Belinda Carlisle possesses a unique pop voice and style that might've been more at home in the swinging sixties than the late eighties. As such, much of her solo music capitalized on her trilling delivery and poured on the sixties-style melodies. There's some great solo work here, unmatched by cookie-cutter girls on today's charts. The packaging is cheap and useless - Belinda was blacklisted from MTV during a dispute, her sales plunged, MCA dropped her like a rock and rushed out this collection. Bet you didn't know that, did you? Funny thing, the European hits package debuted at number one in the U.K. and guaranteed a new beginning for Carlisle abroad. Incredibly underrated singer, but that tide has changed somewhat in the past few years.
Belinda Carlisle's greatest hits from her four I.R.S. and MCA solo albums just showed her growth. Most of the attention has been on major hits Heaven Is A Place on Earth and Mad About You, but my true favorite from her is Circle in The Sand, which is on here. I still love that song any time it plays in a store or if I play it on a stereo. Imagine yourself on a beach when you hear that song instead of just straight up listening to it. It has such an airy landscape for a pop song, and I like the acoustic guitar playing on it as well as the sound effects of water splashing on the beach. I remembered hearing it a lot between April and June of 1988. This made me accept Belinda more as an artist and more than just being in the Go-Go's. Carlisle matured a lot on the '87 album and just got better on the next couple of albums. While her later stuff hasn't created the buzz as her first efforts, this is a good collection of Belinda's best records.
Her Greatest Hits is fifty minutes and four seconds long and war released on September 7, 1992. Her Greatest Hits did not chart. The label is misleading. Four of the thirteen songs did not even chart; at least not in the United States. The cassette cover the years from 1986-1991. On Her Greatest Hits are three songs from her album Belinda, four songs from Heaven On Earth, three songs from Runaway Horses, and three songs from her album Live Your Life Be Free. I did not even know she had a greatest hit cassette until I bought it at a Goodwill store. The music on Her Greatest Hits is good to listen to and if you only want her best then by the tape. Below is a list of songs on the cassette follow by how high they went on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart and the album the song is from. Her Greatest Hits by Belinda Carlisle gets a B+.
Side One
Heaven Is A Place On Earth
#1 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles
#7 U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary
#1 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Airplay
#18 U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales
#1 Cash Box Magazine Top Singles
Heaven On Earth
I Get Weak
#2 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles
#9 U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary
Heaven On Earth
I Feel the Magic
#82 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles
Belinda
Half the World
Did not chart-Live Your Life Be Free
Gotta Get To You
Did not chart-Belinda
Leave A Light On
#11 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles
#8 U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary
Runaway Horses
Circle In the Sand
#7 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles
#5 U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary
Heaven On Earth
Side Two
Mad About You
#3 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles
#29 U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary
#21 U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Music/Club Play
#19 U.S. Billboard Hot Dance Music/Maxi-Singles Sales
Belinda
I Feel Free
#88 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles
Heaven On Earth
Summer Rain
#30 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles
#29 U.S. Billboard Adult Contemporary
Runaway Horses
Live Your Life Be Free
Did not chart-Live Your Life Be Free
Vision of You
Did not chart-Runaway Horses
Do You Feel Like I Feel?
#73 U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Singles
Live Your Life Be Free
It's your basic 13 track collection. It's not in chronological order, but at least the good stuff is mostly here. The hits "Mad About You", "Heaven is a Place on Earth", and "Leave a Light On" are all present. Plus numerous other singles. The non-single I miss most is "Love Never Dies". That is on "Heaven on Earth", which I would also recommend, and I believe is her most popular album. Of the songs I didn't know, I really like "Half the World" and "Summer Rain". In short, this is a fine collection of hers, and complements her recent pictorial in Playboy very well.
Belinda Carlisle is one of the best pop singers. At times, her voice sounds absolutely angelic. This greatest hits collections is a great CD of her work as an individual artist. She sounds better than she ever did with the Go-Gos. You can feel the emotion she is putting behind her vocals as she sings, especially on "Mad About You" and "I Get Weak". I loved her version of "Live Your Life Be Free". A great CD for any fan of Belinda's or the Go-Gos.
