Big Dog 92-7 Music Guide

Folk Songs

RELEASE
2003
LABEL
Rhino Flashback
GENRES
Folk, Singer/Songwriter, Folk Revival, Folk-Rock, Contemporary Folk

Album Review

To the extent that Judy Collins' 23-year tenure at Elektra Records (1961-1984) could be summarized successfully on a ten-track budget compilation such as this, the selections would have to combine her relatively infrequent hit singles with album tracks that became a part of her permanent repertoire and were associated with her. Her Top Ten cover of Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides Now" (which helped make Mitchell a star) is an obvious inclusion, as is her Top 20 version of Stephen Sondheim's "Send in the Clowns" from the Broadway musical A Little Night Music (which made it the most popular composition of Sondheim's career and a Grammy Song of the Year). But equally necessary is Collins' cover of Leonard Cohen's "Suzanne," which appeared on her In My Life album in 1966, paving the way for Cohen's emergence as a singer/songwriter with Songs of Leonard Cohen a year later. Beyond such required choices, fans might quibble. If, for instance, there was room for only one of Collins' own compositions, why "Albatross" instead of, say, "My Father" or "Since You Asked"? And given the longevity of Collins' cover of Mitchell's "Chelsea Morning," didn't it deserve to make the cut? But there is one missing track that is more than a quibble. Collections like this always seem to leave out one major hit. It is such a common flaw that it can only be deliberate. You have to figure there's a memo at every record label that says, don't put all the hits on a really cheap compilation, or people will have no reason to buy a more expensive hits album. In this case, that missing track is "Amazing Grace," Collins' other Top 20 hit. It must have been left off on purpose.
William Ruhlmann, Rovi