EMI Gold's 2008 release The Very Best of Manfred Mann is an excellent 18-track collection of the group's earliest years, spanning from 1964 to midway through 1966, when the group left EMI and switched singers. With the inclusion of the carnivalesque Dylan cover "If You Gotta Go, Go Now," this hints at the moddish psychedelia they later pursued, but this collection spotlights when Manfred Mann were at their hardest-hitting as a jazzy R&B outfit, scoring hits with "Do Wah Diddy Diddy" an...   [ read more ]

CD $10.43

The second of a pair of 2001-released discs compacting two full Manfred Mann albums onto a single CD, this covers their sophomore album (The Five Faces Of) from 1965 and fourth (Pretty Flamingo) from 1966, the latter being the last to feature original vocalist Paul Jones and multi-instrumentalist Mike Vickers. Taken as a whole, these 22 tracks exhibit the remarkable breadth of the band as they tackle blues covers ("I Put a Spell on You"), Beatleesque Brit Invasion pop hits ({&"Pr...   [ read more ]

CD $15.18

The first of a duo of "two-fer" collections of Manfred Mann's earliest work from 1964 and 1965 oddly combines their first and third American albums onto a single disc. Although there aren't any extras added onto these straight 2001 reissues (except for replications of the original cheesy notes), the crisply remastered sound is in pristine stereo. As a cross between the jazzy style of the Zombies, the ragged R&B of Them, and the recycled American blues of the Pretty Things and Yardbirds...   [ read more ]

CD $15.18