More great love songs in hit compilations

I once wondered why of all the big pop stars around, Neil Diamond was one without a greatest hits collection CD. Must be part of some strategy. After all, there is more money to be made out of the sales of complete albums. Maybe Diamond, like some artists, refuses to have his work chopped up or as they say in the trade, cannibalized. You know, albums have a definite concept expressed in the choice of songs and the way these are sequenced. Remove a cut and you destroy everything.

But it looks like Diamond has finally given in to the demands of the market to release a budget-saving compilation CD. Not everybody can afford to own all of his albums. And here it is, The Very Best Of Neil Diamond, with the original studio recordings. This is a real bargain with 23 classic hits together for the first time in one CD including his No. 1 selling duet, You Don’t Bring Me Flowers with Barbra Streisand. Okay, I do not see anything here from the Jonathan Livingstone Seagull soundtrack. But the singles are all here, so no more complaints.

Forever In Blue Jeans, Beautiful Noise, Love On The Rocks, Cherry Cherry, I Am… I Said, Sweet Caroline, Cracklin’ Rosie, Play Me, I’m A Believer, Girl You’ll Be A Woman Soon, Holly Holy, Solitary Man, Song Sung Blue, Hello Again, Red Red Wine, If You Know What I Mean, Pretty Amazing Grace, Shilo, America and others.

Twenty by Boyz II Men is a 20th anniversary album by one of the greatest vocal groups of all time. They have made seven Platinum singles while their big hits like I’ll Make Love To You, On Bended Knee and Four Seasons Of Loneliness are numbered among the most romantic songs of all time. While welcomed with open arms everywhere they go on tour, the past two decades have not been really smooth for these guys. For one, their parting with fourth member Michael McCary was not pretty. For another, although their cover albums Motown and Love are big sellers, Nathan Morris, Shawn Stockman and Wanja Morris have not had a new original hit in a long time.

So they decided to mix old and new in the two-disc collection made up of 22 cuts, some new, while the rest are the most popular songs recorded by the famous vocal group. The new recordings are Believe, So Amazing, Put Some Music On, Slowly, More Than You’ll Ever Know, I Shoulda Lied, Benefit Of A Fool, Refuse To Be The Reason, One More Dance, Will You Be There, Flow and One Up For Love. In the second disc are Motownphilly, Water Runs Dry, A Song For Mama, It’s So Hard To Say Goodbye To Yesterday, End of The Road, Not Like You, plus On Bended Knee, I’ll Make Love To You and Four Seasons Of Loneliness.

 Sometimes When We Touch is one of my “please…” songs. You know, the one that plays and I go “please…” Not because it is a bad song, but more because I have heard it too many times already. But I will never say “please…” to a Dan Hill performance. His last visit to the Philippines gave a very good insight into the sort of artist that he is and what respect he has for the audience. While the other supposed to be stars in the triple bill looked dazed and could not sing even their big hits right, Hill, looking fit and in great voice, delighted everybody with his songs. He really saved that show.

So how nice it is to find this album, Intimate Dan Hill, The Platinum Collection. I know there are three versions of Hill’s biggest hit Sometimes When We Touch but I promise not to say or think “please…” because this singer-songwriter has made them very special for the Philippines. Hill likes Filipinos. As he says in his liner notes: “I’ve found that my unabashedly romantic style is embraced with more love and soul in the Philippines than anywhere else.” Nice.

You will find in this album his original solo recording of Sometimes When We Touch, a duet with Rique Franks, and another duet with our favorite boxing champ and aspiring singer Manny Paquiao. The others, all of them romantic, are In Your Eyes, I Do (Cherish You), Never Thought That I Could Love, Can’t We Try, I Promise You With Everything I Am, Seduces Me, Intimate, Don’t Tell Me How I Feel, Love of My Life, I Am My Father’s Son, The Human Spark, Your Time Will Come Around and The Slightest Difference.