The Ultimate Collection - Dark Publications

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Editorial Reviews:

Album Description
One of the most immediately recognizable voices in all of contemporary music, Michael McDonald's signature sound fuses rock, R&B, soul, and gospel. As he evolved onward from his formative days as a backup singer for Steely Dan, McDonald's artistry bridged the gap between jazzy blue-eyed soul and and chart-topping pop rock, earning him superstardom both as lead vocalist/keyboardist for the Doobie Brothers and as a solo artist. Spanning 1976 to the present, this hit-packed new compilation spotlights his inimitable baritone on 19 timeless songs that will have you believing from the very first minute.

Customer Reviews: Read 42 more reviews...

5 out of 5 stars

Michael Mc Donald, the front man of "Blue-Eyed Soul" August 13, 2005
25 out of 28 found this review helpful

What more can you say about a legend the caliber of Michael McDonald in the music business? He can sing his head off! Michael McDonald did things that people aren't doing today in the music industry-- crossing over. In the 1970s Mc Donald was one of the frontmen for the "blue-eyed soul movement" and he did it very well. He is both adult contemporary while also being soulful and exciting to listen to. His voice is both coarse and smooth at the same time. He is definitely, in my eyes, still one singer to beat, even in his early 50s. He is keeping soul music alive where others choose to let it go, and that is definitely respectable.

As for his ultimate hits, it is an excellent compilation combining the highlights of his career including "What A Fool Believes" with the Doobie Brothers, "Takin' It To The Streets", "On My Own", his sensational duet with Patti La Belle", and even a modern hit from his MOTOWN album "Ain't No Mountain High Enough". That is just a partial list of the wonderful hits included on this master singer's ULTIMATE COLLECTION. You can't go wrong with a veteran, especially on a strong compilation disc as this one.

4 out of 5 stars

Nice, but incomplete overview August 10, 2005
16 out of 18 found this review helpful

As I've said about other compliations, we all have to realize that you can only get just so much music on one CD. And, with an artist as prolific and as significant as Michael McDonald, that means a lot of great music is going to be excluded from a single disc.

Still, this is a good, useful overview for the casual fan...for the person who is perhaps just discovering McDonald with his Motown CDs or who hasn't heard anything from him since his days with the Doobie Brothers. This disc collects a diverse group of tracks from various eras, and all of them are excellent. I would have liked to have seen "One Step Closer" or his duet with Patti LaBelle, "Ever Changing Times" included, but, given the time/space limitations, I think the producers did a good job of choosing tracks.

There's a lot to like here: "Yah Mo Be There" with James Ingram is always inspiring; "I Keep Forgettin" is a moody, bluesy masterpiece; "Sweet Freedom" is a great dance tune with one of Michael's best vocals; and, of course, his work with the Doobies shines brightly. (Michael's stint with the Doobie Brothers includes the terribly underrated but masterfully performed LIVIN' ON THE FAULT LINE album, in addition to TAKIN' IT TO THE STREETS, MINUTE BY MINUTE, and ONE STEP CLOSER.)

One day, it would be great to have a box set that included all of these tunes, plus more of Michael's work with others like Kenny Loggins, Cristopher Cross, and even Steely Dan. Until then, be happy with this "nearly ultimate" collection.

3 out of 5 stars

Michael McDonald: amazing vocalist, great songwriter... but this is hardly an "ultimate" retrospective of the man's work August 9, 2005
9 out of 17 found this review helpful

It's easy to see why Rhino Records would release a CD like Michael McDonald's "The Ultimate Collection"--they're well aware that this is instant money in the bank. Hopelessly unadventuresome casual fans will buy it based on the familiarity of many of the songs, while certain people will buy it for the sake of completism, so it's basically a win-win situation for Rhino. For serious listeners though, this is a truly disheartening collection. If you're reading this, you probably don't need me to tell you that Michael McDonald is one of the most incredibly soulful vocalists that music has ever had. And don't forget about his incredible knack for composing sophisticated and irresistibly catchy soft-rock tunes. Irresistible grooves, soulful vocals, and powerful hooks are Michael's stock in trade, and this 19-song compilation is a long way off from "ultimately" representing Michael.

