With the exclusion of Neil Diamond's 'Stones', this set has all the important Neil Diamond songs. It kinda goes through Neil Diamond's career chronologically beginning with the title track 'In My Lifetime' and then moving to the first song that Neil wrote, Hear Them Bells. This song clearly points the way to a career for Neil writing catchy pop tunes. The set moves through his years at Bang records where he wrote rock and bubble gum pop. Then on into his MCA years where Neil developed a little more independence as a writer and we begin to hear more introspective lyrics and personal songs. A bulk of the material on these three CDs comes from Neil's years at Columbia Records where he still maintains a contract, along with a brief stint from Capitol Records which The Jazz Singer was released on. Throughout the compilation, one gains an insight into a career that has been phenominal. You realize, my gosh this man wrote so many songs that have been part of American culture. He is an icon, a symbol of America in a way. His songs have meant much to us over the years. This box set presents the man and his music.

I can't say that I'm a huge Neil Diamond fan (I don't have a single album of his, in fact). But when I recently heard "Cracklin' Rose" and "Sweet Caroline" back-to-back on the radio, I realized the man has some truly great songs, which eventually lead me to this collection.

"In My Lifetime" (71 tracks, 227 min.) is thankfully organized chronolgically, so that one can follow and understand the musical evolution of Neil Diamond. Not surprisingly CD1 is the most interesting of the collection, with the early demos and songs, near-hits and finally, hits. Be aware, 20 of the 27 tracks on CD1 are in mono. If CD1 is the most interesting, then CD2 is the "greatest hits" of the greatest hits. Blockbuster song after blockbuster song rolls along. Fascinating is "Dry Your Eyes", Neil's contribution to "The Last Waltz" farewell concert of the Band. You didn't know that Neil was part of that show? Me neither. Included also is a 5 song suite from the "Jonathan Livingstone Seagul" concept album, wich I owned and loved in the good ol' vinyl days. CD3 starts with the hits from "The Jazz Singer" remake (America, Love on the Rocks, Hello Again), and coast along following the lines of "Heartlight", which is admittedly not my favorite Diamond stuff.

If there is one surprise in this collection, it's that there is nothing in here from either the original and very successful "Hot August Night" live album, which I believe is Neil's biggest selling album ever, or any other of his live albums such as Live at the Greek and HAN 2. That aside, this collection gives the proper due to a truly gifted singer-songwriter.

This is great for the early (Bang) period - original, untampered-with mono mixes all; but the great MCA/Uni years are over too quickly (it cost 'em to liscence the songs!) and we don't get to hear "Stones" which is one of my faves. There's a nice truncated suite of J. Livingstone Seagull tunes, but the third disc doesn't hold up so well - in fact, after The Jazz Singer, Mr Diamond's muse seems to have deserted him for good and most of this last disc is awful, or worse, plain embarrasing.

I used to think Neil Diamond was cheesy, but as I have matured now and look back on my life, I realize just how prolific this master storyteller has been and continues to be to this day. There is not a period of my life that I cannot place in direct relation to a Neil Diamond song, and I'll bet that is true for many of you too.

This wonderful boxed set, is an impressive collection of the very best of Neil's work from the late 50's, through the present, remastered and packaged with a nice picture book to boot.

It is great joy to hear these classic songs, sounding better than ever and bringing back all those memories that they are so indelibly attached to.

I highly recommend this collection for any serious music lover.

You just can't deny that Neil Diamond has probably got the most recognizable male voice in showbiz, and he's certainly one of the most prolific performers of the past decades. Therefore, it was certainly high time to honor this outstading singer with a box set, especially as this release combines tracks originally released on two different labels.

Unfortunately, most of his best overall work dates back to the 1970's - but later releases have all had their moments, too. Handing production credits over to Bob Gaudio (and a few others) in the late 1970's may have been OK commercially but was a bad choice for Mr. Diamond artistically, I think, as all albums after "Beautiful Noise" ended up very thin on the quality/ambitious side... see Disc 3. It's pretty evident why elavator stuff (sorry!) like "Dancing to the Party Next Door" was turned down by Coumbia in the first place.

For fans, listeling to the very early, as yet unreleased stuff from the late 1950's or hearing a few demo recordings might be great, but the casual listener certainly fares better with the two-disc "Ultimate Collection" that also includes prime cuts from both Columbia and MCA. As to the box song choices themselves, die-hard fans would've certainly gone for more alternate mixes of old classics (like on the Jonathan LS segment) rather than having to live with identical versions of "hits" already on so many other compilations. MCA re-issued the complete "Hot August Nights" recently - I would have preferred to see those three added tracks on this collection, and the sadly missed "Stones" was even one of them!