THE PIANO MEN OF ROCK

THE VERY BEST OF ELTON JOHN : Elton John was good in the early 70s. How could anyone not love 'Your Song', 'Daniel', 'Rocket Man', 'Crocodile Rock', 'Goodbye Yellow Brick Road', etc. I especially like it when the singer was finding his identity and not yet over confidence. His tribute to Marilyn Monroe 'Candle In The Rain' was so heartfelt, you can actually feel the love and admiration he had for her. But after finding incredible success, I've lost my connection with Elton John. It happened when he started believing in his own publicity and acted like a prima donna. He sounded forced and even the award winning songs from "The King'" 'Can You Feel The Love Tonight' fail to excite me. He fooled millions but he couldn't fool me. In the 80s, there are only two songs that I
actually like. 'Sad Songs' and the oh so beautiful 'Sacrifice'. After this, the final song that I like from Elton John was his heartfelt tribute to Princess Diana, 'Candle In The Wind 1997', which was also a rehash of his old hit 'Candle In The Wind' with rewritten lyrics. I like his duet with George Michael 'Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me' too. DOP :  3rd November 1991.

ELTON JOHN : IN LOVING MEMORY OF DIANA. PRINCESS OF WALES : What can I do ? How can I not buy this ? I was devastated when Princess Diana died and like millions of others, could not understand why she was taken so cruelly. So the only thing I could do was to buy this CD for a keepsake. My personal tribute to a true blue princess. DOP : 24th September 1997.






GILBERT O' SULLIVAN : NOTHING BUT THE BEST : I like Gilbert O'Sullivan. His 'Alone Again ( Naturally )', was an instant classic. The good tracks here are really good. 'Ooh-Wakka-Doo-Wakka Day', 'Clair', 'Get Down' and 'Why Oh Why Oh Why' are pop songs of the highest order. There's even a Christmas song here titled what else but 'The Christmas Song '. Sadly, he couldn't keep up with the memento. There should still be a lot more songs inside of him but he couldn't get it out. There is however one song that is absolutely beautiful and extremely hard to find, 'What Could Be Nicer', a song I knew from an EP of his songs. I managed to find it on MP3 but I sure would love to have it on CD though. DOP : 17th October 1992.

LEO SAYER : ALL THE BEST : Leo Sayer was good too. His version of  'When I Need You' is one of the best love song of all time. When I first bought his album. I've never heard of most the songs here. But songs like 'One Man Band', Long Tall Glasses', 'Moonlighting' and 'You Make Me Feel Like Dancing' are a joy to listen to. His take on the oldies 'More Than I Can Say' just takes my breath away when I first heard it, and his version of 'Raining In My Heart'  is not half bad too. His 'I Can't Stop Loving You' does grows on you. Two songs I am missing are his version of The Beatles' 'Let It Be' and 'Dancing The Night Away'. I usually don't care for other artists' version of Beatles' songs but he did 'Let It Be' justice. He also wrote 'Dreamin' for Cliff Richard, by the way.  DOP : 6th March 1993.

BARRY MANILOW : THE MANILOW COLLECTION :  I like Barry Manilow 's loud and brash orchestrated music. The man's a true romantic. Listening to him will surely turn the ladies into marshmallows. Barry Manilow started out as a producer and music director for Bette Midler. He scored with 'Mandy' and followed that with a string hits. Apart from being an accomplished pianist and a composer, Barry Manilow was not too big to record outside materials. In fact many of his big hits were not composed by him. 'I Write The Song', 'Can't Smile Without You', 'Somewhere In The Night' and 'Memory' which have got to be my favorite version of the song are not composed by him. The one which he did write, 'Even Now' and 'This One's For You' , which is not included here are equally good too DOP : 6th October 1991.

BARRY MANILOW : This is a promotional CD of the album Barry Manilow sings The Greatest Songs of The Fifties. Consisting of only 1 complete song 'All I Have To Do Is Dream' and the rest are just snippets to wet your appetite just so that you'll go and get the album proper. Not gonna happen with me unless I can get it cheap copy somewhere. The rest of the snippets are 'Unchained Melody', 'Venus', Love Is A Many Splendored Thing', 'Beyond The Sea', 'Are You Lonesome Tonight' and a duet with Phyllis McGuire on 'Sincerely, Teach Me Tonight'. 



BILLY JOEL GREATEST HITS : VOLUME 1 & VOLUME 2 : Billy Joel was not too bad either. I've this on record and since there wasn't any other collection available at that time, I got this. The good songs are really good while the not so good are well....boring. 'Just The Way You Are' is here but it's not my favorite. Most of my favorites are on the second CD. 'My Life', 'Honesty', the rocking 'You May Be Right ' and 'It's Still Rock And Roll To Me'. I like 'Uptown Girl' and 'The Longest Time ' too. A pity that 'Sometimes A Fantasy' from "Glass House" is not included. Apparently someone goofed on the date thing. It's listed on the cover as 1973 - 1978 but there are songs from further into 1985. Not that I am complaining.  DOP : Unknown.


BILLY JOEL GREATEST HITS : VOLUME 3 : Billy Joel's next Greatest Hits Collection finds him scraping the bottom of the barrel for the hits. Sadly there was not much to be scraped. Only a handful are worth listening to namely 'An Innocent Man', 'We Didn't Start The Fire' and 'The River Of Dreams' .There are two cover versions of which 'Hey Girl' is the better one. DOP : 24th August 1997.