Published on Nov 15, 1999
Ever since the success of the present-day pop-hits collection
Now, labels are starting to jump on the bandwagon and
release their own compilations of songs you can, in some cases,
still hear on the radio. This is by no means a new idea; they’ve
been doing this in England for some time now. But labels seem to
have always been worried about how these discs would affect sales
of the albums the tracks are culled from.
In the case of the latest entry to the race,
Totally Hits, the end result might be surprising. Of the 18
groups that are featured on this disc, my wife and I own all of two
of the groups’ albums. But I was so impressed with many of them
that there’s an excellent chance I’ll be buying the full-length
discs soon. This is, simply put, one helluva party disc.
First, one nit-picking point. Despite what the liner notes say,
the version of Sarah McLachlan’s “Angel” is not taken from the live
Mirrorball disc. This one, in fact, is from
Surfacing – which I like even better. ‘Nuff said.
Some of the inclusions on this disc are a bit surprising – after
all, Santana’s “Smooth” is still riding pretty high on the charts,
as is his album Supernatural. But seeing that this disc was
released by Santana’s present label, you can’t not put this song on
– and it does fit in well with the other selections.
Some of the tracks on Totally Hits surprised me. After hearing
Monica’s “Angel Of Mine,” LFO’s “Summer Girls” and Usher’s “You
Make Me Wanna…”, I wondered why I hadn’t been listening to these
artists more often. (Never mind the fact that AlwaysJB beat me to
Monica’s
The Boy Is Mine review by several months.) And while I might
have heard these tracks once or twice as my wife channel-surfed the
car radio on trips to the store, this was the first chance I really
got to hear these songs one-on-one – and I loved what I heard.
Same goes for two artists whom I don’t consider to be anywhere
near my favorites. Whitney Houston turns in a respectable
performance on “Heartbreak Hotel” (a track featuring Faith Evans
and Kelly Price), while TLC impressed me with “No Scrubs,” a track
I admittedly had been avoiding thanks to the oversaturation of
“Waterfalls” a few years ago. See? Even an old curmudgeon like me
can say he’s wrong about popular music. (Mark your calendars; this
could be a first.)
There were only two artists who failed to impress me on first
exposure. One was rapper Kid Rock, who sounded like desparately
wanted to be Limp Bizkit or Korn – and just fell short with
“Bawitdaba”. The other was Deborah Cox, who just could not win me
over with “Nobody’s Supposed To Be Here”. Still, that’s not a bad
average.
The upside of
Totally Hits is that this disc has a lot of the music that
will keep your parties going this holiday season. Whether you’re
grooving to Brandy (“Almost Doesn’t Count”) or Cher (“Believe”) or
you’re slow dancing with ‘N Sync (“(God Must Have Spent) A Little
More Time On You”) or Faith Hill (“This Kiss”), this disc is, for
the most part, a whole lot of fun, and correctly highlights some of
the best popular music out there today. Pick it up – grab a few
copies as holiday gifts for the family. After all, good times
should be shared.