Absolutely ABC: The Best of ABC

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
The only problem with this collection is that all the best stuff, the choice cuts, pretty much come from their first album, Lexicon of Love, when Martin Fry and friends found the magic mix of words and synthesizers. Verbose, punning, and as overblown as a society wedding cake, there was still something about it that was perfect for the times. "Poison Arrow," and "The Look of Love" put heartbreak to a beat while "Tears Are Not Enough" took it all over the top. After that first album, there were only two songs of note, "How to Be a Millionaire," and "When Smokey Sings," really worthy of inclusion here, which is probably when four of the tracks have been needlessly remixed to fill up the remaining space. --Chris Nickson --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Absolutely ABC: The Best of ABC
Average customer rating:

Nice mixes

Good Overview, since updated

Great career overview

An underrated band

I LOVE ABC!

Absolutely ABC: The Best of ABC
ABC
Manufacturer: Polygram Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
New Wave | New Wave & Post-Punk | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music
General | Pop | Styles | Music
Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music
General | Rock | Styles | Music
Dance Pop | Compilations | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music
General | Dance Pop | Dance & DJ | Styles | Music
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ASIN: B000001FWD
Release Date: 1990-08-07

Tracks:

Poison Arrow
The Look Of Love
All Of My Heart
Tears Are Not Enough
That Was Then But This Is Now
S.O.S.
How To Be A Millionaire
Be Near Me
When Smokey Sings
The Night You Murdered Love
King Without A Crown
One Better World
Ocean Blue
The Look Of Love (Remix)
When Smokey Sings (The Miami Mix)
Be Near Me (Munich Disco Mix)
One Better World (Pickering-Park Mix)

Amazon.com

The only problem with this collection is that all the best stuff, the choice cuts, pretty much come from their first album, Lexicon of Love, when Martin Fry and friends found the magic mix of words and synthesizers. Verbose, punning, and as overblown as a society wedding cake, there was still something about it that was perfect for the times. "Poison Arrow," and "The Look of Love" put heartbreak to a beat while "Tears Are Not Enough" took it all over the top. After that first album, there were only two songs of note, "How to Be a Millionaire," and "When Smokey Sings," really worthy of inclusion here, which is probably when four of the tracks have been needlessly remixed to fill up the remaining space. --Chris Nickson

Customer Reviews:

Nice mixes.......2006-07-20

This is a nice compilation of ABC's work including their well known tracks as you would expect on a "best of" CD. The remixes of Be Near Me and When Smokey Sings are great party tracks.

Good Overview, since updated.......2005-09-17

While this made a pretty good retrospective when it was first released, the 2002 compilation, "Look of Love," eliminates the superfluous remixes, adds four more songs and is a better remaster. Skip this one and jump up to "Look."

Great career overview.......2005-08-17

"Absolutely ABC" plays it absolutely safe, showcasing the biggest hits for one of the New Romantic movement's biggest bands. The tracks skew heavily towards their most successful releases, "Lexicon..." (five tracks including remixes), "...Zillionaire" (five tracks including remixes), and "Alphabet City" (four tracks including remixes). It would have been nice to include the original demo for "Tears Are Not Enough" to show how quickly the band progressed and it's a bit strange they left out "Where is the Heaven?" from "Up" which was a pretty big club hit. Most ABC releases tend to append remixes so it seems rather strange and pointless to include them here, but that's all minor quibbling. The Munich Disco Mix of "Be Near Me" is the one everyone danced to at clubs so it seems appropriate to add it here. "Absolutely ABC" is a nice thing for completeists or for someone wanting a survey of ABC's greatest hits only, but most of their individual releases are worth buying. Better still is "The Remix Collection" which comprises of extended mixes and remixes covering the same era. It's a bit of a shame this hasn't been repackaged to include later tracks from "Abracadabra" and "Skyscraping" but I'm sure that will happen in time.

An underrated band.......2005-03-15

ABC is one of the more "forgotten" New Wave pop bands of the 80s. Forever in the pop-culture shadow of the likes of Duran Duran, Human League, Simple Minds, and even A Flock of Seagulls. Yet ABC had a sound all their own, a sort of cerebral intelligence to their lyrics to go with the catchy hooks.

The best songs on this compilation are "Poison Arrow", "The Look Of Love", and "All Of My Heart" (all big chart hits). The underappreciated "Tears Are Not Enough" and "Be Near Me" are also solid. Yes, there is some filler on this compilation (senseless remixes for the most part), but overall a good reminder of why ABC was a critical (if not a smashing commercial) success in the 80s.

Be warned, however, that this CD does include the lamentable song "When Smokey Sings". While not a bad listen musically, it definitely marked the point at which ABC's career came to a crashing halt. A New Wave band singing a paen to the Motown sound? Isn't that a bit like a hard-rock band writing about the joys of Disco? Motown is about as far as you can get from what the New Wave movement stood for. No wonder fans bailed in droves at that point!

I LOVE ABC!.......2005-03-09

With a title like that, you would have assumed I would have given this hits package 5 stars. I bought this CD when it first came out back in 1990, and have played it many, many times since then. I was ecstatic that one of my favorite bands of the 80's had put out a greatest hits package. However, I was always disappointed that they had left off "Vanity Kills" in favor of 4 remixed tracks. I eventually got "Vanity Kills" on an 80's compilation CD, so my collection of ABC songs to hit the Billboard Hot 100 was complete. Since this was issued, 2 more ABC hits packages have been issued ("20th Century Masters-The Millenium Collection" and "Look of Love - The Very Best of ABC"). I have not listened to either of these recent hits packages, so I am not in a position to compare them, but I do know that these newer packages do include "Vanity Kills" plus some other tracks. So, if you are a casual ABC fan that only remembers the "big" hits ("The Look of Love", "Poison Arrow", "Be Near Me", "How to Be [A Millionaire]", and "When Smokey Sings") then this CD will suffice. But if you are looking for all of their Hot 100 chart entries, then I suggest checking out one of the other titles available.

The Absolutely Very Best of Peter Combe (Import)

Average customer rating:

The Absolutely Very Best of Peter Combe (Import)

Manufacturer: ABC Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD
ASIN: B0009VJVH8

Product Description

"The Absolutely Very Best Of Peter Combe (So Far) was recorded before a live audience in the Adelaide ABC studios. It was released through ABC music in 1990 and received a Gold Album award in December of 1991. In 1991 it also received the ARIA for 'Best Australian Children's Record'. Featuring: 1. The Little pig 2. Spangle road 3. Jeffrey Hill 4. Thelma Brown 5. The put it song 6. Rain 7. Rock 'n' roll is all you need 8. Lullaby 9. Tadpole blues 10. Down in the bathroom 11. Toffee apple 12. Music of the day 13. Saturday night 14. Tell me the time please 15. cats 16. Chopsticks 17. Jack and the Beanstalk 18. cast away 19. Happy as Larry 20. Mr. Clicketty Cane 21. Spaghetti Bolognaise 22. Juicy, juicy green grass 23. Newspaper Mama

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