Although not as comprehensive an anthology of Neil Diamond's eight-album, four-year affiliation with MCA as 1992's 38-track double Glory Road, The Neil Diamond Collection is a definitive single-disc recap of one of his extensive career's most influential periods. It's a beautifully remastered, non-chronologically arranged 67 minutes of studio highlights from Diamond's most ambitious, if not his most commercially successful years. Only his version of "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother," the ...   [ read more ]

CD $13.25

In My Lifetime is a triple-disc, 71-track box set spanning Neil Diamond's entire career, from his early Bang hits, through his heyday at MCA, to his latter-day adult contemporary hits for Columbia. Demos, alternate takes, and live cuts are interspersed throughout the box. Not all of Diamond's greatest songs are here -- obscurities like "Two-Bit Manchild" would have been welcome -- but all of the classics are present. Aside from the flimsy book-style packaging, the only real problem ...   [ read more ]

CD $47.48

Columbia Records' series of two-disc, limited-edition Essential compilations of its major long-term stars -- Bob Dylan, Billy Joel, Barbra Streisand, etc. -- has generally been a winner, so it is a shame to have to report that the Neil Diamond number is not. True, most of the singer/songwriter's best and most popular songs are included, but there are also significant omissions and enough inessential material to prevent this from being the sort of definitive collection it could and shou...   [ read more ]

CD $15.19