Greatest Hits

Wonderful songs

Love this CD. It was my music in my youth and it still is. It has several tracks that I had previously owned on an EP.It is a must have in my music.

Manfred Mann were one of the most popular groups of the mid-sixties, arriving on the scene a little after the Beatles, Hollies, Stones, Brian Poole & the Tremeloes, and the other trailblazers had got going. They had three number one hits - three more than many an equally famous band including, surprisingly, The Who and Cream.All their hits and more are here, from the great (Pretty Flamingo, Come Tomorrow, Mighty Quinn, If You Gotta Go, Ha! Ha! Said the Clown) to the good (54321, Do Wah Diddy Diddy, Oh No Not My Baby, Just Like a Woman, Fox on the Run, My Name is Jack) to the somewhat forgettable (Sha La La, Hubble Bubble, You Gave Me Somebody to Love, and the tediously Kinks-lite Semi-Detached, Suburban Mr James).They were a strange band in that they obviously had an r'n'b sensibility, yet only about half their hits - and all but two reached the Top 20, many the top 10 - were of that kind while the other half were pure pop, whether sung by bluesy, boyishly enthusiastic Paul Jones or his successor, the slightly more intensely soulful Mike D'Abo.This comprehensive compilation has 22 tracks, in non-chronological order, something in its favour. I daresay some would prefer to hear them in the order in which they were released, though I can't really see why since this way you get the two singers' voices juxtaposed, which is more interesting to hear.One of my very favourite singles of the sixties is Pretty Flamingo, by the rather obscure Mark Barkan (from 1966, in the Paul Jones years) and a later favourite is Ha! Ha! Said the Clown (from 1967 after D'Abo had taken over vocal duties.) The excellent song Come Tomorrow has always been one I've remembered and loved too, sung well by Jones.They were never as confrontational as the Stones, Animals or Pretty Things, or quite as consistent or long-lasting as the Searchers or Hollies, but they definitely made their mark, and along the way gave us the occasional classic track.A word for Manfred Mann himself, born in South Africa in 1940, and founder member of SA's first ever rock band: he was a tasteful organist and bearded backbone of this likable pop/rock group, and listening to these tracks again, one can hear how vital he was to their overall appeal.The sound and the packaging on this 1993 compilation are adequate, the music is varied and often inspired.

The CD is absolutely brilliant and the sound could not be better

All good,thanks very much

I used to have their greatest hits on cassette so I thought it was time to replace it in readiness for see The Manfreds in concert. This album is great, there all the ones you expect plus a few more that I don't recall but I was only a baby when they were at their peak of popularity! If you enjoy this do go and see The Manfreds unlike some of the messrs McCartney and John Paul Jones can still sing and if I look as good as him at that age I will be more than happy.

This album does pretty much what it says on the tin; 16 of the 22 tracks are Top 40 hit singles (only the instrumental 'Sweet Pea' is absent) with the emphasis very much on the period from 1964 to mid-1966 when Paul Jones was the featured vocalist and 2 of the group's 3 Number One hits arrived ['Do Wah Diddy Diddy' and 'Pretty Flamingo']. When Jones left to pursue solo projects, the little known Mike D'Abo joined the fold for the period mid-1966 to 1969 and the hits kept flowing with 'Mighty Quinn' completing the hat-trick of chart toppers.If you like R&B flavoured pop music of the 1960s, then I can guarantee that you will like this collection. In order to acquire more of the latter period featuring the 'poppier' vocal style of Mike D'Abo, then I can heartily recommend 'The Very Best of the Fontana Years' - an interesting album which I have reviewed in full elsewhere.

I went to see the Manfreds recently, and they were brilliant, Paul Jones voice sounds just as good as it ever was and he is now 72 . I bought the CD as I couldn't get the songs out of my head, it has all there hits on it and is great value for the price, If you loved the group back in the day then you will love this cd

Alle Titel auf der CD,sind sehr gut.Kann sie immer wieder hören.Was für meine Oldie Sammlung.

Descubrí este grupo al hacer un shazam de un grupo desconocido para mí, mientras escuchaba una cinta magnetofónica que había comprado en algún mercadillo. Parece mentira cómo se recicla la música. El grupo era un completo desconocido para mí, pero algunas de sus canciones fueron versionadas por otros músicos en su momento. El resto del repertorio, hasta 22 canciones, me encantó. Si te gusta la música pop de los años 60, éste es tu grupo.

I first heard of the band Manfred Mann while watching television. I decided to check out some of their songs on youtube. I bought the cd Manfred Mann Greatest Hits. This cd full of great songs such as "If you gotta go, go now", "The one in the middle" and many others. I really enjoyed the great lyrics, and musical performances like the electric guitar and Manfred Mann's excellent playing of the organ, the drumming etc... I also enjoyed the vocals very much. I heard a lot of these songs on TV and youtube. This cd contains a lot of great songs including the cover songs like "Got my mojo working". I'm glad I bought this cd, I may buy more Manfred Mann cds in the future.

