Search - Bertie Higgins :: Ultimate Collection

Transports You Away to a Caribbean Island

David L Hutchins | Mesa, AZ | 08/21/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is my first Bertie Higgins album, so I can't compare it to his others. Until this album I only knew him from his mega-hit Key Largo. It's a great song, but played so much on the radio that I almost got sick of it. Unfortunately not many of his other songs got as much radio play and that's a shame. Bertie has a rich clear voice and lot of great songs that transport you away to the islands or to south Florida. Comparisons to Jimmy Buffet are probably inevitable, since they both seem to sing about layed-back liesure or island living. Jimmy's fans are known as parrotheads and Bertie's are boneheads. You might think he copied Buffet and just changed a few things. Perhaps he did to some extent (Buffet was one of his inspirations), but I think that Higgins is a much better singer than Buffet, as much as I like Jimmy Buffet. Sure, the pirate theme seems something contrived and gimmicky and perhaps gets a little silly at times, but it doesn't detract from the fine quality of the songs. There are a lot of songs here; it's a good collection of Bertie's best, I think. One of the traps that a themed based singer can fall into is having all his songs sound alike. Each of Bertie's songs sound different. He also doesn't have one those voices where every song sounds the same, which you find more so with Buffet and various other singers. There is enough variety in his delivery and the sound of his voice to make this interesting and enjoyable; not the same song over and over again. The themes of most of the songs may be the same, but the variety is still there and that's quite a difficult thing to achieve."

An Evergreen

S. Pi | Anaheim Hills, CA | 08/26/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Bertie Higgins is one of those underrated, low-key artists that never received the limelight they deserved. Which is probably good for us, the fans, as most of my friends who love Higgins share the same characteristics - low-key. All tracks in this collection are superb although only 3 of them (Key Largo, Casablanca and Just Another Day in Paradise) received much attention previously. Which sort of makes this album sounds brand new. If you are looking for something fancy and noisy you won't find it here. This album offers soothing and calm and is great for people who are looking for that little "paradise" - I could almost feel that I was on a remote tropical island when I played this album and closed my eyes....Do not miss it!"