faithful adaptation of the Richard Marx hit from the 80's), then a move into heavier rock (REM from the Andy Kaufman biopic, Filter's anthemic "take A Picture", and Moby's trance-meets-gospel on "Natural Blues") and fill it in with the pure pop of some of last year's biggest tracks from Madonna, Christina, NSync, and the only Lou Bega track you'll ever hear.

This is a top notch combination of popular and critical favorites, and I'd have a hard time dropping any track on the CD. (Although, if pressed, that Santana track is getting reeeallly overexposed.)

This is the album you'll go back to in five or ten years from now and think, boy that was a great time for music.

And you'll be right.

[Odd piece of trivia: Lisa "Left-Eye" Lopez of TLC is on 3 of the tracks -- Donell, Missy, and TLC, naturally]

I purchased "Totally Hits 1" several months back when it came out. I was so pleased with that one, that I had to purchase this CD, as well. You get some of the biggest songs of the past year including a few which are still current releases.

Of course, there are a few songs which, although not bad songs, could have been left off in return for the inclusion of more popular songs. I question the inclusion of, let's say, R.E.M. or Donell Jones. I think Destiny's Child or Macy Gray would have provided a little more punch.

All this considered, however, it is still a great CD for the person who likes to listen to nothing but today's biggest hits without any of those annoying radio commercials. I recommend this CD as well as the "Totally Hits 1" and "Now, That's What I Call Music" (volumes 1, 2, and 3) CDs.

This collection works best when it retrieves great singles from albums that aren't that great. That's what the initial Totally Hits did. Volume 1's choice of "Believe", "Summer Girls", "This Kiss" and "One Week" were a good reminder of why these collections sell. Why spend [money] for one good song on a CD, when you can get 18 tracks for the same price? Volume 2 does an equally good job of getting the best singles out of ho-hum albums: Missy, Third Eye Blind, Lou Bega, LFO (again), the Madonna Austin Powers song, Lonestar, "Genie In A Bottle" and Donell Jones. A good investment and a decent compilation. This is a good mix tape that you don't have the time to make.

i think with maria maria genie in a bottle and all the other songs this cd makes my fav. list i recomend to any one who likes pop/rock buy totally hits the cd. this one is all a hit

This CD is OK, but not as good as the first one. All the songs on the first one were big hits, but this CD only had a few hits. I only liked some songs like "Never Let You Go" by Third Eye Blind, "Natural Blues" by Moby, "Girl On TV" by LFO, "Take A Picture" by Filter, and "Genie In A Bottle" by Christina Aguilera. The rest of the songs were OK. I hope that if they make the third one of this collection it will better than this one and that all the songs on the CD will be big hits.

I like this mix. I may not have the cd but I've heard every song but the ones by Donell Jones and Lonestar and TLC. Some of the songs were not major hits like the one b R.E.M. It's still a good song though. This album is a great mix of pop and R&B with some rock and rap thrown in(and even a little mambo!). I think that you should buy this because it is a great substitute for buying a lot of albums. Some people on this album such as Donell Jones may have a hit on this album but not a great cd so you can just buy this cd. It is better to buy this cd then the singles for artists because you get a bunch of hits instead of one per single. I'd reccomend this mix of songs with music from artists from Latin legend Santana to rapper Missy "Misdemeanor" Elliot. I'd buy this if you like music at all but if you don't like music why would you be on this page.

Much like the dropoff from the first "Now", "Totally Hits" falls a bit in its second release. Again, the reason being unmemorable songs from well-known artists and follow-ups that pale in comparison to their predicessors.1. Maria Maria-Not bad, but a rather weak follow-up to "Smooth". It was still a #1 hit. (3/5)2. Genie In a Bottle-While "Now" carries Britney, "TH" carries her main rival. This hit scored an upset win for Christina over Britney at the Grammys. (4.5/5)3. Never Let You Go-One follow-up that was actually better than its predicessor, "Jumper". (4.5/5)4. Falls Apart-Good, but not great follow-up to "Someday". (3.5/5)5. Amazed-Good country entry from newcomer Lonestar. (4/5)6. Mambo #5-This obvious one-hit-wonder can test some people's patience. A good stategy is to change the dial on a song you know is going to get overplayed, so that when you get a copy of it, you won't be sick of it yet. That's what I did with this catchy novelty. (5/5)7. Beautiful Stranger-Pretty Good Madonna song. More effective in the context of the "Austin Powers 2" movie. (3.5/5)8. My Love is Your Love-One of the better recent Whitney tunes. (3.5/5)9. Take a Picture-Catchy rock tune. (4/5)10. Dear Lie-Lousy, irritating TLC song. (1.5/5)11. Hot Boyz-Now we get a rap song for the first time. I'm not a fan of the genre. Missy's "Get Ur Freak On" is better than this. (2/5)12. Natural Blues-Terrific dance tune from Moby. (4.5/5)13. Girl On TV-Drippy boy band ballad. (2/5)14. I Drive Myself Crazy-'NSYNC's final RCA and "TH" entry, a rather dull ballad. (2/5)15. U Know What's Up-No, I don't. Who's Donell Jones? (2/5)16. Right Here Waiting-Another unmemorable tune from a well-known R & B artist. (2/5)17. The Great Beyond-R.E.M. has been the most enduring group of the 80's and 90's. Unfortunately, their only "TH" entry is this merely okay song. (2.5/5)18. I Will Remember You-Decent ballad. (3/5)So, like "Now" 2 and 3, "Totally Hits 2" suffers from too much unmemorable filler.

I'm a bit disappointed with some of the songs on here. The only ones I like are "Maria Maria", "Genie In a Bottle", "Mambo #5", "Beautiful Stranger", "My Love Is Your Love", and "Girl On TV". All the others on here are terrible. The only reason I bought this CD was because I wanted to have all the CD'S in the Totally Hits collection. If you want to buy it, skip most of the tracks other than the ones I mentioned. The Totally Hits 3 CD is a lot better than this one (see my review of it).

Reading other people's reviews of this cd most of them come to the conclusion that the original Totally Hits is better than this but i beg to differ here but that is purely personal opinion.

Anyway, with great songs from Christina Aguilera, Lonestar, R.E.M., 'N Sync and Madonna how can this CD fail. There may be some not so good songs featured here - Missy Elliott and Monica's shocking cover of the classic Richard Marx song Right Here Waiting but the other songs on this CD - particularly Lonestar and Santana - are so good that you forget the cd has its downfalls and just remember the great mix that is achieved with this cd.

Very very good and in my opinion better than the original Totally Hits and should find a happy home in every household but you can make your own mind up better than me.

This is another great compilation by ARISTA. It takes many good songs from weak cds and mixes them. Tracks 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 15, 17, and 18 are all good songs, but everything in between is trash. Overall, well worth the price.