Don't get me wrong: I dig Diamond. I love his earlier work. Seeing him perform live was a great treat, and like some others, I don't think he can be overdone.

Much of the great A.M. radio songs of the 1960's and early 1970's were from his pen and voice. "I Got the Feelin", "Girl You'll be a Woman Soon", "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show" (more on that later) established his bona fides for a place in the Hall of Fame. Be forewarned though. In this album, I thought I had found the treasure I was looking for: Most of the stuff I grew up with in one place. However, I was abjectly disappointed to find too many of the songs I wanted were not the original versions I had come to love, but instead were live versions.

I wanted the versions of the songs "Brooklyn Roads", "I Am I Said", "B.L.T.S.S." and "Sweet Caroline" like I remember them. Unfortunately, the versions here were all live. According to one of the critics, a full third of the album is. Some of these are just fine, but if you want originals, this is going to leave you searching elsewhere.

When I was a 12 year old boy, somebody bought me a double vinyl album by Neil Diamond called 'Diamonds'. I loved it and played it to death.

20 years later I suddenly got the urge to hear those great songs again and scoured the amazon sites. Alas 'Diamonds' isn't mentioned anywhere so I settled for this CD instead.

Imagine my horror when I played it and half the tracks were live versions (and weak ones at that!) I believe a live concert of your favourite artist is a great experience - when you are actually there - but rarely translates well to record.

The beautifully arranged orchestrations are replaced by a band and the soulful voice is replaced by the weaker, less tuneful live version, with applause and Neils comments to the audience thrown in for good measure!

The non-live songs are all excellent and he is a terrific singer - I just wish I could have had my 'Diamonds' back!

You know, I was raised on Neil Diamond. He and John Denver (and Handel's Messiah at Christmas) were about the extent of recorded music in my parents' house until I discovered pop music (and Duran Duran) at age 10. For quite a while, I rebelled and went the other direction. Didn't we all?

My loss. This 2 CD set contains 33 wonderful songs -- and not even all of Neil's gems. I could go on and on about the greatness of Neil's songs, but other reviewers have done that already, and most of you who visit this page know already. But consider the list: America, Sweet Caroline, Cracklin Rosie, Forever in Blue Jeans, You Don't Bring Me Flowers, Be, I Am I Said, Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show, Desiree, September Morn, Hello Again, Red Red Wine, Girl You'll Be a Woman Soon, Kentucky Woman. They're all here, and then some. I was particularly pleased with the inclusion of some of Neil's early stuff on these discs.

BUT (doesn't it seem there's always a BUT?) for some reason, the middle chunk of the set is made up of live recordings from the early 90s, rather than the original studio recordings. And in these live recordings, the Neil we know and love has been replaced by fat, bloated, old Vegas Neil. Bad choice. Not all of the live recordings are truly terrible, but some are -- Sweet Caroline and Red Red Wine in particular stick out as sore thumbs.

Still, until a better set comes along, this one is still far superior to the single-disc greatest hits. Unless you want to buy a bunch of albums (which, frankly, wouldn't be a bad choice), this set is an imperfect, but best available, choice.

Thumbs down to Columbia for this misleading collection of old BANG records mono tracks and really inferior live versions of the songs of his UNI-MCA era of 1968 - 1972 ! And not a mention on the covers of this travesty of this fraud.

Can I have my money back, please, on this one ? Minus 3 Stars !

Do you know why this double CD is often in the bargain basement? SImply because it is an inferior product. For some very odd reason, the compiler at the record company decided to put 13 live songs instead of the studio versions that we all remember. For all we know, it may have been a copyright problem. I bought this for my Dad about 5 years ago, but we were both unaware of the live recordings until we played it. The live recordings on this CD are dismal and not related to the awesome "Hot August Night".

Fortunately for me, I own the right Neil Diamond CD's which contain the studio versions. These are still available . The first is called "12 Greatest Hits" (A black and white photo a young Neil), and the second is called "12 Greatest Hits Volume 2" (a colour photo of Neil sitting on a sofa). Both of these contain all the studio versions - and not one live recording in sight!!!

Just released is a new compilation called Neil Diamond GOLD, as part of the GOLD series but I do not know if it too contains the dreadful live recordings. All I know is that it is missing a lot of key tracks.