I see there's now a 2-CD set that includes Manfred Mann's Earth Band and later tracks. Just for the record, this disc covers the career of only the group known as Manfred Mann from 1964 to 1968. Manfred Mann was a major act in the second wave of the British Invasion in the fall of 1964 and like the Animals reached #1. Other new British acts of this wave included the Kinks, Honeycombs, Nashville Teens, Zombies, Sandie Shaw, Marianne Faithfull and toward the very end of the year Petula Clark and Herman's Hermits. A few others like the Hullaballoos and the Pretty Things got some press but had no hits. Though they came on like gangbusters with Do Wah Diddy Diddy and Sha La La, in the U.S. Manfred Mann virtually disappeared until The Mighty Quinn in early 1968 with 1966's Pretty Flamingo charting only at #29 in 1966.In Britain it was another story where Manfred Mann was a powerhouse band who seemed to always have some hit on the charts. Fifteen of the songs on this collection made the Top 20, thirteen of those made the Top 10 and three made #1. In fact it was because they were tired of their status as a kind of hits factory and the constant promotion of their latest single that caused their breakup in late 1968 while Ragamuffin Man was still in the Top 10. Manfred Mann himself had been a jazz musician in South Africa where he had grown up (and in fact Manfred Lubowitz took his stage name from Shelly Manne the American jazz drummer, eventually dropping that final "e"). He and Mike Hugg (drummer) formed a jazz/blues group, the Mann-Hugg Blues Brothers that eventually became the five man band, Manfred Mann.Mann and Hugg stayed through to the end but otherwise the group went through the usual changes in membership that most bands do. Notably they had two lead singers which can be really difficult for a band but which they just sailed through as if nothing had happened. The first was Paul Jones, who had turned down former bandmate Elmo Lewis (Brian Jones) and Keith Richards to join their new band, the Rolling Stones to be in Manfred Mann. He left Mann to go solo in early '66, a move that never really worked out for him. His replacement was Mike d'Abo from mid 1966 on. Though Jones's voice was deeper their singing style was similar enough that most people didn't notice the change. There were four bass players over the years including long-term member Tom McGuiness who switched to lead when Jack Bruce joined for about a year before Cream and then Klaus Voorman.Though their interest was in jazz and blues they basically became a pop band. The girl group origins of Do Wah Diddy Diddy and Sha La La were pretty obvious but they made solid rockers out of both. The Exciters hadn't done well with the first song earlier in '64 anyway (#78). The Shirelles complained that Sha La La was stolen from them but as much as I am a fan of theirs, their time was over with, last year's thing, and they'd never have a hit again. Pretty Flamingo was their next #1 and they began to do Dylan songs as well (Oh No Not My Baby and Just Like a Woman, both U.K. hits).Their sound changes in late '66 (Semi-Detached Suburban Mr. James) becoming more of a pop sound that on most songs through Ragamuffin Man which (except Mighty Quinn) sound somewhat like early Traffic. Their version of Ha Ha Said the Clown was Top 5 and is more of a Manfred Mann kind of song than Yardbirds, whose version while not bad was really an off the wall thing for them to do. And speaking of off the wall, they even had a Top 10 hit with My Name is Jack, from the truly bizarre and disjointed film You Are What You Eat, a musical documentary mostly shot in San Francisco in 1967 and featuring the Butterfield Blues Band, Family Dog, Electric Flag, Peter & Paul (but not Mary),Barry McGuire, Frank Zappa (briefly) and Tiny Tim singing with members of The Band in the basement of Big Pink. You'd have to see it to believe it.This collection is very thorough, featuring just about everything that charted except Sweet Pea and adding some of the more interesting album tracks. The One in the Middle was written by Paul Jones and is a real rocker. The band did not generally write their songs so this is a nice inclusion. The cover of the Coasters's Poison Ivy seems unnecessary as well as Peter & Gordon's There's No Living Without Your Loving. It's just a quibble but I would have rather seen some of their odd songs make it like Burt Bacharach's My Little Red Book, which they sang on the soundtrack of What's New Pussycat or their funny spoof of 1930's English Dance Band singers, By Request Edwin Garvey.The sound is great as the disc has been put out by Polygram (now part of Universal) and combines both the HMV and Fontana releases. The booklet was written by bass and lead guitar player Tom McGuinness. The songs aren't in the order of release, which I prefer, but that's not too big a thing. The cover features photos of both phases of the group.

Favoloso! Fantastico!