Boney M. Album: “Gold: 20 Super Hits”

Boney M is relatively unknown in the US, but were a big hit around the world. They are a 70's and early 80's band with a disco and calypso beat. I listened to them growing up in Europe, and recently found this CD in the store. It is an excellent all digital recording which sounds fantastic. Looking at Amazons list, they have a lot of hits albums, this one's great, but you probably can't go wrong on any of them.

This CD has all the hits that made Boney M one of the most famous and important groups of the late seventies - early eighties. Who doesn't consider songs like Rivers of Babylon, Daddy Cool, Sunny, Rasputin and Ma Baker to be first class dance tracks (all were of course #1 in Europe). My personal favorites are Rasputin and Ma Baker, they are in my top-10 of ALL dance songs! There's also this excellent mega-mix in track 20 who has them all in just less than 4 minutes! Here in Greece it's a dance club favorite and also a must in all beach clubs! Also you can find great songs like Brown Girl In The Ring, Belfast (also number ones in Europe) and a nice version of Marley's No Woman No Cry.

I have been listening Bonny-M for last 25 years. Everytime I listen the album i find as if I am doing it for the first time. You see! this is the power of the song combo of this album. I must must in my archive.

I'm American and I didn't like disco when I was growing up, so I missed out on Boney M when they were around. Now that I appreciate disco a lot more today, I've recently discovered this group of West Indian singers led by a German producer, who apparently were big in every part of the world EXCEPT the United States. I'm mystified at the group's lack of success in this country, considering that artists like ABBA, Donna Summer and the Bee Gees scored big on the Billboard Hot 100 and Boney M were just as good as any of them.

There's a zillion so-called "greatest hits" compilations under the Boney M name floating around, many of which are really dubious, so I had a long hard slog figuring out what the best one was (and the Amazon reviews definitely helped!) But if you're like me and have only discovered them recently, this is the CD to get. The one caveat: a previous viewer warns that "Kalimba de Luna" appears in a shortened version on this CD. However, "Kalimba" was one of their very last hits, made in 1984 after the very colorful original member Bobby Farrell was replaced by Reggie Tsiboe. It's very much an '80s synth-pop song, from a group which is best known for their hits from the late-'70s disco era. If you didn't grow up with that song and you're more into Boney M's '70s disco stuff, that song is not a prime example of the group's work.

One last thing. Their producer/svengali, Frank Farian, would go on to inflict the atrocious Milli Vanilli upon the world, so you may see a lot of ill-advised comparisons between the two groups. Don't let that scare you off! Despite having the same producer, it's an insult to Boney M that I even have to put them in the same sentence as Milli Vanilli. Granted, I probably would have disliked Boney M at the time they were around, but Milli Vanilli are every bit as awful in retrospect today as I found them at the time. I guess that just shows how dynamic the late-'70s era was for dance and club music, and how stiff and clunky late-'80s synth pop was in comparison.

I read the other reviews and i'm suprised that "Felicidad" is not among the favorite songs. I personally think that that's the best track on the album. The group sounds wonderful...it's like a mixture of ABBA and Barry White..just incredible.