Track Listing

1. Early Morning Rain
2. For Lovin' Me
3. Go-Go Round
4. Canadian Railroad Trilogy
5. Pussywillows, Cat-Tails
6. Bitter Green
7. If You Could Read My Mind
8. Summer Side of Life
9. Cotton Jenny
10. Beautiful
11. Sundown
12. Carefree Highway
13. Rainy Day People
14. The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald
15. Race Among the Ruins
16. Daylight Katy
17. The Circle is Small
18. Baby Step Back
19. Stay Loose
20. Restless

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #771 in Music
• Released on: 2002-04-02
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Album Description
20 classic hits released by United Artists, Reprise and Warner Bros. From 1965 to 1987. features the hits 'Sundown', 'If You Could read My Mind', 'The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald', 'Carefree Highway' and many more!

Amazon.com
Though he rose from the ranks of journeyman '60s folksinger to become a potent and consistent '70s hit maker, Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot's stock in trade was as much hard-eyed, dispassionate observation as romance or poetic whimsy. Perhaps that's why his songs have been covered by everyone from Elvis (this set's "Early Morning Rain") to Dylan. If there's such a thing as an alpha-male folkie, Lightfoot certainly fits the bill. Spanning the tongue-in-cheek chauvinism of 1965's "For Lovin' Me" and the cheatin' ways of "Sundown" to more introspective fare like "If You Could Read My Mind" and "Beautiful," this 20-track collection presents a concise primer on Lightfoot's career and craft. After his career peaked with one of the most unlikely top five hits ever, the gloom-laden 1976 narrative "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald," Lightfoot's production tailed off sharply, though this anthology's "Stay Loose" ('86) and "Restless" ('93) are testament to his enduring skills as a songwriter and performer. --Jerry McCulley

Customer Reviews

Best Single Disc Retrospective Available
Until now, Canadian Gordon Lightfoot - the most folk-oriented of the singer-songwriters who made it big on the pop charts in the `70s - has never had a single disc retrospective of his work that was even remotely worthy of him. His prior collections on Reprise (1975's Gord's Gold and, especially, 1988's Gord's Gold 2) were filled with inferior remakes of many of his most celebrated recordings.

Complete Greatest Hits is a vast improvement over those sets, with the original versions of all of his best-known songs. It leads off with six recordings from his years at United Artists (1965-1969). While Lightfoot's warm, deep voice and engaging melodies were present even on these early efforts, it was others who initially charted with his songs, such as Peter, Paul, & Mary with the enclosed "Early Morning Rain" and "For Lovin' Me."

In 1970, Lightfoot signed with Warner Brothers subsidiary Reprise (highlights of his twenty-plus years at this label make up the remaining fourteen tracks found here). Soon after signing with Reprise, Lightfoot began to make a name for himself as a singer with the introspective top five hit "If You Could Read My Mind." He also continued to write songs that were popularized by others, such as the enclosed "Cotton Jenny" for fellow Canadian Anne Murray.

In the early 70s, singer-songwriters became the rage in popular music and Lightfoot certainly contributed to the movement's success with the big hits "Sundown," "Carefree Highway," and "Rainy Day People." His 1976 six minute-plus epic "Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald" would prove to be Lightfoot's artistic peak as well as his final major commercial success, although he would continue to make some fine music during the rest of the `70s.

Lightfoot's `80s output is represented here by the set's two most generic, forgettable recordings: "Baby Step Back" and "Stay Loose." The compilers of this collection would have been better off ditching those tracks and selecting a couple of the countless gems not included from his United Artists tenure, such as the breezy "Did She Mention My Name" or "Black Day in July," an intensely hypnotic account of the '67 race riots in Detroit (get the double-disc United Artists Collection for a thorough overview of this period).

Complete Greatest Hits concludes on a positive note with "Restless," a 1993 ode that finds Lightfoot descriptively ruminating about looking forward to the future while not forgetting the past. It reminds us of what a special observer and documenter he has been of life's events, both monumental and trivial.

Terrific Collection for the "Hits Only" Crowd
While 1999's 4-CD collection "Songbook" still gets my vote for the most comprehensive look at this terrific Canadian singer/songwriter, Rhino does an excellent job of distilling that sprawling collection to twenty tacks covering songs from his United Artists, Reprise and Warner Bros. releases.

While Lightfoot had only six bona fide "hits" (beginning with 1971's "If You COuld Read My Mind"), this collection also includes Gord's versions of his songs that were hits for other artists like Peter, Paul and Mary ("For Lovin' Me" and "Early Mornin' Rain") along with several album tracks.

Most of his best known songs are here, but I would have liked to have seen "Did She Mention My Name" or "Ten Degrees and Getting Colder" included. Three songs are here that do not appear on the box set: "Daylight Katy" (not issued as a US single, but reached No. 41 in the UK in 1978), "Stay Loose" (from 1986's East of Midnight) and "Restless" (from 1993's Waiting for You).

Truth to tell, this really needs a second disc, but the marketing folks at Rhino probably felt that would hurt the sales of their box set, so they put this together for the neophyte fan. If all you want are the hits and a handful of album tracks, this collection is exactly what you need. RECOMMENDED

The Greatest From The Greatest
OK, I'm a devoted fan. I admit it. But this 20 song collection is just the best single CD hits collection there is. Of course, when you look at the song titles, you will know that it has to be.

It is the first Lightfoot single CD greatest hits collection to have the original version of all of his top charting songs, and also his original recording of songs that were hits for others before he was well established as a singer. So you find If You Could Read My Mind, Sundown, Carefree Highway and Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald - the original recordings - as well as beautiful early recordings of such folks standards as Early Mornin' Rain, For Lovin' Me and Canadian Railroad Trilogy. In the only departure from "original" recordings, The Circle Is Small is the rerecording from Endless Wire, but this is the recording that charted. And, in his inimitable style, Lightfoot personally selected the final cut, the song Restless from the out of print 1993 album Waiting For You. Lightfoot loves the song, and when you hear it - perhaps for the first time - you will too.

So, put together, you have an outstanding single CD collection - for the casual music lover or for the devoted Lightfoot fan. Even if you have all these songs on CD already (and the devoted fan probably does), you don't have them sounding like this! The remastering is unbelievably exquisite; it is almost hard to believe, but some of the songs sound even better than on the Songbook boxed set! There are four songs here that aren't on the boxed set, and these sound much better than on the original CD. Also, two of the hits are from the single (vs. album) mix, so they really are somewhat different.

The single mix of If You Could Read My Mind includes harmony vocals (by Lightfoot) that are not on the album version. The boxed set used the album version of every song (that had been on an album ever), while here Bill Inglot (who did the remastering for both Rhino Lightfoot releases) went to the single. The single version was also previously used on Gord's Gold, but the sound doesn't compare.

And for Sundown also, Inglot went to the single. I still don't have a definite explanation of the difference, but you have only to listen to this cut and the one from any other CD and you will know you are hearing something different. And really great.

Finally, Rhino has packaged this new greatest hits CD in their characteristic loving manner: full of photos, biographical text, and complete track notes. Thane Tierney (who co-produced the boxed set with Lightfoot), is the producer of this collection and he has done himself proud.

If you don't have it yet, what are you waiting for?