Part of what is so annoying is the title: "The Ultimate Collection". The very title sort of implies that this disc is definitive, one-stop shopping for Michael McDonald's music, which really does the man a terrible disservice--anyone thoroughly familiar with Michael's work, both with the Doobies' and as a solo artist, will realize this instantly. The idea of "The Ultimate Collection" is really simple, and that is to bring together the big hits that Michael McDonald sings lead on and put them on a single disc. So, this includes his Doobie Brothers hits ("What A Fool Believes", "Real Love", etc.), solo hits ("I Keep Forgettin'", "Sweet Freedom", etc.), as well as duets with James Ingram and Patti LaBelle ("Yah Mo B There" and "On My Own" respectively). In terms of a sizable hit that's missing, the Doobies' "One Step Closer", on which Michael shared the lead vocals with Cornelius Bumpus, is the only particularly glaring omission.

Back in 2001, Rhino/ Warner Archives released both a Doobie Brothers "Greatest Hits" and a "Very Best Of Michael McDonald" CD. For the most part, all this supposedly "Ultimate Collection" does is pick various tracks from those two aforementioned collections and put them together on a single CD that isn't in even remotely chronological order. The only tracks here that don't appear on either of those other two collections are "I Stand For You" from 1993's "Blink Of An Eye" album, "No Love To Be Found" from 2000's "Blue Obsession", "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" from the "Motown" album, and "Open The Door" which is presented here in an "urban remix".

A big part of the problem is that Michael is very much NOT an artist whose work you can sum up with merely his very biggest hits. From an artistic standpoint, Michael's two "Motown" albums seem to be a trifle at best despite their popularity, and the inclusion of "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" is hardly necessary. "Sweet Freedom" was a big hit, but it's a ho-hum uptempo tune. I'm not aware of "No Love To Be Found" being a radio hit, but even if it was, it's still a dull piece of horn-laden R&B and makes for a baffling inclusion.

An even worse offender is the Patti LaBelle duet "On My Own" which seriously has no place on a disc that represents the ultimate work of Michael McDonald. Fittingly, the two weren't even in the same studio together recording the song, and it never appeared on an actual McDonald album (he had no part in writing the song); it DID appear on Patti LaBelle's 1986 album "Winner In You", and presumably it's more in line with her work than McDonald's. I don't care that the song hit #1 and sold a million copies. Despite the fact that it was co-written by the legendary Burt Bacharach, it's a lousy song--it has a painfully sterlie and generic mid-'80s adult contemporary sound, it has weak lyrics, LaBelle's mannered vocals are laughable, and Michael's trademark wailing sounds seriously out of place in this context. The contrast between this song and a Doobie Brothers classic such as "It Keeps You Runnin'" is jolting, and not pleasantly so.

Yes, "It Keeps You Runnin'", "What A Fool Believes", "Minute By Minute", "Real Love", and "I Keep Forgettin'" are great songs for sure, but they're just so ubiquitous--on the radio, in supermarkets, department stores, restaurants, you name it--it can be very hard to escape these songs, and it's quite likely that you've already heard them countless times without ever having to play them yourself. This is not meant as an insult to the songs themselves in any way, but as the saying goes, variety is the spice of life, and Michael McDonald's music, both with the Doobie Brothers and solo, DOES INDEED GO DEEPER THAN JUST THE BIG HITS. I think what would have been nice to do is perhaps make a collection more along the lines of Phil Collins' 2 CD "Love Songs" set which Rhino put out last year--go ahead, include the classic hits, but also spotlight lesser hits/ album tracks that are probably far less known yet still deserve to be remembered. As far as Michael's Doobie Brothers work is concerned, "Losin' End", "Here To Love You", "Open Your Eyes", "Dedicate This Heart", and "Keep This Train A-Rollin'" are all great songs; and as for his solo career, "All We Got", "Love Can Break Your Heart", and "Build Upon It" are a few great ones that come to mind. "Playin' By The Rules", which seems to be something of an adult contemporary staple, is another great song that's missing. The song "Open The Door" from the "Blue Obsession" album is indeed a terrific song, one of his best ever, but they totally dropped the ball here by including an "urban remix" of the song; a big key to the original version is that it sounds so gloriously retro as if it was unearthed gem recorded in the early '80s, but apparently someone thought otherwise, and this "urban remix" is a travesty and yet another indicator of the lack of care that went into assembling this collection.

