Neil Diamond Compilations

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by ABBAFANUSA, May 2, 2008.

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  1. ABBAFANUSA

    ABBAFANUSA Forum Resident Thread Starter

    I guess Neil appearing on Idol worked, because now I'm slightly obsessed with him. Not that I haven't always loved him, but I only own 1 album (I'm Glad You're Here Here With Me Tonight) and one CD comp (Glory Road). All I want are all his singles, however, EVERY compilation I see has part studio recordings of some hits and the rest are his hits sung LIVE. So in order for me to gather together all the studio versions, I need to get like 4 or 5 different sets to just to make one good compilation :realmad:

    Any suggestions? Is there a definitive collection or box set I'm not seeing that would give me everything all in one place?
     
  2. jstraw

    jstraw Forum Resident

    Don't buy any of the Bang sides till the new comp of that stuff comes out in September!
     
  3. ABBAFANUSA

    ABBAFANUSA Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Ooh, cool! Is there any info on this release anywhere?
     
  4. jstraw

    jstraw Forum Resident

    Not really...just that it's shown up on a Sony/BMG release schedule.
     
  5. Sean Keane

    Sean Keane Pre-Mono record collector In Memoriam

    I suggest you get all the individual UNI albums on CD. They're cheap and sound pretty good. You could probably buy new Velvet Gloves and Spit, Sweet Caroline, Touching You, Touching Me, Tap Root Manuscript, Stones and Moods all for less than fifty bucks.
     
  6. jstraw

    jstraw Forum Resident

    I recently got Stones on vinyl and I really enjoy that album. He does some great covers.
     
  7. pig whisperer

    pig whisperer CD Member

    Location:
    Tokyo, Japan
    You need two more. Your "Glory Road" is a good comp. - the live tracks are from his two live albums from that period. You can find the early Bang material on "Classics". Try "GH vol. 2" for the MCA stuff.

    There is the "In My Lifetime" box. It is missing the song "Stones" and I don't like the new songs and demos mixed in with the hits; it throws off the flow.

    I am a big fan of the "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" soundtrack.
     
  8. mr_mjb1960

    mr_mjb1960 I'm a Tarrytowner 'Til I die!

    Then there is the "Play Me" collection on MCA....His Complete UNI/MCA Studio recordings are on there..A great find,at a great price (3 CD's at $29.99 as opposed to $11.95 for 'em individually..if you can find 'em now!) Michael Boyce
     
  9. MikeP5877

    MikeP5877 V/VIII/MCMLXXVII

    Location:
    OH
    Personally, I'd recommend the older MCA CD's which are still out there in abundance, and for cheap. The only exception I'd make is for Velvet Gloves and Spit, for which I highly recommend the original Uni vinyl (the one with 10 songs, not 11) because the MCA CD of this title sounds like crap. The other MCA's are ok enough. I think the vinyl of Touching You Touching Me sounds better than the MCA CD as well, but the CD isn't too bad. I like it more now than I used to.

    In my opinion, the Play Me collection is a disaster. I can think of fewer CD releases that bug me more than this one. It was a completely wasted opportunity. Yes, one can get all 6 Uni studio albums in one place for cheap, but the sonics and sequencing render this useless to me. Maybe it will suffice for people who aren't too hung about sound quality and album continuity.




    I'll copy what I wrote in a post a few months ago:

    The sound quality is harsh and super compressed. There is no space at all to let the music breathe. These albums were very dynamic and warm to begin with and much of that is lost on the Play Me set.

    Sequencing - the ideal sequencing would have been to place two complete albums on each disc, with the leftover space to be used for the single mixes that have not yet been released on CD. Instead, they filled up each disc to the max, forcing one to change discs in the middle of an album side which totally breaks up the flow. I know one can burn these to CD-R to get whatever sequencing they like, but there was absolutely no reason for the compliers to do this.

    No gaps between songs - one song starts almost immediately after the other. This is completely pointless. Like most albums, the original Uni albums had a few seconds of silence between the songs.

    Disc 3 indexing - most of the songs on disc 3 chop off the first split-second of the song if you scan from track to track. If you play the disc straight through, it's not a problem.

    Stones - the first few seconds of "Stones" (the song) are completely missing. Unacceptable.

    Extra material - instead of filling up the remaining space on disc 3 with live songs from Gold and Hot August Night, it would have been much more preferable to give us the mono single mixes that have not yet seen the light of day on CD.
     
    Timjosephuk, PJayBe and Hep Alien like this.
  10. MikeP5877

    MikeP5877 V/VIII/MCMLXXVII

    Location:
    OH
    The Bang songs on the "Classics" CD are remixed, and not very well at that. Right now the best way to get the Bang hits is to get the In My Lifetime box which presents all the Bang hits in their mono single mixes, in great sound. It's also very cheap, and covers most (but not all) of Neil's hits from all phases of his career.

    GH Vol 2 covers the Columbia years from 1974 through 1981.

    His 12 Greatest Hits covers the Uni/MCA years, but if our threadstarter already has Glory Road, this Greatest Hits album is redundant, unless one wants to hear different mastering.
     
  11. KeithH

    KeithH Success With Honor...then and now

    Location:
    Beaver Stadium
    I've been on a bit of a Neil Diamond kick since (finally) watching The Jazz Singer last weekend. Good movie. That had me bringing out my old MCA CDs. I like 'em! They sound good to me.
     
