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Judy Collins never really got credit for being one of the great folk singers of the 60s, perhaps because of her transformation later in life into an art/torch singer, perhaps because she largely did not write her own material. But this CD shows her range and versatility as a folk singer, featuring of course her immortal covers of Joni Mitchell's Both Sides Now and Stephen Sondheim's Send In The Clowns, but also showcasing a variety of beautiful and moving renditions of less familiar songs. Since You Asked and My Father particularly come to mind. If you already own Colors of the Day, her 1972 greatest hits album, the major addition here is Send in the Clowns; if you are looking for just one CD, this one is definitely better because of a more expansive selection.

These sixteen tracks encompass all of Judy Collins' most popular and familiar songs and make for delightful listening. There are covers of songs by The Byrds (Turn! Turn! Turn!), Leonard Cohen (Suzanne), Dylan (Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues) and Joni Mitchell (Both Sides Now) and Judy transforms them all with her beautiful voice. It's hard to pick favourites, but I love her version of Who Knows Where The Time Goes and Send In The Clowns more than any other versions. This graceful album concludes with her stunning a cappella rendition of Amazing Grace, a song that amazingly made the UK Top 20 in 1971. Once you've heard these songs, you'll want to investigate further and you won't be disappointed since Collins had a prolific output, all of which is good, most of which is great.

This is an exceptional album by any standards and ridiculous value.

While most of her classics are on here, there are many other tracks that blew me away - such as the ONLY example of the danceable, single version of Chelsea Morning to appear on an album.

The other two songs that were a surpsise sensation to me were Judy's own song, Since You've Asked, and her simply breathtaking version of the old whaling song Farewell To Tarwathie. This is made all the more haunting by the presence of whale song from humpback whales, which Judy added in herself, from a tape that came from a marine biologist friend, Dr. Roger Payne.

To cap it all, the mini booklet contains wonderful bio info and many stunning shots of this impossibly beautiful woman.

Invaluable.

One of the most important folk-pop singers of the twentieth century, Judy recorded most of the songs for which she is best remembered in the sixties although she recorded plenty of great music in the seventies. Judy had three major international hits (Both sides now, Amazing grace, Send in the clowns) but she certainly deserved to have plenty more.

Among the other songs are Who knows where the time goes (written and first recorded by Sandy Denny), Chelsea morning (written, like Both sides now, by Joni Mitchell), Someday soon (a country song) and Turn turn turn (originally recorded by Pete Seeger with lyrics lifted from the biblical Book of Revelations, this song became famous when covered by the Byrds).

For a really in-depth Judy Collins compilation, go for the double-CD, Forever. If you only want a single CD of Judy's music, you'll find all the classic tracks here.

Judy, Joni or Joan? Who do you prefer? They were the essential North American songstesses of the sixties folk/protest movement. Joni Mitchell was clearly the best songwriter of the three (indeed, one of the best of her generation) and the most accomplished musician. Joan Baez had the best voice; the greatest range and clarity, and the most lyrical tonality.

Judy Collins is somewhere in between. Her voice is clearer and surer than Joni's, but with not quite the range and tone qualities of Joan's. And her songwriting abilities (as evidenced by four tracks on this CD) are passable but unremarkable. But when she covers other writers' songs, especially traditional songs, and stays within her range, she is superb.

Joshua Rifkin's arrangement for Just Like Tom Thumb Blues, incorporating harp and flutes, is truly beautiful. Also outstanding is Farewell to Tarwathie, a traditional whaling song. These two by themselves are worth the price of admission. There are two Joni Mitchell songs here. Both Sides Now is great, probably the best recording of it. Chelsea Morning is good (this is the version the Clintons heard, and which inspired their daughter's name) but it lacks the quirky charm that Joni brings to it. On Song for Judith, she pushes her voice too high and this is the weakest vocal performance on the CD. This is odd, because it is her own composition, so you would think that she would have written it to suit her range. Her rendition of the Sandy Denny song Who Knows Where the Time Goes, is probably the best there is, even better than Sandy's own recording, which is saying something, as Sandy's voice was very beautiful.

You need to hear Joan, Joni and Judy. As an introduction to, or sampling of, the latter, this CD, a true 'best of' with good sleeve notes, is the one to go for.

Judy Collins has great emotion in her graceful, harmonic voice.

She emits love, sorrow, and joy and peace.

