Though now known mainly for his middle-of-the-road balladry, Neil Diamond started his career in the '60s as a Tin Pan Alley pro who turned out a string of ballsy, folk-rock-styled classic Top 40 singles that may come as a surprise to anyone who's grown up with the image of Diamond as a sensitive crooner and Vegas showman. This 2 CD set contains all of his hits, but it isn't quite the definitive package that its title suggests. His early Bang singles ("Cherry, Cherry," "Kentucky Woman," "Solitary Man") and his later Columbia material ("You Don't Bring Me Flowers," "America," "Heartlight") appear in their original versions. But his mid-period MCA/UNI hits ("Sweet Caroline," "Song Sung Blue," "I Am ... I Said") are represented by live re-recordings from 1989 and 1992. --Scott Schinder

Customer Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Comment: A Great album ,with a mix of live and studio tracks.
Personally I think the live tracks bring some great energy to the album and even though they are live they have good production.
Turn it up loud and enjoy!
Love it!!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Very disappointed :-(
Comment: I should have read the other reviews. Some people prefer live but I like crisp full belt studio versions. Shame the CD cover didn't indicate some tracks were live and some re-recorded. Maybe amazon will be nice and let me change it :-)

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Talk To Trading Standards!
Comment: This is the third Sony/BMG release that I have which contains live and/or re-recordings when it makes no mention of them on the package. The others were Billy Joel and Roy Orbison.

It is clear to me that this company are flagrantly conning the general public out of their cash.

I can remember years ago it was a legal requirement that discs with re-recordings must state it on the cover. Indeed I still have one or two that do.

I returned my Roy Orbison disc to Sony customer services a couple of weeks ago by recorded delivery. Guess what - no reply yet!

Small claims court is next!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Not all original versions
Comment: Some of these tracks are not the original versions - how disappointing is it to hear crowd applause at the beginning of a track? and then to hear a live version of a well-known song which doesn't feature the production, timbre or quality of the hit version we know and love (plus crowd singing along on some of them). You have to open the cd and play it before you find out as it doesn't have any indication of this on the cover - and this is particularly annoying as it is something I always check for.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Rip Off
Comment: As stated by others, this CD is useless. I bought it in a shop for a present and was apalled to find out that pretty much nearly all the "big songs" (i.e. "Cracklin' Rosie", "Sweet Caroline", "Song Sung Blue" etc) are all rubbish 1980s live versions - nowhere on the packaging at all does it tell you this. It's only really the very early stuff and the songs from The Jazz Singer that are the actual studio versions. Total rip off, avoid like the plague.

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