The first time I heard these songs I fell in love with them. Now they are my most favorite Luther songs. Every song on this cd is a gem. I love them all but my all time favorites are Hello and Impossible Dream. I sometimes put these two songs on repeat and just dream of beautiful things. I can't say enough good things about this CD. This is one of those cd's that you can really enjoy every song without the skip button. MY favorite luther ever! A Classic! He is a genius!

Seeing that Luther has always had such great success in cover songs, the fact that he would eventually record an all-covers album should not be that surprising. The public responded enthusiastically to the disc, sending it to the #5 position on the Hot 200 and to Double-Platinum status in sales. While SONGS isn't in the same league with Luther's eighties albums, it is his best album of the nineties. The song selection is well done for the most part, although I do wish that a few more chances had been taken with the arrangements. Naturally, there's nothing here that matches his past landmark covers like "A House Is Not A Home" or "Superstar," but he does deliver a few a choice renditions that surpass the original versions.

That is certainly the case with his well-respected gospel-infused take on Steven Stills' "Love the One You're With" (#95 Pop, #28 R&B), which easily should have been a much bigger hit. However, this is certainly not the only instance where Luther outdoes the original performer. His renditions of "Reflections" and "Always and Forever" (#58 Pop, #16 R&B, #25 Adult Contemporary) are more soulful and sexier than the original classic recordings, and he adds much need personality to the groovin' "Ain't No Stoppin' Us Now." Even more amazingly, Luther manages to brings a genuine poignancy to the generally bland ballads "Hello," "All the Woman I Need," and "The Impossible Dream." There's a pained beauty in Luther's interpretations that was completely glossed over in all the previous renditions. The best cover of all, however, is definitely his spin-tingling cover of "Killing Me Softly," which is even more haunting and heartbreaking than Roberta Flack's original, which is a terrific recording in it's own right.

Luther also turns in good renditions of "Evergreen" and "Since You've Been Gone," however, he cannot top the legendary versions by Barbra Streisand and Aretha Franklin, respectively. The remaining three sections are only average. "Going In Circles" and "What the World Needs Now Is Love" suffer slightly from intrusive arrangements, while the big hit "Endless Love" (#2 Pop, #7 R&B, #11 Adult Contemporary) never really hits it's intended mark due to the lack of vocal chemistry between Luther and duet partner Mariah Carey. However, even these tracks are perfectly listenable, and do not sound jarring out of place in the context of the rest of the album. In summary, SONGS is really one of the best pop cover albums in recent memory, and it never falls into the various traps that most records of this kind routinely do. Leave it to Luther to pull off the near-impossible.

What can you say about LUTHER besides "smooth", incredible in any language. The world has lost a great artist, vocalist, doctor of love. No one can replace him, his style is unique, he can transport you, make you think, make you dig deep within and sometimes make you cry. Like all his previous cd's, its a must have. Good bye my songster, you will be missed.

Luther is a great vocalist!! The proof of that is his cover of Dionne Warwick's "What The World Needs Now" and "The Impossible Dream".

If You haven't already, find this CD and buy just for those two tracks. Keep in mind, you'll love his version of "Reflections" and others. But, the clear star of this cd (for me, at least) is "What The World Needs Now"

I MISS YOU ALREADY LUTHER!!!!!

Luther has such a wonderful smooth voice and great phrasing. But I am not wild about a lot of the songs he sings. There are usually only one or two songs I like on each of his albums, but I like most of them on this cd. There are a few I don't like on this cd though so I could not give it 5 stars. I hate "Love The One You're With" with its hippie message of free love. This song is garbage. "What The World Needs Now" is a nice song but I don't like this version. It is not Luther's singing I don't like but the arrangement of this version. But this cd does contain some of my favorite recordings of all time, especially Luther's version of "The Impossible Dream". I also like his version of "Evergreen" better than Barbra Streisand's. I love Luther's version of "Killing Me Softly". I have heard a number of versions of this song. In my opinion none are half as good as Luther's. Luther's version of "Hello" is enough to make you forget Lionel Richie ever recorded that song. By far Luther's best cd.