Who Knows Where the Time Goes, Both Sides Now, Send in the Clowns and her wonderful rendition of Amazing Grace are classics

Highly recommended!

I sent my first copy of this CD back to Amazon because it sounded like it had been over-modulated when it was transferred from vinyl or tape. No problem with that ... Amazon's return/replacement policies are the best. The problem was that this replacement CD was also over-modulated; even more so than my original shipment.

For the non-technical, on this CD all of Ms. Collins' exquisite high notes sound "shattered" and blurry; a by-product of recording the material at too high a volume ... a sound engineering problem called 'Over-modulating.'

I like almost all of the songs on this CD (especially 'Someday Soon,' and have this album in a treasured LP. However, the process of re-mastering it onto CD was poorly engineered, resulting in the 'shattering,' blurring, and over-modulation problems I experienced.

Save your money and buy either the audio tape or the LP version of this fine and pioneering recording, which was the epitome of the flower-power era. I have not sent my replacement CD back to Amazon for another try. I'm too discouraged to try again.

True, you can't really fit all of Judy's best on one disc, but this comes very close. I believe this is the only collection that has all of her top 40 hits on it. (Even the two-disc anthology leaves off "Cook with Honey," which is present here.) Highly recommended for anyone looking for a single-disc retrospective.

This album is an excellent "Best of" Collection of Judy Collins works for Elektra, and is a great introduction to her work for those who only remember a couple of hits. Yes much, but not all, of the work here was released on previous collections, including 1970s "Colors of the Day" and 1998's "Forever " Anthology. But "Colors" is now dated by not including Send in the Clowns, Open the Door and Cook with Honey, while "Forever" is aimed more at the Judy Collins fans. Most of the songs here qualify as "hits" and "semi-hits" for the general interest audience - but they are indeed great songs!

The one gem on this album of interest to Judy Collins afficionados is the "single" version of Chelsea Morning which was released on a 45 single, but never on an albu,. The Chelsea Morning arrangement on the "Living" album is a very different live recording, while the rendition on "Forever" is a modern version. Speaking as a JC fan, it's great to get a CD quality version of this single.

Judy Collins is the conservative's Joni Mitchell. She arrived on the music scene a bit early to be fully indoctrinated into the countercultural movement, cutting her first recordings with Electra Records in 1961. Blessed with a golden voice, she represented a key voice in the mainstream of traditional folk music from the mid-1960's into the mid-1970's.

Sweet Judy had a string of hits from 1968 through 1979, but none charted better than her remake of Mitchell's 'Both Sides Now', which rose to number eight nationally. She tapped Mitchell's songwriting talents a second time in the following year, bringing 'Chelsea Morning' to number 78. The hits continued with 1970's 'Amazing Grace' (#15), 1971's 'Open the Door' (#90), 1973's 'Cook With Honey (#32), 'Send In the Clowns' which charted in both 1975 (#36) and 1977 (#19), and finally in 1979 'Hard Time For Lovers' reached number 66. All seven songs, and 9 others comprise this somewhat limited compilation.

While Collins is best known for her signature vocal gifts, and is often pegged as a cover artist, this collection does demonstrate her capacity as a composer as well. Several fine songs from the disc, 'Since You've Asked', 'Albatross', 'My Father' and 'Open the Door' are all Collins compositions. But certainly her greatest success has involved covering the work of reknown composers such as Bob Dylan ('Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues'), Leonard Cohen ('Suzanne'), Ian Tyson ('Someday Soon'), Stephen Sondheim ('Send In the Clowns'), and Pete Seeger ('Turn! Turn! Turn!', which features Byrd Roger McGuinn lending his trademark 12-string guitar to Collins' rendition).

Collin's special talents have brought other reknown artists into the studio as well. Most notable is Stephen Stills, who was so deeply involved in a personal relationship with Collins that he penned perhaps his greatest work 'Suite: Judy Blue Eyes' for her, contributed lead and bass guitar work for her 'Who Knows Where the Time Goes' album. Three tracks from that disc, which also features Derek and the Dominos drummer Jim Gordon, are offered on this disc.

While Collins work is exemplary, and certainly difficult to be critical of, I find myself still preferring the original artists renditions of the tracks she is covering here, and of her own original recordings I find a lack of boldness in the mix. While there is a place for light and soft, it needs to be reinforced with some dark and tough. When 'Who Knows Where the Time Goes' is as rugged as you get, you better be in the mood for some smooth sailing.