Ultimate Collection: Barbara Mandrell

Barbara Mandrell | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 31, 2001)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: HIP-O
• ASIN: B00005MK9X
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #32,362 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good, solid overview of Mandrell's peak years., July 12, 2003

By 

David Kenner (Fort Worth, Texas United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ultimate Collection: Barbara Mandrell (Audio CD)

Barbara Mandrell is something of an enigma. She's known primarily as a great vocalist yet showed amazing instrumental prowess in her live shows. She unabashedly proclaims that she "was country when country wasn't cool", but had no trouble pulling off convincing covers of R&B powerhouses like Shirley Brown's "Woman To Woman" or Luther Ingram's "I Don't Wanna Be Right". She never holds back in the least when discussing her personal religious convictions but often performed songs about marital infidelity. She counts Dolly Parton, Brenda Lee, Tammy Wynette, Minnie Pearl and Aretha Franklin among her biggest influences but walked away from her music career, in part because she felt that a woman should get off the stage once she reaches her 40s. But while she's always been hard to define or categorize, her musical legacy speaks volumes on her behalf. This very comprehensive collection of Mandrell's biggest hit singles of the 70s and 80s has been a long time coming and does a good job of hitting the highlights of her recording career. She had too many hits to include them all, of course, and after looking over the impressive list of tracks that are included, the titles that are not included start coming to mind ("Midnight Angel", "He Set My Life To Music", "Crossword Puzzle", "Wish You Were Here", "Operator Long Distance Please"). This is really a great single disc retrospective but it kind of makes me sad that the 2 disc collection that the Razor & Tie label had planned several years back never saw the light of day. This disc does include my two very favorite performances though: "Only A Lonely Heart Knows" and "Happy Birthday Dear Heartache". Any fan of Mandrell will find a lot to love on this compilation.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All the hits you want, August 5, 2001

By 

Allen Chapman (STAFFORD SPRINGS, CT USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ultimate Collection: Barbara Mandrell (Audio CD)

With this new collection of hits from Barbara Mandrell you get all the hits you remember. Starting off with her first top ten single "Tonight My Baby's Coming Home" from 1971 up thru her last top five single "I Wish That I Could Fall In Love Today" from 1988. In between are all the other hits from her stays on Columbia, ABC/Dot, MCA and Capital. This collection is a single disc version of the Razor & Tie collection "Greatest Hits" from 1997, which was only available thru mail order. This is a great disc if you want her hits. However, now that Barbara has said she won't record anymore, it would be nice to see a boxed set covering her entire career from her "Queen For A Day" single on Mosrite up thru "Ten Pound Hammer" from her under rated final album, "It Works For Me". Maybe someday someone will re-issue her albums on CD. So until that happens or we get a boxed set this is nice collection to have on your shelf.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent overview of Barbara's career, October 11, 2003

By 

Peter Durward Harris "Pete the music fan" (Leicester England) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ultimate Collection: Barbara Mandrell (Audio CD)

Barbara is my favorite pop-country singer - I don't count Dolly as a pop-country singer, as most of her recordings are traditional - and this compilation of some of her music shows why.

Twenty of the songs here were recorded during her long spell with MCA, but the set begins with two of her early tracks recorded for Columbia and ends with I wish that I could fall in love today, the biggest hit that she had after she left MCA.

Barbara tackled every type of song, or so it seemed, but she had a soft spot for R+B classics. Her biggest hit came via a cover of an R+B song (If loving you is wrong) and it suits her well. On this collection, my favorites are Married but not to each other, Standing room only, Years, Woman to woman and Sleeping single in a double bed, but every song here is a masterpiece. Barbara is equally good with up-tempo rocking songs (Crackers, In times like these, Fast lanes and country roads) as ballads, many of which are on the sad side. The saddest song of all is The best of strangers, about a marriage gone wrong although the couple are still living together. However, the last ballad here, No one mends a broken heart like you, is much more optimistic.

This is a brilliant collection of Barbara's music.