Ultimate Luther Vandross (Spec) [Special Edition]

Luther Vandross | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 22, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 2006
• Number of Discs: 2
• Format: Special Edition
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B000GRTR06
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #134,224 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The Whole Thing Seems Very False, August 23, 2006

By 

I. Gross Georg "imgeorg" (Edmond, Oklahoma USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ultimate Luther Vandross (Spec) (Audio CD)

For one thing, the songs presented are not a good representation of a twenty-year career. His first hit, "Never Too Much", and his last, "Dance With My Father", are on here, but the stuff in between? Much too limited. To me, an ultimate collection is a lot closer to an anthology than what they came up with for this one.

What's more, I see a disturbing pattern starting to happen to the beloved Vandross now that he's gone. I see J Records scraping up whatever sonic leftovers Luther may have left behind, getting somebody else to mix them (very badly, I might add), and then tacking them onto any number of badly thought-out compilations now and in the future. Take the two "new" songs on this collection, for example, "Shine" and "Got You Home". The first one sounds like something from his "Chic" days, it sounds like a cull that they manipulated to bring his vocal to the forefront instead of the background like it was when he was their background singer. It has a great beat, though, and should end up being a great club mix. "Got You Home" is awful. It feels very false. I don't see Luther Vandross sampling his own song, "Take You Out", and I can't imagine him not having more than one verse to a song. There's not even a bridge to it. This is an awful mix that goes to show that arranging makes all the difference in a song, and with the master arranger gone, you just end up with dreck.

But maybe the record company is hoping that their youthful audience will not care about anything but the beat. But for me, this fabrication isn't worth the price of a full package. I can't believe they're doing this to Luther, but in a way, yes, I can. My advice: if you must have the two previously unreleased songs, go to your iTunes, spend less than two dollars for them. That way, if you end up enjoying them, fine. And if you're as disappointed as I was, you won't be out much.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Flogging A Dead Horse, September 1, 2006

By 

G. Mitchell "greggmitch" (Los Angeles, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ultimate Luther Vandross (Spec) (Audio CD)

The late, great Luther was - and still is - the best male vocal artist of the last 25 years, bar none. The fact that, now that he's gone, his record labels see fit to exhume his corpse and continue to rehash/remix/reissue his back catalog is lamentable, but typical. Now on to this "Ultimate" collection...mind you, there was already another "Ultimate Luther" CD released a few years ago...how can anyone in their right mind call this latest CD his "Ultimate" anthing, when is skimps on this prime 80s Epic cuts and loads it down with way too much bland J Records recent tracks? While it's nice to have TWO new unreleased Luther cuts, they are hit & miss - SHINE is prime upbeat/disco/dance Luther as only he can do - with a gleaming, slick JAM & LEWIS groove that slyly samples CHIC's "My Forbidden Lover," SHINE could be a big club hit that might just crossover to pop radio - well, probably not in 2006, but here's hoping. What can you say about the abysmal GOT YOU HOME, aside from the fact that it's clearly warmed-over re-heated scraps from his TAKE YOU OUT session, like a poor demo that should have stayed in the vaults. The rest cheats on many ESSENTIAL Luther cuts - and if you're a big fan anyway like me, you already own all his solo CDs anyway. So what's the point? What J Records & Epic should do is join together to release a RARITIES/UNRELEASED CD from the late Luther, featuring never-before-heard cuts (there MUST be some from past Ray Bardini/Marcus Miller/Nat Adderly sessions?!) as well as never-before-on-CD 12" mixes culled together in one place, such as MORALES mixes of "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now," MAW mixes of "Are You Using Me?", UNO CLIO remixes of "Love Power," MK remixes of his Janet duet "Best Things in Life Are Free," I could go on...now THAT would be a gift to the fans, not this cynical "greatest hits" collection that's neither great, nor a hit. Nice cover art/photo booklet, though. Two stars for the lone new song SHINE, zero stars for major-label corporate greed. LONG LIVE LUTHER, RIP.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The Ultimate Luther Vandross? I don't think so, September 27, 2006

By 

The Fancy One "blackprincess" (Westchester County, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ultimate Luther Vandross (Spec) (Audio CD)

Luther Vandross was unquestionably the finest male R&B singer of this generation - with a fabulous voice, immense songwriting, arranging, and production talents - he was definitely an entertainer who rightfully earned his place in musical history. I thought, how can anyone go wrong with a collection with his music? Well, there are many Luther Vandross collections out there to choose from, however, I wish I had not chosen this one. I had only purchased it because of the two new songs, "Shine" and "Got You Home", which are okay, but far below the standards I believe Luther would have allowed for his music to be released. These songs sound like they were in the vault for some time and just now being put out there to sell this CD. If you are a LV fan, then you have all if not, most of his albums anyway. But as I said, because of the two "new" songs, I bought this.

The song "Shine", produced by Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, appealed to me only because I used to be a fan of Chic's music back in the day. I know Luther used to sing background for them before his amazing debut album, NEVER TOO MUCH, came out, so it was like he had come home, so to speak. Luther's voice sounds exquisite over the old "My Forbidden Lover" track. However, my main gripe is with Jam and Lewis, who are both veteran musicians and talented producers.

The evidence of how great they were is in the early hits of Cherrelle, Alexander O'Neal, Morris Day, the S.O.S. Band, The Human League, Janet Jackson and later, New Edition, Johnny Gill and Ralph Tresvant. But in the last ten years or so, they have increasingly relied on samples with each new CD they produce, and now, that's ALL they use. What happened to these guys, are they just lazy?? Just listen to almost any Janet Jackson CD made after RHYTHM NATION 1814 and you'll understand what I mean. A few samples, okay, I can see, to enhance the song. But to rely on the entire sample itself? Come on!! They put absolutely no effort into making those songs at all. They are no more creative than Diddy or a Kanye West, jacking for beats, and that's a shame because we all know what they were ONCE capable of. They did this with Luther on "Shine" and I honestly believe if Luther were still here, he would have never allowed it to be released.

"Got You Home" is obviously something that didn't make the grade for Luther's first CD for J Records, so they put it away and reworked it into "Take You Out". I'm quite sure it was not meant to see the light of day.

I don't think that the late, great LV is represented well here. First of all, the versions of his hits and most well-known cuts are edited and not enough of his work on Sony/Epic is here. Secondly, the collector's edition includes an extra CD, but it has nothing but a bunch of remixed Luther songs for club play on it. It's a waste. They could have scraped that and made it a decent 2-cd collection with more of Luther's popular songs....the songs from his Epic days that people WANT to hear, instead of what they decided to give us here. Needless to say, this is a big disappointment to me. If you want a better repesentation of what a vocal juggernaut this man was, buy his individual albums instead, and steer clear of this one.