Rating:
Genre:
R&B
Release Date: 01/30/2007
With the release of
20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: The Best of Aaron Neville in 2002,
Universal Music Group had released three
Aaron Neville compilations in three years, following 2000's
The Very Best of Aaron Neville on
A&M and 2001's
Ultimate Collection on
Hip-O. Consumers might well be confused, and even when explained, the distinctions are a bit fine.
Neville has had a long career on many different labels, though he enjoyed some commercial success on
A&M in the 1990s.
Ultimate Collection, released at a list price of about $18, is a 20-track compilation that, like all of
Hip-O's similarly titled compilations, does not stint on licensing material from other labels to create a well-rounded look at the artist.
The Very Best of Aaron Neville, listing at about $17 on release, contains 18 tracks, some of which are licensed from other labels, but focuses more on the
A&M recordings. Nevertheless, it shares nine tracks with
Ultimate Collection, and you've got to wonder if there isn't some competition between divisions at
Universal to have such similar titles in the marketplace. The
20th Century Masters compilation is easier to understand, since it is the discount-priced entry in the bunch, listing for about $12 and containing 12 tracks (eight of which are on
The Very Best Of), only one of them, the 1966-1967 hit
"Tell It Like It Is," licensed from outside. Otherwise, it is a reasonable sampling of the
A&M years, which saw
Neville back in the Top Ten with a revival of
the Main Ingredient's
"Everybody Plays the Fool" and achieving platinum sales with the albums
Warm Your Heart and
The Grand Tour. No one should mistake this for a true overview of
Neville's career, but that you can get by spending the extra bucks to buy
Ultimate Collection.
~William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
;)
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