  12. MikeP5877

    MikeP5877 V/VIII/MCMLXXVII

    Location:
    OH
    One correction - the In My Lifetime set does not include "Do It", which was a Top 40 hit. All of Neil's other Bang Top 40 songs are included. But as was alluded to earlier, there is supposedly a complete Bang set coming out in September.



    No such thing as a "definitive" collection, but the "In My Lifetime" box comes closest. A few hits Top 40 hits like "Stones" and "Walk on Water" are missing but it's cheap, and if you already have Glory Road, you have all of the Uni hits anyway, though I think you need all of the individual Uni albums as well.

    In My Lifetime is missing a few of his later Columbia singles, like "Primitive", "Be Mine Tonight", and "Turn Around" but unless you're a diehard fan (which I am) you probably wouldn't miss these songs.

    I should also point out that In My Lifetime presents the hits in their original studio versions.
     
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  13. anduandi

    anduandi Senior Member

  14. Johnny Connor

    Johnny Connor New Member

    Location:
    Homdel,NJ
    I've got the Forever Neil Diamond tin tray box,which contain the intial MCA CDs of Touching You Touching Me,Stones and Moods,at Wal-Mart for $16.94.The old CDs still sound pretty good,better than the Play Me comp does.:righton:
     
  15. BILLONEEG

    BILLONEEG Senior Member

    Location:
    New Jersey
    My first choice would be the original "Neil Diamond-His 12 Greatest Hits" from MCA. Sounds great!
     
    joelee likes this.
  16. Harry Krishner

    Harry Krishner Forum Resident


    That's the one I have....and it does sound good. :righton:
     
  17. smarone313

    smarone313 Forum Resident

    I am not a big ND fan, but love the UNI/MCA era...I found The Neil Diamond Collection (1999) to be just what I was looking for (though the upcoming Bang sides will be interesting as well.
     
  18. stevef

    stevef Senior Member

    Location:
    Irvine, CA
    For a limited time, the In My Lifetime boxset is currently available at many Costco locations for only $19.99.
     
  19. jimsumner

    jimsumner Senior Member

    Location:
    Raleigh, NC, USA
    The 3-CD UNI set referenced earlier is available at yourmusic.com for $20.97.
     
  20. readingm

    readingm Senior Member

    Location:
    Redwood City, CA
    Worth it for the Bang stuff alone (which sounds fine to me)...if you can't wait 'til September.
     
  21. ABBAFANUSA

    ABBAFANUSA Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Many, many thanks for everyone's input. I found a cheap new copy of the 2001 reissue of the "In My Lifetime" boxset. Hopefully that will fulfill my needs until the set coming out in September.

    PEPE
     
  22. agentalbert

    agentalbert Senior Member

    Location:
    San Antonio, TX
    I got that 12 Greatest Hits cd recently, and it does sound pretty nice, but the recording of Shilo wasn't what I remembered at all. Is this a later re-recording? I came to know the song from a 2cd compilation called The Greatest Hits 1966-1992. Maybe that had the original version? Is Shilo one of those songs people refer to as "bang masters" in these threads?
     
  23. aoxomoxoa

    aoxomoxoa I'm an ear sitting in the sky

    Location:
    USA
    I have a "complete bang" collection that I bought off ebay. It turned out to be a CDR with poor artwork and questionable needledrops. Stay far away from that!! I am glad to hear about a Bang collection being officially released!!! :goodie:
     
  24. agentalbert

    agentalbert Senior Member

    Location:
    San Antonio, TX
    Speaking of the 12 Greatest Hits cd, I ended up with two of these by accident, one a US BMG version, the other a Canadian one. I assumed they would be the same, as they look the same, and the catalog #'s differ only by the extra letter indicating one is from Canada (MCAD-37252 vs. MCABD-37252).

    Just for grins I ripped both to my hard drive and looked at the peak levels, and these are entirely different masterings.

    Peak Levels:

    MCABD-37252 MCAD-37252
    77.3 91.1
    76.8 98.2
    84.0 90.7
    69.7 93.5
    84.8 80.1
    89.5 95.5
    64.3 73.0
    86.0 82.3
    56.9 79.0
    73.5 97.2
    60.5 78.7
    79.3 83.8
     
  25. MikeP5877

    MikeP5877 V/VIII/MCMLXXVII

    Location:
    OH
    There are three studio versions of "Shilo". Two were recorded for Bang, one for Uni.

    #1 - Original release (Bang) - the first line is "Young child with dreams, dreaming each dream on your own...". Fades out with Neil calling out "Shilo.....Shilo....". It first appeared on Neil's second Bang album, Just For You. It's also on the Double Gold vinyl in stereo and the In My Lifetime box in mono. This one is my personal favorite.

    #2 (Bang) - first line is "Young child with dreams, dream every dream on your own..." The lyrics to the second verse are much different than the other two versions. The structure is also slightly different than the other two - the music almost comes to a complete halt toward the end, and then Neil sings part of the last verse again. Fades out during the last chorus. I think its first appearance was the Shilo album, cobbled together long after Neil had left Bang. This version is also on the Classics - The Early Years CD. In recent years, Neil has sung this set of lyrics in concert (ie: The "counting the years..." verse 2)

    #3 Re-Recording (Uni) - pretty much the same lyrics as #1 except has "Dream every dream..." in first line and fades out at the beginning of the final chorus. This first appeared on the re-issue of the Uni album Velvet Gloves and Spit in 1970. Velvet Gloves and Spit was first issued in 1968 with 10 songs and re-released with a new cover in 1970 with "Shilo" added to the track lineup. This is the version that appears on the MCA "His 12 Greatest Hits"
     
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