Bonnie Tyler Album: “Definitive Collection [Columbia]”

This one falls a little short if you're looking for a truly definitive collection of Bonnie's ENTIRE career, but it certainly serves as an excellent compilation of Bonnie's biggest hits and stand-out album tracks from her three albums on Columbia Records. Four of her early RCA songs, including "It's A Heartache", are also thrown in for good measure. This would be the CD most casual fans would want to check out first, as her Columbia years provided Bonnie with several career highlights, as well as some of the biggest hits she's ever had (and a few that got away!). Loyal fans will also want to have this one in their collection for the inclusion of the rare single edits and mixes. Disc One includes the massive hits "Total Eclipse Of The Heart" and "Holding Out For A Hero," as well as "Here She Comes", "Have You Ever Seen The Rain", "The Best" (later a huge hit for Tina Turner), "To Love Somebody" (a breathtaking recording of the old Bee Gees chestnut), and "Save Up All Your Tears" (which was later a hit for Cher, and appears here in its very rare single remix). Disc Two features the original album versions of "Total Eclipse Of The Heart", "Faster Than The Speed Of Night" and "Loving You's A Dirty Job But Somebody's Gotta Do It". Also included on Disc Two are "Band Of Gold" (a cover of the old Freda Payne classic), and famed remixer Jellybean's re-working of "Holding Out For A Hero", which serves as an excellent precursor to Bonnie's version of "Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad", which can be found on her later album, 'Free Spirit.' All in all, this is a highly recommended collection.

This Bonnie Tyler's two-CDs package is worthy. Althought she has not had a large collection of big hits like Streisand or Madonna, this collection includes all her 5 chart hits plus some excellent renditions of other artists' songs along with more songs of her own albums where she shows the great rock singer she is. The second CD includes long version of some of her "classics". In total 23 excellent tracks. It's really worthy

The CD is excellent and that's why I ranked it 5 stars

This compilation focuses on Bonnie's eighties music recorded for CBS, but her four UK hits for RCA (Lost in France, More than a love, It's a heartache, Married men) are also included under license, so this collection contains all of Bonnie's UK hits, plus a selection of her other tracks from the eighties.

Apart from the RCA hits already mentioned (two of which made the UK top ten), Bonnie's other UK hits to be found here are Total eclipse of the heart (a number one hit), A rocking good way (a top five hit duet with Shaking Stevens), Holding out for a hero (a number two hit) and three minor hits, these being Have you ever seen the rain (a cover of the Creedence Clearwater Revival classic), Faster than the speed of night and Loving you is a dirty job.

Bonnie had less success in America although Total eclipse of the heart made number one while It's a heartache made the top ten in both pop and country charts. Three other singles (all included here) also charted..

Also here is Bonnie's original recording of The best. Generally known as Simply the best, it completely missed the charts, but Tina Turner covered the song a year later and had a major international hit with it. Another song that you may be familiar with is To love somebody. Originally written and recorded by the Bee Gees, the song has been a hit for several different singers around the world. Nina Simone (in 1969) and Jimmy Somerville (in 1990) both took it into the UK top ten.

The bonus CD includes the album versions of three of Bonnie's classic hits together with a re-mix of another and her excellent cover of Band of gold.

There are many Bonnie Tyler compilations (both double and single CD's) to choose from. I wouldn't describe this as the strongest but it contains all the essential tracks that most people expect. The first CD has been released on its own at a lower price with different packaging - you must decide if the bonus CD is worth the extra cost.

...know most of her music. I enjoyed this CD. well worth the cost.