Music Album Review: 'John Denver: Definitive All-Time Greatest Hits'
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| © 2004 BMG Heritage/RCA |
On October 4, 2004, BMG Heritage and RCA released John Denver: Definitive All-Time Greatest Hits, a two-disc compilation that presents most of the late singer-songwriter John Denver's best-known and most popular hits (the sole exception being Grandma's Feather Bed). Produced by Rob Santos and assembled by Gary Pacheco, Definitive All-Time Greatest Hits is a 24-track retrospective of Denver's storied career, including hits from his days as a star in the 1970s and the "twilight" years of the early to mid-1980s.
Released to coincide with the 35th anniversary of Denver's first album for RCA Records (Rhymes & Reasons, 1969), Definitive All-Time Greatest Hits presents 20 songs that were recorded between May of 1969 and April/May of 1983 on one disc, and four previously unreleased recordings in the compact disc format on the second disc.
The CD set also includes a fully-illustrated 20-page booklet with an essay by David Wild ("A Fan's Notes" and a "Song-by-Song"analysis by the late Milt Okun, the famous producer and impresario who worked on most of Denver's albums and helped make him the world-renowned star that he became. Okun, who died in 2016 after a career that spanned almost 60 years, worked on all of the tracks when they were originally recorded and is, therefore, a reliable source.
He was a man who said beautiful things and he said them beautifully. – David Wild, in "A Fan's Notes," John Denver: Definitive All-Time Greatest Hits
John came into the studio and played a song he called "A Song for Annie." I said, "That's the first measures of Tchaikovsky's First Symphony, Second Movement." It was also used for a pop song forty years ago called "Moon Love." So John walked over to the piano, sat for a half-hour and changed it. So it's semi-Tchaikovsky, mostly-Denver. It was John's idea to do a whole chorus of humming. Back then you had to record every voice. Today you can do it with a couple of buttons. Tchaikovsky turned out to be a great co-writer. As "Annie's Song," it touched a nerve all over the world. – Milt Okun, in "Song-by-Song with Milt Okun," John Denver: Definitive All-Time Greatest Hits
John Denver: Definitive All-Time Greatest Hits consists of the following:
Disc 1
1. Leaving on a Jet Plane
2. Take Me Home, Country Roads (Original Version) [Remastered]
3. Sunshine On My Shoulders
4. Poems, Prayers & Promises
5. The Eagle and the Hawk
6. Rocky Mountain High
7. Farewell Andromeda (Welcome to My Morning)
8. Annie's Song
9. Back Home Again
10. Sweet Surrender
11. Thank God I'm a Country Boy
12. I'm Sorry
13. Calypso
14. Fly Away
15. Looking For Space
16. Like a Sad Song
17. My Sweet Lady
18. Perhaps Love - John Denver, Plácido Domingo
19. Shanghai Breezes
20. Wild Montana Skies - John Denver Duet with Emmylou Harris
Disc 2
1. Leaving On a Jet Plane (Babe, I Hate To Go)
2. The Weight
3. Annie's Song
4. Calypso
"John got his pleasure out of audiences liking what he did. I would play him a tape of a junior high school glee club or chorus doing one of his songs, and that would give him more pleasure than having another hit on the Billboard chart." - Milt Okun, quoted by David Wild, in "A Fan's Notes," John Denver: Definitive All-Time Greatest Hits
My Take
Although RCA and its eventual successor Sony BMG released many "Greatest Hits" compilation albums both during John Denver's active career and after his tragic death in 1997, John Denver: Definitive All-Time Greatest Hits is both succinct and subtle. Compilation producer Rob Santos does an excellent job of providing consumers a good overview of Denver's storied career while avoiding the inclusion of gimmicks or dodgy tracks from live performances.
Although it's shorter (by 12 tracks) than Sony Legacy's The Essential John Denver, most of Denver's best-loved songs are here, remastered with the utmost of care by Vic Anesini at Sony Music Studio in New York City. The tracks are all from the original recordings; they are not from re-recordings or from concert performances; the "Song-by-Song" analysis by Milt Okun also includes the dates in which each track was recorded and in which Denver album it was released.
The second disc is all-too-brief; it only has four songs, but they are a treasure for both long-time fans from Denver's early days as a folk-pop-"Western"singer and listeners who are just discovering the man's music. Three of the songs are acoustic versions of established hits, including an early recording of Leaving, On a Jet Plane (Babe, I Hate to Go) from 1966's John Denver Sings, while a fourth, The Weight (written by Robbie Robertson) was, before 2004, previously unreleased.
All in all, I recommend John Denver: Definitive All-Time Greatest Hits to anyone who loves beautifully-crafted and lovingly performed songs that transcend genre and time and have become part of Americana. As his long-time producer and friend Milt Okun said to David Wild in an interview for "A Fan's Notes":
"When I first met him, I thought he was a good folk singer. All his pop success startled me. And today I still think he's a very good folk singer who picks up themes that are universal and positive and life-enhancing. To me, John Denver's music represents the very best in art."
"John got his pleasure out of audiences liking what he did. I would play him a tape of a junior high school glee club or chorus doing one of his songs, and that would give him more pleasure than having another hit on the Billboard chart." - Milt Okun, quoted by David Wild, in "A Fan's Notes," John Denver: Definitive All-Time Greatest Hits
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