I really should stop racking up my credit card so quickly. But at least it meant that I had an other Amazon voucher to spend. The last couple have gone towards things for the house - cables and the like. I thought that this one, at least, could go on some CD purchases. So, what to buy? I couldn't think of any Jazz albums that immediately appealed and a couple of box sets I fancied were too expensive for my tight finances - even with the £10 off. So, I ended up using one of Amazon's really useful features. I typed "Best Of" into the search box and left my choice to the whims of the search engine algorithm.
Some people can be quite snooty about compilation albums. Certainly, if it's an artist I particularly like I prefer to hear the original albums as they were produced. However, there are many acts which, whilst I find them pleasant enough, I have never had the inclination to trawl through their back catalogue. This is where the compilation comes into its own and the Amazon search is a really good tool for sniffing them out. It remembers my somewhat eclectic tastes in music and prompts for things I might be interested in. Many are of no interest at all - or I already own them. However, every so often something will catch the eye and make me wonder why I have never bothered with them before.
The first thing to catch my eye was The Ultimate Bee Gees - the Amazon search was clever enough to work out that Ultimate was a "Best Of" album. It was under a fiver which is great value for a 40 track double CD. The Bee Gees fit the bill quite nicely as one of those groups who I quite like but have never bought anything by. My wife has a couple of their vinyl albums: Saturday Night Fever and Spirits Having Flown. These are from their peak period but what surprised me with Ultimate is actually how much of their stuff I know. At least 80% of the tracks are very familiar - even if I know them by other artists such as Islands In The Stream which I recognise as a Dolly Parton track. The first disk of Ultimate covers the bulk of their late 70's heyday and the big hits from the 1980's. You really do forget that they were Disco with a capital "D" - all Four-on-the-floor rhythms and close harmony falsetto singing that is so high it would make Castrati wince. The second disk is more orientated around the brothers' song writing ability and covers more of their 1960's material as well as live versions of songs they wrote for Barbara Streisand and Dionne Warwick. I'm wondering why I didn't buy any of this years ago: it certainly seems like money (or at least voucher) well spent.
The second disk to come up was The Very Best Of Free & Bad Company. This is, essentially, a compilation of Paul Rogers 1970's output. I like Paul Rogers - he has a fantastic blues-rock voice and isn't scared off by a decent tune. I do have quite a bit of the Free material on vinyl but I've never bothered much with Bad Company - again for no particularly good reason. The album consists of eight Bad Company tracks and seven from Free. I can't complain about the choice as the Bad Company tracks are all good and the Free ones include all the big hits like All Right Now and Wishing Well. There are other Free tracks which I think could have been included but as a compilation goes this is really first rate.
The third choice I picked out was more on price - I searched for anything under £3 as I had used most of the voucher. What did pop up was the Best Of The Nice (15 Psychedelic Hits). The Nice were one of the first bands to be described as Prog Rock and featured the talents of Keith Emerson - later to form one third of Emerson, Lake and Palmer (ELP for short) whose music varied wildly between the sonically exhilarating and utter pretentious twaddle - often within the same tracks. I only knew of one recording by The Nice: a cover version of Leonard Bernstein's America. Having listened to The Best Of The Nice that is actually the only track of theirs I do know. The rest is quite interesting, starting off in a similar style to early Syd Barrett Pink Floyd and gradually moving on to something more closely resembling ELP. It's weird and wonderful stuff with elements of psychedelic rock mixed in with nods to classical and free Jazz. They even finish off with a cover of Dave Brubeck's Blue Rondo à la Turk - which is no bad thing in my book.
So that's by CD collection expanded yet again and my musical horizons widened somewhat. And the cost to me, after the voucher was deducted, was a princely £1.77.
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