just recieved my *stronghold* box set by jennifer rush from amazon- and
let me say thank you amazon for making this so simple. this box set is
better than a dream come true- we have all the hits, extended versions,
prev. unreleased recordings, the james bond themes, a extended dance
version of "i come undone" all beautifully packaged. i have always been
a jennifer rush fan and must say this is what i had no idea was gonna
be available. JENNIFER RUSH has one of the best, clearest, amazing
voices ever. she has conquered so much in her career. her dance songs
are all great with a extraordianry european flavor plus her ballads are
lush, powerful, and appealing. i have all her CD's and find each one
can stand on it's own, whenever we get a new jennifer rush CD we know it
was worth the wait. this package just amazes me.........and the price is
just unbelieveable---I LOVE THIS--
I have to admit...I saw this Jennifer Rush/Heidi Stern 3CD box whilst browsing at J&R Music in NYC, and it was fairly cheap. Something drew me to this set...curiosity perhaps?? I remember seeing her records in the 80s and sorta forgot about her, but I do recall her 2 minor US hits in the original version of "The Power Of Love" (which she co-wrote, a BIG plus), and her Elton John duet "Flames Of Paradise"...I may have owned the US version of "Heart Over Mind" on vinyl or cassette, I forgot. THEN I saw the tracklisting and I saw the Michael Bolton duet, and I was like UGH and shied away...Bolton is the worst male singer imaginable yet his style worked on overproduced, over-the-top 80s hard rock/heavy metal...back to Jennifer/Heidi...then I saw all 16 of her 12" records on this box, and that got my attention, as I LOVE 80s 12" records and Euro sounds/artists like Sandra Cretu and Spagna, and I knew Jenny/Heidi was/is HUGE in Germany, which is where lots of my fave 80s sounds come from...so I caved as the price was right.
I got it home and I was like "HOLY CRAP!!" Musically, it's VERY 80s, bombastic but melodic, poppy, Euro dancerock, with LOTS of hardrocking guitars over big beats next to Euro-flavoured keyboards and electronic drums, and VERY melodramatic ballads. In the wrong hands, this all could sound like an overly dated mess...this is the type of stuff that American rock critics HATE with a passion...but somehow, Jenny/Heidi makes it work...she transcends 80s bloated and dated cheesiness with utter class and Euro sophistication...it's almost TOO commercial, but to the point that it's not commercial at all!!! Like things are so uncool that they turn out to be cool, or things are so bad that they're great??? Jenny/Heidi, same thing.
Now, her voice...that's the icing on the cake and what separates her from most others...I love the fact that she's a songwriter...that sets her apart from the somewhat similar but much lesser Celine Dion...Jenny/Heidi seems more worldly and knowledgeable. The thing about her is that she's both operatic and muscular, with a sense of grace and melody. Tonewise, she sounds much better today, and she'd sound great fronting a Finnish opera metal band like Nightwish...she reminded me a LOT of Tarja, former singer from Nightwish...in the 80s, she probably sounded out-of-place in her native New York City...her sound was nowhere here as it's European in flavour...she has an edge as well, which reminded me of Lisa Dalbello (a Canadian artist who also found a musical home in Germany) and German artist Nina Hagen...AND she also has soul and phrasing which recall another fave, Lisa Stansfield, to a small degree. Lastly, and this shows on her KILLER unreleased Bond covers on this set...Jenny/Heidi mixes bombast and grace not unlike an American Shirley Bassey!!!! All these elements mixed together in an original way, it shows her multidimensional ways with her music which make her stand apart from wannabes like Celine Dion, who is basically one-dimensional in comparison...and thank goodness she drowns out Bolton on their duet with her voice, whew!!!
She never cracked her native US because she's simply...as someone else said...TOO good for America (her record company tried probably, but her style was VERY out-of-step with American mainstream tastes and radio, and it's nothing she or Columbia/Epic/Sony could have done about it)...she even has a rock & roll slant like a more operatic Tina Turner, and this shows in her cover of Redbone's "Witch Queen Of New Orleans", and the many rocking guitars in lots of her songs, even the dancetracks like the KILLER "I Come Undone"...I heard that and flipped and I was like "I know that song!!!", which made me think I had "Heart Over Mind" on vinyl or cassette in 1987, as that's the first track on the album...and I LOVE the 2007 remix on the box as well...that's awesome.
I'm looking forward to her new album, and NOW, I want back catalogue...all that, not bad for a nice Jewish girl from NYC...biggest single by a female artist in the history of the UK charts???? Onetime biggest artist on Sony in Germany??? As for that DVD (which I want), not able to play on US players...it's PAL and you need a progressive-scan DVD or Blu-Ray player...I have a pro-scan DVD player by JVC and my Sandra DVD plays perfectly...I'm hooked on Jenny/Heidi now...she looks even sexier now than in the 80s too, yowza!!!
Great, Just Great! This set contains all of the hits of Jennifer Rush and then some. It's wonderful. Arrived early and in perfect condition.
Headline says it all. Would've been nice to have her German version of 'The Colors of the Wind' (from 'Pocahontas') included--that's my one very minor complaint!
There isn't much more to say that hasn't already been said. This is a great box set of hard to find tracks by one great singer!