I realize this is stretching it, but from an artistic standpoint, what would be ever better than including Michael's "duet" with Patti LaBelle would be to include a song or two from his wife Amy Holland's solo career which Michael was HEAVILY involved with. For instance, Michael's self-penned "Show Me The Way Home", from Amy's self-titled 1980 album, is a terrific song that has McDonald's stamp all over it. Again, I realize that would be stretching it. I'm not saying that any track Michael's ever been involved with should be a candidate for inclusion; for instance, I think it would be going overboard to include Christopher Cross' "Ride Like The Wind" or Steely Dan's "Peg", because although Michael's vocal contributions on them are significant, he was basically "guesting" on these songs and they really belong to their respective artists.

If you don't have any McDonald/ Doobie Brothers in your collection, I HIGHLY recommend the Doobie Brothers' "Minute By Minute" and "One Step Closer" albums, and I also solidly recommend Michael's 1990 album "Take It To Heart". With all due respect to the many great songs this disc does contain, I recommend that you do not buy this "Ultimate Collection"--Rhino could be making much better use of their time for serious music fans than releasing a disc like this.

5 out of 5 stars

Michael McDonald is takin' it to the pop/rock/R&B streets October 12, 2005
7 out of 7 found this review helpful

There are no original tracks on this album. But because Michael McDonald is one of the world's greatest musicians/songwriters,I give this album five stars. The ex-Doobie Brother and pre-DB's background vocalist for Steely Dan gives us his very best on this collection. The Doobie Brothers recordings contained herein are from 1976's TAKIN' IT TO THE STREETS,the title track and IT KEEPS YOU RUNNIN'. From the Grammy-winning MINUTE BY MINUTE,released in 1978 is WHAT A FOOL BELIEVES,co-written by McDonald's friend Kenny Loggins. WAFB itself won a Grammy also in early 1979. From 1980's ONE STEP CLOSER is REAL LOVE. From McDonald's '82 solo debut IF THAT'S WHAT IT TAKES is I KEEP FORGETTIN'(EVERYTIME YOU'RE NEAR) and I GOTTA TRY. In 1983,McDonald collaborated with James Ingram on YAH MO B THERE,produced by Quincy Jones. That song is from an album of Ingram's. From McDonald's second solo album NO LOOKING BACK,released in 1985,is the title track. SWEET FREEDOM is from the 1986 MGM/UA film RUNNING SCARED and the soundtrack album. The film's stars Billy Crystal and the late Gregory Hines join McDonald in the music video. TAKE IT TO HEART is from the 1990 album of the same title. The lone track from 2003's MOTOWN,also a Grammy-winner,is AIN'T NO MOUNTAIN HIGH ENOUGH made famous originally by the late great Marvin Gaye. The other songs are excellent! This collection could have used REACH OUT I'LL BE THERE from 2004's MOTOWN TWO,MINUTE BY MINUTE and DEPENDIN' ON YOU from MBM,ONE STEP CLOSER from the album of the same title and PLAYIN' BY THE RULES from ITWIT. Also on this collection is ON MY OWN,a duet with Patti LaBelle,from LaBelle's 1986 MCA album,WINNER IN YOU. Fans of McDonald are also fans of Daryl Hall & John Oates,The Righteous Brothers,the late Robert Palmer,Ingram,Ambrosia and of course,the Doobie Brothers.

5 out of 5 stars

McD & his Doobie hits August 11, 2005
6 out of 7 found this review helpful

I agree with the other reviews quibbling that this is not an "ultimate" CD: Michael has too many other outstanding songs that need to be included before it could be called an "ultimate."

But it is the first collection, that I know of, that includes his Doobie Bros hits with his great solo and collaborative hits. This CD will make for wonderful gifts to friends I want to expose to Michael's broad career.

An "ultimate" edition would probably be at least three discs long! The tunes ad up when you think about how many songs he's sung with everyone from Christopher Cross to Ambrosia to Steely Dan to DC Talk! And there should be a DVD clip included of the hilarious Second City TV sketch from the Eighties with Rick Moranis as Michael rushing from one studio to another to sing back-up on everyone's songs.

I have all of Michael's CDs and DVDs already, and I still bought this one since it puts a lot of his hits together on one disc.

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