Boney M. Album: “Greatest Hits [RCA]”

This is a great album and should have been given a 5 star grading. However, the only flaw, and the greatest unforgivable flaw to me, is that 'Rasputin' faded out long before it really should have ended. (in other words, you will not hear the sarcastic moaning of "OH, those Russians" at the end of the song)I just could'nt figure out why this song, which is probably the best of the best of boney m's masterpieces, received such cruel treatment and nobody cares to point it out. Maybe many will think the version now existed on this album is long enough and the deleted part is just repetition. Well, God bless these so-called boney m 'fans'...

wow. This CD is great. I've never really been a fan of "disco-ish" music since I am a child of the 80's, but this is just some really good music. I'm not going to go into major description about each song, but I have to say "Rasputin" is one of my favorites. :D Buy this CD, Boney M is awesome.

I first heard of a song on this cd while watching a movie, "Into the Void". I had to hunt down the song and found it on this cd. I was reluctant at first to buy the whole cd, but was very pleasently surprised. I love every song the album. I would recomend it to anyone who loves dance music from the 70's.

Boney M's first nine hit singles all made the UK top ten with one of them going to number one. Daddy cool entered the UK charts at the end of 1976, so becoming the first of four UK top ten hits in 1977, the others being Sunny (a cover of the Bobby Hebb sixties classic), Ma Baker (about a Chicago gangster) and Belfast (about the people of Northern Ireland). It might be interesting to hear Ma Baker and Belfast stripped down and performed in a simpler setting - this would highlight what the songs are about. As the records are with the rhythmic disco beat, it's hard to take the lyrics seriously.

1978 proved to be even better. They released an album, Night flight to Venus, which was popular all over Europe and which remains distinctive covers one of the finest disco albums ever recorded. It included four tracks that, released as singles, became huge UK hits for them - and the other tracks were also of a high quality. The title track (included here) was not released as a UK single but must surely have been considered for such a release.

The first single off Night flight to Venus was Rivers of Babylon, a cover of a reggae song from the sixties that was originally recorded by the Melodians. It spent five weeks at number one in the UK before beginning a slow decline. Just when it looked as if it was near to dropping out of the charts (over three months after its original release), the record was flipped and its B-side, Brown girl in the ring, was heavily promoted. The record climbed the charts again and eventually re-entered the top five. By the time the record finally dropped out of the UK chart, it had been there for forty weeks.

While the above double-sided single was still in the charts, Boney M released Rasputin, which made number two in the UK, followed by a Christmas single (not taken from the album), which made number one in the UK. An adaptation of the Harry Belafonte classic (Mary's boy child), their version (Mary's boy child - Oh my Lord) completed a very successful year for Boney M.

For their next single, Boney M returned to Night flight to Venus, this time selecting Painter man. It only just made the top ten but, being released more than a year after the album from which it came, I suspect that a lot of people already had the album by then.

One more big hit (Hooray hooray it's a holi-holiday, a top three UK hit) preceded a steady decline as the quality of their songs diminished. Most of them were OK but My friend Jack is, frankly, an embarrassment. Still, you can always skip that track.

Despite My friend Jack, this is a brilliant compilation of an excellent Euro-disco group.

If you are not familiar with Boney M, this is your time. I spent almost 3 years looking for this cd. It has Rivers of Babilon, Belfast... Well you must lisent to it, once you do it, you will have a copy it in your car, next to your bed and in your head all day.