The Commodores' songs don't get played much today on UK radio. Even easy-listening stations play 'Easy' and 'Three Times a Lady' only rarely. But why? As this remastered collection makes clear, the Commodores wrote many fantastic songs.

In the UK, the Commodores were one of those bands you knew nothing about. Their outstanding song catalogue was all you needed to know. And then Lionel Richie left to go solo. So we now knew one fact about the Commodores -- they were the band that Richie used to be in. Sadly, once Richie had left, the band lost much of their momentum.

Apart from the exclusion of 'Heroes', this CD contains all my Commodores' favourites:

- 'Easy', the track which will always remind me of my first minibus vacation across the USA in 1977.

- 'Still', which to my ears is essentially 'Three Times a Lady' re-worked and improved.

- 'Lady', on which the Commodores take on the disco influences of Earth, Wind & Fire and Kool and the Gang.

- 'Flying High', 'Just to be Close to You' and my all-time favourite, 'Zoom', which simply soars.

The sticker on my copy of this CD says "20 Original Recordings featuring LIONEL RICHIE". This is not strictly true, as Richie had left by the time four of the 20 tracks were recorded. But who cares? There are so many glorious songs here that I just can't be persuaded to take this disc out of the my car CD player.

This Highlights The Depth&All Around Greatness of The Commodores.So Many Great Songs that have a Timeless Impact&Quality About them.The Band has Many Great Talented Musicians&The Production is very Strong.A Must Have.

I ordered this for a special lady friend of mine for Valentines day I believe. It has a score of excellent songs; much more than most albums that have only 1-3 really good ones.

As a fan of the songs more than the group itself, I highly recommend this CD. All the biggies they made from the late 1970's through the mid 1980's are here - the period that Lionel & Co. hit their stride. Though the hits (mostly) dried up when he went solo, a few good cuts came from that period too (like "Nightshift"). Worth the money!

Long before he was famous for being Nicole Richie's dad, and before his hugely successful solo career, Lionel Richie was the frontman for seventies/eighties Soul band Commodores.

They were known for funky songs like "Too hot ta trot" (featured in the disco movie "Thank God it's friday"), "Brick house" (with its yelled Hooouse!!! refrain), fusion jams like "Machine gun", Latin-tinged numbers like "Zoo (The human zoo)", and beautiful silky smooth ballads like the Country tinged "Easy", "Three times a lady" (US #1), "Still" (US #1 and the forerunner to the mega smash "Endless love"), "Oh no", "Sail on", "Wonderland", and my favourite "Flying high" to mention a few.

All are represented on this 20 track greatest hits, as are a few songs the band recorded after Lionel's departure; the droning top 10 smash "Nightshift" (tribute to Jackie Wilson and Marvin Gaye), the Pop/R&B "Janet", and the Rock-tinged "Animal instinct" with Walter Orange and J.D. Nicholas on lead vocals.

The group were excellent musicians, and their harmonies were stupendously good ("Flying high" for example). Shame a few of my favourites like "Why you wanna try me" and "Heroes" were left off, but still, this gives a great overview of one of the most talented and hardworking bands of the Seventies.