Apparently the genius who wrote the first review doesn't know what a cover is. These songs are all Mr. Diamond's and are all excellent. My old cassette has worn down though, so I'll be purchasing one of the used CDs soon enough.

There have been many Best-Of Neil Diamond Compilation albums
released by MCA.But this is the first,and by far the best.Every track fits the track before and after it.The studio versions instead of live recordings.All his MCA hits are here,and they still sound great.

Many of MCA's other compilation have lacked the simple focus of this album.These are Neil's big MCA Hits soon after they were hits.The compilations from later years have been more about non-singles that became concert favorites.

The late 60's/early 70's was the best period of Neil's career:Powerful songs with personal lyrics and soaring arrangements.And great rockers with a distinctive honey-and-toast flavour.

To The Previous Reviewer:

There isn't a cover song on this album, professor, Mr. Diamond wrote all of these tunes. Furthermore, many of his originals have been hits for others, such as "Red Red Wine" (UB40), "I'm A Believer" (The Monkees), "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" (The Hollies) and "Solitary Man" (Chris Isaak). I'm not one of those people that think Neil Diamond was the greatest artist that ever came down the pike - I believe his musical legacy would have enjoyed much higher critical, and possibly, public acclaim if he had foregone the heavy-handed horns & strings, but his finely-honed melodies from the late 60's & early 70's are among the finest examples of the singer-songwriter genre.

Why does Neil Diamond, one of the most gifted pop singers/composers of the past four decades, always insist on including live cuts of his most popular songs in Greatest Hits collections?

His 30+-track, Columbia double-disc set, The Greatest Hits 1966-1992, is a prime example: nearly ten of the songs are live versions. The All-Music Guide has a reasonable explanation for this. Columbia, it says, only owns the rights to his studio versions of his *earliest tunes* (Kentucky Woman, Shilo, Girl You'll Be a Woman Soon, etc.) but failed to purchase the rights to studio versions of MCA-label songs during the early 1970s, (such as the wonderful "Sweet Caroline", "Cracklin' Rosie"), and decided to include substandard live cuts.

But this doesn't explain why the original, twelve-track MCA Greatest Hits album, released in the early seventies, contains live versions of "Caroline" and "Soolaimon." I purchased this album, on vinyl, for the original, studio cut of both songs... and didn't get either.

The songs are, of course, masterful -- in *any* version. But while Neil gives a jaw-dropping performance in person -- a spectacle, with lasers, a revolving stage, etc., Neil Live on record is often atrocious, out-of-control, and campy. This isn't a poor album -- just a little deceptive. Just know what you're in for, and if you're looking for the studio cuts of "Sweet Caroline" and/or "Soolaimon," look elsewhere.

If you really love Neil Diamond you probably won't mind buying this album. But if you're looking for his 12 Greatest Hits, you'll only find maybe two or three of them here. The problem is Neil changed record labels several times in his career. First he was with Bang, then Uni which became MCA, then Columbia, etc. etc. This album is twelve tracks MCA threw together and called it his greatest hits assuming we'd forget he had other songs. One of his songs, Shilo was a hit for Bang records so MCA saw fit to include a newer re-recorded version he'd cut for them. What's even harder to understand is that two other tracks, Sweet Caroline and Holly Holy are included here as live recordings of songs that MCA owned the hit versions of! There are better collections of Neil Diamond's hits out there. Steer clear of this one.