Big Twenty: All the UK Top 40 Hits 1961-73

The concept behind this compilation is to assemble all 20 of 's U.K. chart hits onto one CD. But while this naturally has very good music and includes a lot of his best songs, it's not synonymous with a greatest-hits collection. For a bunch of 's biggest American hits didn't chart in Britain, particularly in his early career. That means this disc is missing a number of songs that most would think essential to any basic best-of, including and On the other hand, in addition to including some classics that were big hits on both sides of the Atlantic, it has a number of U.K. chart singles that didn't make it big in the U.S., like though the handful of smaller-selling items from 1968-1970 aren't as good as either these three songs or his best earlier work in general. As is customary for the label, the packaging and annotation are excellent. But those looking for one or two comps are truly better off going with 's anthology, or with that and , if they want to be more comprehensive. There's one obscure bonus here, though, in the use of the mono single version of which has extra vocal overdubs not present on the stereo album version. ~ Richie Unterberger