The Definitive Collection [ENHANCED] [EXTRA TRACKS] [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]

Lionel Richie

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 4, 2003)
• Original Release Date: February 4, 2003
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Enhanced, Extra tracks, Original recording remastered
• Label: Motown
• ASIN: B00007KQ70
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (78 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #927 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

After mounting successes with the Commodores during the late '70s, Lionel Richie exploded into one of the biggest stars of the '80s, then enigmatically disappeared from the music business for nearly a decade. Fourteen of the tracks on this 20-track anthology (which also includes a five-cut bonus disc compiled by Richie) topped the charts, ample testimony to Richie's remarkable success in shifting from the Commodores' roots in the Smokey Robinson and Marvin Gaye Motown to a pioneering career as a crossover balladeer. His willful drift to the middle of the road found that its yellow line was nothing but gold. This collection charts the singer's upbeat successes with his former band, segues gracefully into the ballads and party-lite sensibility that made him such an unlikely '80s icon, and touches on his late-'90s reemergence. A newly recorded duet with Enrique Iglesias on "To Love a Woman" suggests that the elder popmeister hasn't lost his touch; indeed, his voice seems more warm and soulful than ever. --Jerry McCulley

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

81 of 84 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Time to cross the Pond, December 10, 2004

By	Amanda Richards "Modest to the extreme" (Georgetown, Guyana) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This is a great album for Lionel Richie fans, and for all you people who were partying seriously through the eighties. It's got the songs that made you grab that special someone and head for that one single, special tile on the dance floor, where you remained swaying together for the entire slow session.

Hands up if you remember dancing to "Say You, Say Me", "Easy", "Three Times a Lady", "Still", "Endless Love", "Stuck on You" and "Hello".

Alright, now put your hands down before you ruin your circulation, remember you're getting on in age, old-timer.

However, before you rush off and buy this, maybe you should have a look at the UK version of this album, which consists of two discs packed with music. Here's the list:

Disc: 1
1. All Night Long
2. Say You, Say Me
3. My Destiny
4. Running With The Night
5. Dancing On The Ceiling
6. Don't Stop The Music
7. Love Oh Love
8. Ballerina Girl
9. My Love
10. Love Will Conquer All
11. Do It To Me
12. Cinderella
13. Tender Heart
14. Don't Wanna Lose You
15. Closest Thing To Heaven
16. I Forgot
17. Angel
18. To Love A Woman

Disc: 2
1. Three Times A Lady
2. Easy
3. Endless Love
4. Hello
5. Still
6. Sail On
7. Stuck On You
8. You Are
9. Truly
10. Just To Be Close To You
11. Sweet Love
12. Penny Lover
13. Oh No
14. Lady (You Bring Me Up)
15. Wonderland
16. Machine Gun
17. Brickhouse
18. Too Hot To Trot
19. Flying High
20. Zoom

It's available at Amazon.co.uk, and at a great price too.

Get the full story - cross the pond for the REAL collection.

Amanda Richards, December 10, 2004

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars His Best Compilation, February 8, 2003

By	T. C Lane (Marina, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is Lionel's 3rd compilation following Back To Front (1992) and Truly-The Love Songs (1997). 12 of Back To Front's songs are on this 20 track collection. If you own Truly, than 12 of its songs are also on this CD. But Definitive Collection digs a little big deeper than those other two. It adds "Dancing on the Ceiling" and "You Are", both Top 5 solo hits that weren't on the other CD's. Some might wonder why 5 Commodores songs are included when 2 Top 10 solo hits: "My Love" and "Love Will Conquer All" are not here, but my only complaint with this strategy is that they left off Lionel's first ballad hit with the Commodores: 1975's "Sweet Love". The 2 new songs are good and don't sound out of place on this collection. The liner notes are 2003-up-to-date with a lot of looking back from Richie himself. This is Lionel's best and best-sounding compilation. SPECIAL NOTE: the initial versions of this CD included a 5 track bonus CD. The track listings are: Commoders - Zoom (long version alternate mix), Commoderes - Oh No (original version), Lionel- Can't Slow Down (different take on title track from album), Lionel- Lady (1998 version of Kenny Rogers' #1 hit that Richie wrote), and Commodores - Brick House (original version).

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Definitely most "Definitive" Lionel Richie Collection, February 11, 2003

By	B-MAN "B" (Earth, occasionally. Until I get bored.) - See all my reviews

This is the best Lionel Richie collection available to date. The Definitive Collection consists of 25 tracks (5 song bonus disc included): 8 songs from the Commodores and 17 by Lionel Richie. The previous hits collection, 1992's single disc "Back to Front" is completely covered here, minus "My Destiny" and "Love, Oh Love". Also the 1997 compilation, "Love Songs", is all here except for "Love will conquer all" and the Commodores hit "Sweet Love". Its hard to quibble with the exclusion of "Sweet Love" and most anything by the Commodores considering the several extensive anthologies and hits albums available by that group. The problem is the Commodores' love songs sang by Richie are considered by many as Lionel Richie songs, hence the reason the biggest ones are in this collection. The collection is not chronological, starting off with Richie's "Hello" from '83 followed by the Commodores' "Just to be close to you" circa '76, but it still works because the theme and mood of the songs are similar. Two new songs finish off the main disc: "To love a woman" (with Enrique Iglesias) and "Goodbye". The 5 track bonus disc includes three more from the Commodores: an unreleased alternate mix of "Zoom","Oh No", and a hidden track #5 - a classic from the Commodores (can you guess what it is?) and two more from Richie: early working version of "Can't Slow Down" and "Lady", which many people probably think Kenny Rogers wrote. The Definitive Collection should please any fan, casual or not, and its the best way to get all the essential Lionel Richie tracks in a single reasonably priced CD.

Warning: Track 15 may actually make you want to try to dance on your ceiling, but I wouldn't advise it. It didn't work either time I tried it. I got hurt.