A Greatest Hits Collection at the Perfect Juncture

Amy Grant may just be considered the greatest Christian Contemporary Artist in modern music history. She has both the commericial and critical success to back this up. It's hard to believe that Amy's career spans over 25 years. During this span, it is hard to believe there is only one studio album that contains Amy's greatest hits (there is a two Volume live set from early in her career). This set is called "Amy Grant - The Collection". This Greatest Hits release came at a perfect juncture in Amy's career. As a Christian Contemporary artist, Amy had reached the complete apex of her career and now was about to embark in a change in her career that would take her more mainstream. This collection of songs was the perfect way to reflect back on what Amy had accomplished prior to this transition.



I can look at Amy Grant's career as encompassing three main phases. The first phase covers 1977 through 1981 (her debut self-title album "Amy Grant" through the "In Concert Volume 2"). In this phase, Amy definitely showed her youthful side (her first album was released while she still was in high school). For the most part, Amy did some nice songs and was able to establish herself as a Contemporary Christian Artist. In Phase 2 (this would cover 1982-1988, starting with "Age to Age" and going to this album "Amy Grant - The Collection"), Amy ascended to legendary status in the Contemporary Christian music-world both commercially and criticially. This is where her husband to be Gary Chapman would begin to have an influence in her music. In this phase, Amy would show the most depth with her Christian music. When Phase 3 (1988 to present, starting with "Lead Me On" to present), Amy went into her full-fledged crossover into the mainstream (pop) music arena. There were signs she would crossover with some of her later Phase 2 music as well as when she had her 1986 #1 duet with Peter Cetera ("The Next Time I Fall In Love"). Amy would begin to explore themes beyond what was in the boundaries of the Contemporary Christian music scene. She would continue to grow as a commercial artist and now find creative success in the mainstream music world. For "Amy Grant - The Collection", this would mostly encompass her Phase 2 work with a few songs from Phase 1 as well. As mentioned above, it came at the right time because this was when she was moving into Phase 3 of her career. On a side note, a staple throughout Amy's career is that she does some of the songwriting (either solo or collaborative) as well as uses songs by other songwriters.



With Greatest Hits collections, I find that the best "Greatest Hits" collections are ones that arrange the songs in chronological order. This allows me to see how an artist progresses over time. When I look at "Amy Grant - The Collection" it appears to almost go in reverse chronological order. There are a couple of exceptions (namely the song "Emmanuel" from "A Christmas Album" is sandwiched in-between some of the songs from "Straight Ahead" and the "Ageless Medley" comes at the very end). Although I still would have preferred it being in regular chronological order, I found it most interesting and entertaining to have things in reverse order. In fact, it seemed like a very nice change of pace.



For a CD that was released in 1986, "The Collection" does a nice job at packing a single disc with lots of music. There weren't many single CDs being released at this time that had 17 songs, yet this collection does a nice job at giving you a lot of music. There are two original, unreleased songs that start the collection off. These songs ("Stay For Awhile" and "Love Can Do") were co-written by Amy, Michael W. Smith, and Wayne Kirkpatrick. Both of these songs are almost a sign of the times as we begin to see signs of Amy beginning to move toward the mainstream music arena. These songs aren't bad, but I wouldn't classify them as all-time Amy Grant classic tunes. There are then 10 songs that come from Phase 2 of Amy's career encompassing the albums "Age to Age", "Straight Ahead", "A Christmas Album", and "Unguarded". One thing that is a bit disappointing is that there are only 4 songs from Amy's early career (Phase 1). In fairness, Amy does cover much of this material on her two volume live set "Amy Grant - In Concert-(Volumes 1 and 2)" The remaining song is a medley of Amy Grant songs (mostly from Phase 1). Amy always showed a desire to do medleys of her songs and she does a very good job. This medley, "Ageless Medley" was actually released in 1983 on an EP. If you want to hear an early classic like "Old Man's Rubble", you can hear it in this medley and it will be combined with newer material such as the classic ballad "El Shaddai". Although this is out of order, this was the perfect wrap-up to not only this Greatest Hits collection, but to Phase 2 of Amy's career.



Overall, I think the collection does a nice job at including many of Amy's best work. I personally think that Amy did her best work on her next two subsequent albums "Lead Me On" and "Heart in Motion". The liner notes are a little thin. The good news is they include the lyrics to the new songs. They also will list what album each song is from (I consider this a positive). I would have liked to have seen a writeup on Amy's career up until this point. Overall, not a bad place for a new fan to get familiar with the first half of Amy's career. The deep Amy Grant fan may get this for the new songs, but may not get much more from this collection.

An All Time Classic!!

This album brings together some of the biggest hits of one of Christian Music's biggest stars.......Amy Grant. From start to finish it is packed with all of her earliest hits in addittion to two previously unrealeased tracks. The album showcases the talent of a stellar songwriter and contains some of the most poignant songs Amy Grant has ever recorded. It is hard for me to choose a favorite song from this album as I love all of them. Some notes on a few: "El Shaddai" is a beautiful song about God's lovingkindess and His forgiveness. He is the God who sees all! He sent His Son Jesus Christ to die upon a Cross so that we could be set free from our sins! Hallelujah! "Sing Your Praise To The Lord," another fave is a simple song of Thanksgiving to the Lord. "Everywhere I Go" and "Find A Way" are from Amy's "Unguarded" album. Both great songs. A special treat is the "Age To Age Medley" which is a medley of Amy's biggest hits from 1977 to 85 and the inclusion of "Emmanuel" from her 1983 Christmas album. The only down side to this album, for me, is the sequencing. It begins with her most recent hits and ends with her earliest hit. I just think it would've flowed a little better the other way around. But all in all, this CD is a treasured album in my home because it is a collection of great songs from a great artist.

One of my all-time favorite albums

I've worn out numerous copies of this cassette tape over the years. I am buying my third copy of the CD, because I keep giving it away to friends who fall in love with it. This music still *speaks* to me after all these years. Suggested to buy this along with the newer greatest hits CD.