Excellent retrospective

You have to enjoy John's music a lot to want this box, but you don't have to be a fanatic. This set provides a comprehensive overview of his career from his years at RCA (which are really the only ones that matter to most people).

The first CD is interesting. It is made up entirely of tracks from Rhymes and reasons, Take me to tomorrow, Poems prayers and promises and Aerie. These were his first, second, fourth and fifth albums. The third album (Who's garden was this?) is mentioned in the accompanying booklet, but is not represented here at all. The collection starts with Leaving on a jet plane, which John wrote before he was famous. It became a huge international hit for Peter Paul and Mary. The most famous track is Take me home country roads, but there are many other great songs here. I would like to have seen his cover of Buddy Holly's Everyday and something from that third album included, but I have no complaints about what has been included.

The second CD is compiled from the next four original albums - Rocky mountain high, Farewell Andromeda, Back home again and Windsong. This was the period when John's popularity was at its peak. Many of his famous songs are on this CD, including Annie's song, Back home again, Sweet surrender, I'm sorry and Rocky mountain high. Thank God I'm a country boy, originally a track on Back home again, was later recorded live and that recording became another huge hit. It is that version which is included here, not the original studio recording.

The third CD begins with one last track from Windsong - Calypso, a tribute to Jacques Cousteau. During the period covered by this CD, John recorded two Christmas albums including one with the Muppets. Neither of these are represented here. So, the remainder of this CD contains tracks from Spirit, I want to live, John Denver (no other title) and Autograph. Although less successful than his earlier music, this was mainly due to changing public taste. The songs are brilliant.

There are some great moments on the final CD, although lacking consistency. It was a decade of experimentation and change, but it yielded two superb duets - Perhaps love (with Placido Domingo) and Wild Montana skies (with Emmylou Harris). The albums represented on this CD are Some days are diamonds, Seasons of the heart, It's about time, Dreamland express and One world.

This comprehensive collection contains many tracks not otherwise available on CD and is fitting tribute to a unique singer.

I own this. Bleh. Wish it was better.

The sound on this collection is extremely muddy. Bleh. I just picked up Best of John Denver which is a Madacy budget collection of rerecordings of some of JD's best known songs. Although they are not the original recordings, they are crisp and clean and JD's voice soars and sparkles, along with a well produced mix of all the instruments.
I'd recommend checking out other collections, perhaps the Rocky Mtn Collection or Reflections:Songs Of Love & Life. Note: I have no idea how the sound is on these.
I can tell you that the sound on the Sony disk - The Best of John Denver Live is great. It is a live disk and it is from much later in JD's career, but boy does he infuse these performances with everything he's got.

It just doesn't sound right

The remixing is so bad , THAT IT GETS ON MY NERVES. WHY DO THEY RUIN AN ARTIST MUSIC LIKE THAT? I WISH I HAD NEVER BOUGHT IT.