CD-Charts Position 1
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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
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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
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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 ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 4
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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 5
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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 6
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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 7
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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 8
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Come a Little Closer [Us Import]

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

Release Date September 01, 2004
This album was recorded while on day release from the Tarzana Psychiatric Institute where she was sent for offences including heroin addiction. At it's best it is truly wonderful. Out On The Streets Again is a funk/R&B masterpiece that was written for this album, while 'Feeling Uneasy' was recorded on the very worst day of heroin withdrawal, so bad that she simply couldn't manage to sing any words, just moan, except for the final line 'I'm Feeling Uneasy'. Damn, but she moans so well!!! 'Let's Burn Down The Cornfield' is a Randy Newman song that took me a few listens to get to like, but it's been one of my favourite tracks of all time for the last 25 years. Quite apart from the mildly sexually suggestive lyrics, the sexual energy she puts into singing this puts ... Read More:

CD-Charts Position 9
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Big Brother & the Holding Company: Remastered

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

Release Date July 14, 2003
Simply titled Big Brother & The Holding Company (1967), the album is Janis's one attempt to be part of a group ensemble instead of the "star." The performances are proof-positive that Janis never succeeded at blending in - she had too much power. In the opening number, "Bye, Bye Baby," Janis's voice is double-tracked. Thanks to the elegant re-mastering job, the raw beauty of that performance can now be fully appreciated. The group itself produced a fine debut album, but it's doubtful that the album would have been treated to such a lavish re-mastering job without the historical connection that Joplin provided. This is the best of the San Francisco sound: raw, driven rock where the musicians were genuinely talented. Sounds great!!

CD-Charts Position 10
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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: