CD-Charts Position 1
Average Rating:

.

The Best Of

CD-Charts > Music > Classic Female Singers
by: Etta James

Release Date September 25, 2000
Etta James is one of my all time favourite female singers and this album is brilliant and it just so happens it is a bargain. For those more dedicated fans I would suggest the complete chess recordings, however, you cannot go wrong by having this in your collection and for those unfamiliar with Etta James, this is a great introduction, which could get you hooked!

CD-Charts Position 2
Average Rating:

.

Greatest Hits: Remastered

CD-Charts > Music > Classic Female Singers
by: Janis Joplin

Release Date August 31, 1999
Although Janis Joplin's genius shines through all of these tracks, the selection is inadequate. An album with a title like greatest hits needs to contain Combination Of The Two (from Cheap Thrills, with Big Brother and the Holding Company) and Joplin's version of the Bee Gees' To Love Somebody (from Kozmic Blues).

Luckily there are more comprehensive compilations available, and this album would do as an introduction to the Joplin novice. It contains the impressive acid rock onslaught of Piece Of My Heart, the original version of the timeless Me And Bobby McGee (a huge posthumous hit for her in 1971), the wrenching Maybe from Kozmic Blues and her popular novelty song Mercedes Benz.

Most of the tracks are from Pearl and while ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 3
Average Rating:

.

Cheap Thrills: Remastered

CD-Charts > Music > Classic Female Singers
by: Janis Joplin

Release Date August 30, 1999
This is generally accepted as one of the top 500 albums of all time. Listen to it and find out why. Not only that, but the live album captures the band at it best.

CD-Charts Position 4
Average Rating:

.

Pearl: Remastered

CD-Charts > Music > Classic Female Singers
by: Janis Joplin

Release Date August 30, 1999
For me Janis's albums (not bootlegs or compliations) split down the middle - those with Big Bro & the Holding Co and those without. Those with are the better, the happier, where she felt part of something. They're guitar based psychedelic rock at its best. They're raw, earthy, exciting, naive and bursting with energy. Cheap Thrills is best (live) and the studio Big Brother & the Holding Company an interesting, quirky innocent debut album.
Those without, Pearl & Kozmic Blues, are the unhappy Janis, full production, no band, orchestrated, brass and keyboard albums. They lack the passion and excitement and raw energy. I still play them often and love them dearly but they're not the best. The spark has gone. That said, Pearl is the better of the ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 5
Average Rating:

.

The Very Best Of Etta James: The Chess Singles

CD-Charts > Music > Classic Female Singers
by: Etta James

Release Date May 30, 2005
Etta James was with Chess for over fifteen years (appearing initially on their subsidiary labels Argo and Cadet) between 1960 and 1976, adapting and rolling with the times, trying out new ideas, never selling out, and making a heap of great blues and soul records. If squeezing fifteen years of material onto just three discs seems a tall order, imagine the absurdity of trying to compile The Best Of Etta James, which is a single CD of her Chess years. This box set represents far better value and is fully recommended, with just a couple of small caveats.

Firstly, there are too many mono mixes, even from the nineteen-seventies when stereo versions were prepared as a matter of course and are available elsewhere, and secondly, there is too little detailed ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 6
Average Rating:

.

Tell Mama: the Complete Muscle Shoals Session

CD-Charts > Music > Classic Female Singers
by: Etta James

Release Date April 24, 2001
More soul than blues, Etta James' "Tell Mama" originally came out in 1968 as a twelve-track LP. And here it is in its remastered 2001 incarnation, bolstered by no fewer than ten bonus tracks which earns the reissue the subtitle "The Complete Muscle Shoals Sessions".
The sound is terrific, clear and realistic, as is the production by Rick Hall. And those who feel that Etta James' Chess recordings featured too many violins and not enough power need to pick up "Tell Mama" right away!

The original album was top-notch in its own right, featuring the all-time classic soul ballad "I'd Rather Go Blind", excellent covers of Ed Townsend's "I'm Gonna Take What He's Got", Otis Redding's "Security" and Jimmy Hughes' "Don't Lose Your Good Thing", and a couple ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 7
Average Rating:

.

Her Best

CD-Charts > Music > Classic Female Singers
by: Etta James

Release Date March 20, 1999
My mother has been a fan of Etta James for many years and has most of the songs featured on this album, on different LPs lying about the house. It's so brilliant to have them all on the one disc - it's handy. I am getting married at the end of june and we have decided to use "At Last" as our first song. Perfect start to a perfect day by a perfect singer.

CD-Charts Position 8
Average Rating:

.

Hound Dog - The Essential Collection

CD-Charts > Music > Classic Female Singers
by: Big Mama Thornton

Release Date July 05, 1999
My mother has been a fan of Etta James for many years and has most of the songs featured on this album, on different LPs lying about the house. It's so brilliant to have them all on the one disc - it's handy. I am getting married at the end of june and we have decided to use "At Last" as our first song. Perfect start to a perfect day by a perfect singer.

CD-Charts Position 9
Average Rating:

.

The Very Best of Janis Joplin

CD-Charts > Music > Classic Female Singers
by: Janis Joplin

Release Date July 07, 2003
My if you have never heard Janis' voice, you have never heard anything!

I had heard of her name but never actually heard HER : then they played "Try" on the radio and I was entranced by her electric voice, it comes from so deep inside the soul I was in another world right from the first tearing-soul-drenching sound of this incredible and inimitable voice.

On this album, some of her greatest sounds, the soul in such a voice plays havoc with your soul and you find there the enthralling "Try", her soulfull and passionate rendition of "Piece of my heart", her bluesy-gutsy version of "Me and Bobby Mcgee", just about everything to discover, rediscover or simply enjoy for the empteenth time the extraordinary voice ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 10
Average Rating:

.

At Last!

CD-Charts > Music > Classic Female Singers
by: Etta James

Release Date April 24, 2000
My if you have never heard Janis' voice, you have never heard anything!

I had heard of her name but never actually heard HER : then they played "Try" on the radio and I was entranced by her electric voice, it comes from so deep inside the soul I was in another world right from the first tearing-soul-drenching sound of this incredible and inimitable voice.

On this album, some of her greatest sounds, the soul in such a voice plays havoc with your soul and you find there the enthralling "Try", her soulfull and passionate rendition of "Piece of my heart", her bluesy-gutsy version of "Me and Bobby Mcgee", just about everything to discover, rediscover or simply enjoy for the empteenth time the extraordinary voice ... Read More: