I can't believe no one else has written a review on this yet. I also can't believe that some people don't even realize that he was in these 3 different groups. Some people just know him for his solo work afterwards, which is sad because the stuff he did with the groups is just as good, if not better. Steve Winwood has a lot of other good songs besides "Higher Love," "Back In The High Life," "The Finer Things," "Roll With It," etc. Songs like "Gimme Some Lovin'," "Can't Find My Way Home," "Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys," and "Sea of Joy" are every bit as good as his solo hits.

This compilation is kind of set up the sameway as Eric Clapton's "The Cream of Clapton," except none of his solo songs are included on this. Like "The Cream of Clapton" has the best of Cream, Derek and the Dominos, and a Blind Faith song, "Classic Steve Winwood" has the best of The Spencer Davis Group, Traffic, and three other Blind Faith Songs. Although the two CD's are set up the same way, you can't really compare the music to each other because Steve Winwood does ethnic rock and Eric Clapton does blues rock.

Every single song on this collection is great and I highly recommend this one. The 20th Century Masters CD has the same songs on it, but it's missing three really good ones that are found on here. If you buy this CD along with "Back In The High Life," you'll have all the Steve Winwood you'll ever need.

There are few other musicians of the period with such outstanding talent who worked with some of the truly iconic bands of the 60s and early 70s.

Spencer Davis Group: Gimme Some Lovin', Keep on Running, I'm a Man (currently featured in a European VW Golf ad, with a white hound lip-synched - brilliant)

Traffic: Paper Sun, Dear Mr.Fantasy, Pearly Queen, Forty Thousand Headman, John Barleycorn, Empty Pages, Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys, Medicated Goo.

Blind Faith: Had to Cry Today, Can't Find My Way Home.

Dear Mr.Fantasy is the track to get close up and personal to - and it will probably last a lot longer than you do.

A definitive compilation of Steve Winwood's early work - not a single dud track.

This is a great collection. Universal Masters are getting hard to come by; pick this up while you can.

Here is a good album covering Steve early days before going solo. This has songs covering his days in Spencer Davis,Traffic and Blind Faith. When listening to empty pages it kinda of reminds me of

another well rated album. At 11 minutes plus low spark of high heeled boys is a good traffic song. Nothing wrong with long songs. This was one of the reasons I actually bought this album i just wish the piano and horn only parts were longer and more to them. That's just me personally. In paper sun the vocal harmony's are good it dates the song but who cares. It is cool to see where Steve's sound started from.