Very Best of Manfred Mann [Import]

Manfred Mann | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (July 31, 1998)
• Original Release Date: 1998
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: EMI Import
• ASIN: B000026MUE
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #403,509 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. DO WAH DIDDY DIDDY

2. 5-4-3-2-1

3. SHA LALA

4. Hubble Bubble (Toil and Trouble)

5. If You Gotta Go, Go Now

6. Oh No Not My Baby

7. Bare Hugg

8. Got My Mojo Working

9. Hoochie Coochie Man

10. Smokestack Lighting

11. Pretty Flamingo

12. You Gave Me Somebody to Love

13. Don't Ask Me What I Say

14. I'm Your Kingpin

15. It's Gonna Work Out Fine

16. Hi Lili Hi Lo

17. Stormy Monday Blues

18. The Abominable Snowman

19. Sine I Don't Have You

20. Come Tomorrow

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Paul Jones years, February 28, 2005

By 

Peter Durward Harris "Pete the music fan" (Leicester England) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Very Best of Manfred Mann (Audio CD)

Manfred Mann's line-up included a saxophonist, a rarity in the sixties pop music scene. This very successful group had three distinct phases in their career. The second phase, with Mike D'Abo as lead singer, yielded seven top ten UK hits including Mighty Quinn, while the third phase, Manfred Mann's Earth band, yielded three top ten UK hits including Blinded by the light. This compilation focuses on the first phase when Paul Jones was the lead singer.

During this phase, which covers the period to mid-1966, the group had six top ten UK hits, two of which (Do wah diddy diddy, Pretty Flamingo) made number one. Two other hits peaked at number eleven. Their final hit, You gave me somebody to love (an excellent song), failed to make the top thirty but this may have been because of lack of promotion due to the change in record label that coincided with Paul Jones leaving the group.

5-4-3-2-1 provided Manfred Mann with their breakthrough when it was used as a TV theme. It followed two singles (not included here) that failed to chart. The failed singles can be found on another compilation, Manfred Mann at Abbey Road.

The Exciters, an American group, were first to record Do wah diddy diddy, but their version was only a minor American hit, yet Manfred Mann were able to take it to the very top of the American charts, matching the success they had with the song in Britain. Somewhat disappointingly, they didn't have many hits in America, but they had plenty in Britain.

Originally an American hit for Maxine Brown, Oh no not my baby was later revived by Rod Stewart although I think Dusty Springfield's cover is better than any of the hit versions.

If you gotta go go now, written by Bob Dylan, is the only one of his songs that became a hit for Manfred Mann during this period, but Bob's songs became more important after Paul Jones left the group.

Apart from those already mentioned, Manfred Mann's hits with Paul Jones (all included here) were Hubble bubble toil and trouble, Sha la la and Come tomorrow.

There is a compilation (Ages of Mann - Greatest hits) that includes the hits from the first two phases of their career, but some people don't like it as it's not in chronological order. If you want to keep the Paul Jones tracks separate from the Mike D'Abo tracks, buy this for the Paul Jones stuff and buy a different compilation (Very best of the Fontana years) for the Mike D'Abo stuff.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Representative sampler, September 25, 2005

By 

Laurence Upton (Wilts, UK) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Very Best of Manfred Mann (Audio CD)

This budget 20-track collection first appeared on EMI's Music For Pleasure in 1993 and combines a generous selection of the band's many HMV hit singles with Paul Jones, with a sampling of six of the more typical jazz or rhythm and blues pieces that appeared on their first album in 1964, The Five Faces Of Manfred Mann presented in stereo, and four from the following year's Mann Made, perversely in mono.
5-4-3-2-1, famous as the theme tune for Ready Steady Go! and Hubble Bubble, their fourth single, both originals, are included, as are their two biggest number one hits, the Exciters' Do Wah Diddy Diddy, which also topped the American charts (unfortunately to the detriment of the Exciters' own version and subsequent career), and Pretty Flamingo. 
I'm puzzled that they should have recorded Hi Lili Hi Lo, which Leslie Caron sang in the film Lili in 1953, and which the Alan Price Set also had out around the same time as a single. What is the song's appeal? They also try their hand at the Skyliner's Since I Don't Have You, a gorgeous doo wop tune not presented at its best. 
They were always admired for their arrangements of then unfamiliar Bob Dylan material of which their excellent version of If You Gotta Go, Go Now was the first, and reached number two. Covers of Maxine Brown's Oh No Not My Baby and the Shirelles' Sha La La were also big hits. Manfred Mann's own keyboard work and Mike Hugg's vibes are featured to advantage on The Abominable Snowman, and there is a smattering of more of their own material throughout