Reviews
 Keep It Simple
Van Morrison
Roger McGuinn @ the Huntington IMAC, Long Island, NY - April 4, 2008
Emily Saxe @ the Allen Room/Jazz at Lincoln Center - April 5, 2008
Another Country
Tift Merritt
Be Your Own Pet
Get Awkward
Paul McCartney – The McCartney Years (DVD)
Juno – Music from the Motion Picture
Various Artists
Yes - Their Definitive Story
Day and Night Driving
Seven Mary Three
InterMedia Arts Center 2/2/08
Huntington, NY
|
Elton John
The Beatles did it. Elvis Presley did it. Even Mariah Carey did it, so why not Elton John? Each of the above artists released compact career retrospectives containing nothing but ‘number one’ hits, and each has sold remarkably well, so it is understandable why the Universal Group would want to apply the same logic to Elton John. His career spans decades, and his track record on the pop charts is up there with the best, so a collection of ‘number one’ hits is bound to be a successful business venture, but is it valuable to consumers? That depends on a number of factors.
If you have been a fan of Elton John for any length of time, then the odds are good that you already own most of the songs on “Number Ones.” There have been numerous opportunities to own virtually every song featured here. Elton John’s “Greatest Hits, Vol. 1” already featured “Goodbye Yellow Brick Road,” “Bennie & the Jets,” “Daniel,” “Crocodile Rock,” “Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me” (less George Michael), “Your Song,” “Rocket Man,” “Candle in the Wind” and “Saturday Night’s Alright (for Fighting). Greatest Hits Vol. 2 contains “Lucy in the Sky,” Philadelphia Freedom” “Island Girl” and “Tiny Dancer”. Between these two platinum-selling releases, all but four songs are covered. A later two-disk collection called “Greatest Hits 1970-2002” contains every track on “Number Ones” except the Beatles cover (“Lucy In the Sky with Diamonds”), and then goes on to include an additional seventeen tracks of hits, so the question really is, “Do we need this?”
A second point of consideration is the title itself. Calling an album “Number Ones” implies that every song peaked at the top of the charts, but a semi-bogus disclaimer appears after the first twelve songs that states “and other favorites”. Apparently, John (or more accurately, Universal Records) didn’t have enough number one hits to fill out a full-length disk, so they padded it with “other favorites.” Among the twelve that are alleged to be “number ones”, only seven of them topped the charts in the U.S., so they must be including European chart information as well. Unfortunately, I can’t say for sure because the disk’s booklet contains virtually no information or original artwork. My conclusion? If you somehow managed to get this far without buying any of the previous Elton John collections, then this is a succinct way to start. If you decide it’s worthwhile, be sure to obtain the “Limited Edition” package, which contains a second disk of videos. Otherwise, “Number Ones” is redundant and perhaps a bit misleading as well.
Grade: 
 |
Buy it now! -  |
 
|
Hit Network
More Music Reviews
More Movie Reviews
More Book Reviews
More Concert Reviews
See more hits from the 2000's
Powered by Millennium Communications Inc.