Search - Leo Sayer :: 20 Greatest Hits

Tuneful and classy pop songs

Pieter | Johannesburg | 12/30/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Leo Sayer was an accomplished singer and composer who had a 10-year span of hits in the UK from 1973 to 1983 and also occasionally broke through on the Billboard Hot 100. His first hit was the spectacular The Show Must Go On, a cover version of which was a massive US hit for Three Dog Night. The follow-up was One Man Band, whilst the next one: Long Tall Glasses, made the top 10 in the USA in 1975.



The next year, at the height of the disco era, You Make Me Feel Like Dancing became one of Sayer's biggest hits on both sides of the Atlantic and was soon followed by When I Need You from the same Endless Flight album. Thunder In My Heart was a minor hit in the UK. More Than I Can Say and Living In A Fantasy were hits in 1980 and 1981 respectively, whilst Till You Come Back To Me was a minor UK hit in 1983.



Of the 20 tracks on this superb album, these were not written or co-written by Sayer: I Can't Stop Loving You, Raining In My Heart, More Than I Can Say, Have You Ever Been In Love, Heart, Till You Come Back To Me and Unchained Melody. To my knowledge, only about 11 of these tracks were chart hits in the US or UK. So strictly speaking, this is more of a Best Of album than 20 Greatest Hits.



His interpretations of songs like Heart (the Gibb Brothers) and Unchained Melody are quite good. Sayer also wrote Roger Daltrey's hit song Giving It All Away, and it would have been interesting to have his original included on this CD. 20 Greatest Hits is a great album of tuneful, classy and occasionally soulful pop music.



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