Search - Melissa Manchester :: Essence of Melissa Manchester

K. K. (GAMER)
Reviewed on 7/15/2018...

I liked some of her music in the past but this cd was terrible. Even a well known song started sounding good but then was butchered. Avoid this CD!

1 of 1 member(s) found this review helpful.

Still my favorite songbird after twenty-five years

Thomas Lapins | Orlando, Florida USA | 04/06/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Only one other CD retrospect release did I anticipate with such hope that my favorite songs would be included. I was standing at the music store's door to find the answer to that question the day "The Essence of Melissa Manchester" was released. I was so completely disappointed by what had been left out. As other reviews have stated, songs like "Better Days"; "Happy Endings"; "Help Is On The Way"; "I Don't Want To Hear It Anymore"; "Pretty Girls" and "For The Working Girl" have all been excluded. As any MM lover would know, these are all foundation songs to her career. Plus they deserve to be on compact disc. However, how wonderful to have nineteen songs on disc, after all these years of waiting. MM's first two albums were still a bit of a mystery to me. The albums were scratchy sounding, so I hadn't listened to them as I would have liked to. The inclusion of "Home To Myself"; "Easy"; "Alone" and "Bright Eyes" make the CD worth the money. These early MM songs are her most intropsective and soulful. Her yearnings and conflicts are universal, and sung by a songbird. The next two albums "Melissa" and "Better Days & Happy Endings" are the two that hooked me on her soulful and silken voice and lyrics. "Essence" includes five songs from these two albums. However, these two albums verged on being greatest hit collections in themselves. MM and Carole Bayer Sager consummated the most serious female collaboration on these two albums. "Better Days & Happy Endings" is the 70's successor to "Tapestry", hence three songs were included. But the whole album needs to be on disc. "Essence" continues with some of the usual standards, most of which had been on an earlier greatest hits collection. So I already had them and had wished for some other material. The poignant and original version of "Come In From The Rain" was included instead of the more popular version from the album "Ricky". That was a step in the right direction. All her music deserves to be on disc. Many are available as a Japanese import, but very difficult to find. I have collected all of them and I'm happy to say they are all of the highest quality, with almost all of MM's songs of significance on them. There is even a "Best Of" collection which I prefer to this collection. Kind of ironic that this American artist is so much more appreciated in Japan. I suggest any MM lover purchase this collection and keep searching the internet for the imports. Very much worth the effort."

Brilliant songwriter, singer and pianist

Charles_Donovan@ipc.co.uk | London, UK | 12/16/1998

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I was looking around for something new, wondering if there were any songwriters I didn't know who were as good as Carole King. Melissa Manchester is the one - I can't get over how good this collection is. Nearly all the material is self-written (and the few songs that aren't are tellingly inferior), and peerlessly beautiful. She covers a variety of styles - piano balladry not unlike Carole King (Just You and I), gospel (O Heaven), pop (You Should Hear How She Talks About You), soul (Lovers After All) and the lyrics (some supplied by Carole Bayer Sager, some Melissa Manchester herself) are uniformly heart-felt, direct, touching and honest. And all of this before you even consider her fantastic voice, which knocks all the competition into a cocked hat. I'd be surprised if anyone was disappointed with this fantastic CD. I was enchanted from the first listen. By the third , I couldn't understand why any of her individual albums were out of print."