Love Songs [Remaster] - John, Elton (CD 2001)

Every now and then I hear a song on the radio that captures my attention, overwhelms my emotions, and plants itself so deeply in my brain that adding it to my limited music collection becomes an obsession. As I've gotten older, this seems to happen less often than it did when I was in my teens or twenties, but when it happens now there is no less intensity in those feelings.

One song that hit me that way a few years back was "Blessed" by Elton John. At the time, I was going through one of my "Rock And Roll" stages and just happened upon the soft-rock station one day when my favorite station was having technical problems. The song Blessed was ending as I made the switch and, even heard only partially, I was immediately hooked. I kept my car radio on the soft-rock station until I heard the whole song a day or two later, then for a few weeks after. I finally got tired of the radio station and went searching for the album that contained Blessed.

Love Songs was the album I found. And I'm so glad I did. Not only is Blessed on it, but many other romantic, sentimental and sad songs that have long been Elton John favorites of mine were on it too. As an added bonus, for the "Mommy" part of me, two of the best songs from "The Lion King," Can You Feel The Love Tonight? and Circle Of Life were on it, so I can listen to it without my kids complaining about "Mommy's icky music."

My kids don't really think my choice in music is "icky," but they'd rather listen to current/contemporary music than the classic rock and soft rock that I grew up with. Thanks to Love Songs we can all listen to something we enjoy at the same time.

The Love Songs On Love Songs
Can You Feel The Love Tonight?
The One
Sacrifice
Daniel
Someone Saved My Life Tonight
Your Song
Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me
Believe
Blue Eyes
Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word
Blessed
Candle In The Wind
You Can Make History (Young Again)
No Valentines
Circle Of Life

That's quite a collection!

Daniel and Your Song are classics, at least in my life, bringing back memories of my junior high and high school days. Someone Saved My Life Tonight, Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me and Candle In The Wind also trigger strong memories, those from my college years and beyond.

The Bad

Like most things in life, I don't like everything about this album. My least favorite is the live version of Candle In The Wind; I much preferred the original on Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. I also prefer the original recording of Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me to the version on this album sung with George Michael. Nothing against George Michael, but I prefer the original.

Overall

This is a great collection of some of the best songs from Elton John's multi-decade career. In many ways, Elton John just gets better and better, and I enjoy much of his newer material as much as I enjoyed the first Elton John album I ever owned (Honky Chateau) back in the early 1970's.

Closing Thoughts: I'm rating this as great music to play while romancing, but I think it's a perfect collection of music for almost anything you might want to do. I listen to it while reading, writing, cleaning, working, and playing games with my kids. I can't think of a situation or a setting in which this music would not be appropriate or welcomed.

And my kids have been Elton John fans since "The Lion King" came out on video, so they've never really considered his music "icky"!