"Brenda Lee was a torch singer who could somehow project emotions she was too young to have ever really experienced. She represented music for and by teenagers and eventually gained a sophistication that allowed her to seque into a popular adult performer.
With 1957's "Dynamite," pint-sized 12-year-old Brenda Lee earned her nickname Little Miss Dynamite. Her first top-tenner, 1960's "Sweet Nothin's" - with confidential-sounding whispered intro, Boots Randolph's yakkety sax solo, and Lee's vocals shifting from gutsy to kittenish - set the stage for her becoming that decade's top-charting solo female singer.
As he did with her Decca labelmate Patsy Cline, producer Owen Bradley soon moved her music uptown with the sweet string sections on "I'm Sorry," Italian-based "I Want to Be Wanted" (her two pop chart toppers) and "Emotions" These recordings helped to establish the Countrypolitan/Nashville Sound.
Clear sounding and generous with 28 (mostly) chronologically sequenced 1957-79 tracks, The Definitive Collection pays more attention to Lee's country-flavored pop hits than to her early rockabilly sides. Only "Nobody Wins," "Big Four Poster Bed" and "Tell Me What It's Like" come from her roster of country hits. It also includes "Dum Dum," "Fool #1" and nursery-rhyme-inspired "My Whole World Is Falling Down." From 1964, "Is It True?" features a pre-Led Zeppelin Jimmy Page on electric guitar. We also get "Anybody But Me" and the bouncy "Your Used To Be" which weren't on her more thoroughly annotated 1991 two-volume Anthology (which is still the best domestic Lee set).
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This is an excellent release of all her top 10 hits.,with gr
stewart L | flushing ,ny | 01/14/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"The definitive collection of Brenda Lee,is a great album featuring,the best of her top 10 hits.The sound is terific.and as fresh as when her music was first released...You will love this album,and i highly recommend it..Thank you universal for all the great gold series releases...Now if you could speed up the release of many of your vhs movies to dvd in your vaults,you would make your customers even happier...Thank you Stewart L."
Best Re-Package I've Even Seen!
Michael Ewing | Sunnyvale, CA USA | 01/14/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"It's very clear that a lot of time, effort and money went in to this very upscale re-package of Brenda Lee's classic hit songs. It's truly a nostalgic journey from the fifties through the eighties. The often used expression, the "soundtrack of our lives," aptly describes the content. The excellent re-mastering of the tracks, the liner notes and great photos...well worth the purchase price. Looks like someone at Universal/MCA/Decca discovered their most valuable treasure - Brenda Lee. Maybe we'll start to see some re-issues of a veritable goldmine of unreleased material. This is truly a "DEFINITIVE COLLECTION.""
Good CD with Minor Flaws
Roy F. Johnson | Columbia, TN United States | 09/11/2008
(4 out of 5 stars)
"In general, the quality is good and the original/remastered sound retains the feel of the original recordings. However, there are infrequent clicks that sound like lips opening before singing. These should have been removed in the remastering process. They are difficult to remove by editing on a computer.
This CD has all Brenda's major pop hits listed on allmusic except for "Jingle Bell Rock" (1967)which is overshadowed anyway by Bobby Helms' 1957 version.
FYI, I've been a record collector and sometimes deejay since the 1950s."
A few not on Anthology
Wordballoonist | New England | 08/07/2008
(4 out of 5 stars)
"The 2-CD Anthology of Brenda Lee contains everything here except I'm Learning About Love, Anybody But Me, and Your Used To Be, plus it also has a bunch of songs not on this disc. Unless the three omissions are favorites, it seems the Anthology will be the better buy.