Published on Jan 31, 2000
For reasons unknown to myself, record company executives and
publicists, Christopher Cross still remains a trivia question in
the world of popular music. In 1998, Cross put out the spectacular
album
Walking In Avalon, which included a disc of new material as
well as a live concert featuring his greatest hits. While this
should have been the album that re-awakened people to Cross’s
music, it failed to pull the trigger.
Somewhere in some boardroom, someone decided that if people
wouldn’t listen to some of the music the first time around, hit
them over the head with it again, only in a more economical
package. Thus was born
Greatest Hits Live, the latest disc from Cross. While it’s
still a very pleasant listen, if you were one of the few who did
buy
Walking In Avalon, this will be ground you’ve already
covered. More on that in a minute.
First, let’s focus on the selections at hand. Seven of the first
10 songs featured on this disc are the best-known tracks from
Cross’s brief but powerful flirtation with popular acclaim. While
the songs are now up to two decades old, there’s still a magical
quality about hearing Cross’s gentle vocals weave a pattern on
tracks like “Sailing” and “Think Of Laura.” Likewise, there’s
something to be said for re-discovering songs of Cross’s you’d
forgotten about over the years like “Never Be The Same” and “All
Right,” both of which are featured.
The three songs in this first group that are the virtual
unknowns – “Every Turn Of The World,” “Open Up My Window” and “Is
There Something” – are more than enough to pique one’s interest in
the portion of Cross’s career that escaped public view for the most
part – though in the cases of discs like
Window, your best bet to get your hands on them would be
through an eBay auction. (One of these days, I will lay my hands on
Rendezvous and
Back Of My Mind to round out my collection.)
As a form of a “look what you missed” teaser, two tracks from
Cross’s last studio effort are included in this package. “Walking
In Avalon” and “Hunger” are both excellent selections that, if
there is a God, awaken people’s attention to this album – though I
would have bit the bullet and included my personal favorite, “When
She Smiles”. (Mark my words: that song is going to be the focal
point for a movie one day… even if
I have to write the damned screenplay.)
As an added bonus, an unlisted track finishes off the disc – a
live version of “Alibi,” another track that the diehard Cross fans
will instantly recognize. The rest of us will just have to be
mesmerized by it for the time being.
Now for the bad news, if you can call it that: If you already
own
Walking In Avalon, you’ve got these songs already. They all
come from the same show that was featured both on the live disc as
well as the video/DVD release
An Evening With Christopher Cross. (As soon as I get the DVD
drive fixed in my computer, I’ll be watching this title, as well as
a few other new releases from CMC.) What might have been a neat
marketing plan would have been to feature a different show of
Cross’s, giving fans another reason to run out and snag this
disc.
Greatest Hits Live is still as enjoyable a package, even in
a condensed form from the
Walking In Avalon version, and is just as deserving of your
attention. If anything, this disc captures the “top of the pops”
era of Cross’s music in a smaller package – and even if this is the
thousandth time you’ve heard “Ride Like The Wind,” it is guaranteed
to still put a smile on your face. Cross is supposed to have a new
studio album coming out this year (though I’m reading that
Red Room will be a repackaging of the studio side of
Walking In Avalon). Let’s hope that
Greatest Hits Live is finally the spark that relights the
fuse on the popularity aspect of his career. Lord knows he’s more
than earned a second chance.
2000 Christopher Thelen and “The Daily Vault”. All rights
reserved. Review or any portion may not be reproduced without
written permission. Cover art is the intellectual property of the
record label, and is used for information purposes only.