Time-Life's Singers and Songwriters — Phase Two [2001]

After two prototype discs in the early Nineties, Time-Life Music launched The Singers & Songwriters Collection with seven double-disc albums in 2000. Except for the two albums from the Nineties, all of the Singers & Songwriters albums were charity affairs with a share of each sale going to the T.J. Martell Foundation. Now let's listen to the Singers & Songwriters albums released in 2001.

Bearing the matrix code R812-08, Mid-'70s is the eighth volume in The Singers & Songwriters Collection. Yeah, I know it says Singers and Songwriters right there on the cover and rear insert, but Time-Life Music started the series with the Singers & Songwriters prototypes and will finish it with the Singers & Songwriters box as pictured at the top of this post, so that's how we're referring to it. Mid-'70s is a great listen with deeper cuts from Lobo and Joni Mitchell right up there with the usual crowd-pleasing soft rock hits. Commodores close out the set with the full six-and-a-half-minute version of "Sweet Love". Four stars.

Early '70s is the ninth disc in the series, and it gets off to a rockin' start with "Listen To The Music" from the Doobie Brothers before dropping down into softer rock. Love that Aretha Franklin's cover of "Bridge Over Troubled Water" closes out the disc. The always welcome "Brandy (You're A Fine Girl)" kicks off the second disc, and after an appearance from Three Dog Night, there are three consecutive tracks sung by female singers. Feels like there is a little more soul in the mix, too, but there are too many slower and softer songs to rate this too high. Let's give Early '70s a solid three and a half stars.

The tenth volume in the series covers The Late '70s. Disc One bogged down a bit when Elton John's sparse "Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word" played, but quickly bounced back with 10cc's "The Things We Do For Love". The Crystal Gayle track can sound really good or really great to my ears, and this time around it sounded really, really great opening up Disc Two. The Late '70s gets three and a half stars.

First off, dig that artwork featuring eight-track tapes. So Seventies. 1970-1974 is the eleventh volume in The Singers & Songwriters Collection, and it features a few more deep cuts than any other volume so far. I only count ten tracks I really enjoy and would play again, given the opportunity making this the weakest in the series thus far. Two and a half stars feels generous, but that's my final offer. 

The twelfth volume in our soft rockin' series is 1975-1979. Aside from three tracks on Disc Two that we skipped, this is a great collection with a good mix of tempos. Tracks 3 through  8 on Disc One are a great set of songs, and the opening song on each disc is well-chosen. This gets four stars.

After 1980-1982, The Singers and Songwriters Collection pushes back into the Eighties with 1979-1989. Despite the album's title, this collection is loaded heavily toward the decade's front end with one track ("Chuck E.'s In Love") from 1979 and another fifteen from the three-year span 1980-1982 that had been previously covered. The remaining third of tracks feature one from 1983 (Clapton's boomer-anthem "I've Got A Rock'N'Roll Heart") and a pair of tracks each from 1984 and 1985. Rounding out the tracklist are three tracks from 1987, though I would guess that 1979-1987 is not as fetching a title as 1979-1989. Of the album's twenty-four songs, a full third hit the top of the Adult Contemporary chart, while two songs missed that chart entirely. Twenty-three of the songs landed in the Top 20 on Billboard's Hot 100 - Stephen Bishop's "It Might Be You" from the film Tootsie made it to number 25. Some of the more upbeat, rocking songs ("I'm Alright" and "In The Air Tonight") pushed the rating up a bit, so 1979-1989 gets four and a half stars.

After the Eighties disc, we journey back to the post-Beatles Sixties with 1964-1969. This album is back-loaded with songs from later in the decade, with sixteen tracks hailing from 1967-1969. Bobbie Gentry's "Ode To Billie Joe", a Southern Gothic classic, is the album's lone chart-topper on the pop chart, while Glen Campbell is featured masterfully interpreting two songs penned by songwriting legend Jimmy Webb. Deep cuts from Donovan and Judy Collins are welcome, but overall, we felt that The Sixties was, to quote another song from the decade, kind of a drag. Two and a half stars.

From The Sixties, it's a short jump to The '70s, the fifteenth album in the series. With sixteen songs from 1971-1975, there's a definite emphasis on songs from the early Seventies. I did not make a note as to whether Tom T. Hall's "I Love" is the self-censored version or the bourbon and grass original lyric. If that's a dealbreaker for you, you'll have to find that info elsewhere. One thing I did note while listening to The '70s for this review is the change in the layout: disc one has just eleven tracks while disc two evens things out with thirteen. With no offense to Carole King's "Only Love Is Real", we usually skip it and jump from "Tiny Dancer" directly to "Reason To Believe" and then the "Sail On" chaser. We must have a surplus of half-stars as The '70s rates three and a half stars. Had to ding it for including our least favorite Captain & Tennille song.

The first thought I had as I listened to disc one of 1969-1972 was that it sounded a lot like one of Rhino's Soul Hits Of The '70s: Didn't It Blow Your Mind discs. The thought crossed my mind around track 5, Marvin Gaye's "Too Busy Thinking About My Baby". By track 9, Jackie DeShannon's "Put A Little Love in Your Heart", the thought had passed. Then once I started disc two, I was thinking this sounds like Rhino's Super Hits Of The '70s: Have A Nice Day. That series had always reminded me of the K-Tel compilations from my youth. Lots of mainline nostalgia with this one. Four stars.

Unlike the retail set Singers And Songwriters, the retail single-disc album Classics does not recycle cover art from a previous release. Nor does it recycle many songs from other Singers And Songwriters discs, with only five of the twenty tracks making an encore appearance, all from The 1960s. This makes Classics a must-have not just for completists but for anyone seeking value. We rate this album a solid four stars.

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Now we've made it through our first two phases of The Singers & Songwriters Collection, Phase Three will cover the releases from 2002-2005 next time out.