What This Could Have Been: When I saw first saw that Hip-O had anthologized Rod Stewart for their "Gold" compilation series, I thought, finally, a two cd set spanning Rod's entire career, maybe including some Faces stuff, plus all the classics like "Some Guys Have All The Luck", "Maggie Mae" and "Da Ya Think I'm Sexy".

What It Is: As soon as I turned over to look at the track listing, my hopes for a complete anthology were crushed. All this is another cheap way to get Rod's Mercury material. Don't get me wrong, a lot of this stuff is among his best work, but how many repackagings of his years at Mercury need to be released? Isn't the "Reason To Believe" boxed set enough? Plus, for every great track on here, there is a ton of filler to augment it.

Bottom line: Stick with the "Storyteller" boxed set, which includes most of the songs on here plus all his best work up to 1990, and then download all his stuff from "Vagabond Heart" onward. This collection is unneccessary.

I strongly disagree with the other reviewers. I previously owned the Mercury Anthology 2 cd box, which has AWFUL sound quality. This has all the essentials & much improved sound & is often discounted to a really low price. Includes the entire Every Picture album (although oddly side 2 of the original album is on cd 1 & side 1 is on cd 2). For me this couldn't have been much better. Add Jeff Beck's Truth, Faces A Nod Is As Good As A Wink & Faces Best, and to me you've got a pretty complete collection of all of Stewart's worthwhile material. Even on the marketing angle as mentioned by another reviewer, this isn't trying to be a rarities set for collectors, just a really nice best of.

I give this collection 4-stars because these really are great songs...many of Rod Stewart's best in my opinion. The problem is that you might be well advised to buy the "Reason to Believe" set of 3 CDs (also re-mastered and contains quite a few more songs that I think are worthwhile) instead. I find Rod Stewart's old "Mercury recordings" to be my favorites by far, but I agree with the other reviewer's frustration over the question of how many ways can they package this material? I'm glad it's still available, but the bizarre record company marketing strategies make choosing a collection way too complicated.

Well, if you don't have Rod's first four albums, or the two-disc _Mercury Anthology_, or Polydor's _Best of_ 1+2, or the _Reason to Belive_ box set... then you probably don't care about this material anyway. The last thing the world needs is another compilation of Rod's Mercury years. Uckh!