Cilla Black - 35th Anniversary Collection (1998)

Yet another Cilla Black compilation -- she may be the most heavily compiled British singer this side of Shirley Bassey or Petula Clark, but who's complaining? Black was the most prodigious performing talent ever discovered by Brian Epstein, and the 20 songs on this collection, divided up equally between her classic mid-1960's sides into the 1970's, representing composers from $John Lennon and Paul McCartney ("It's For You", "Yesterday", "Step Inside Love"), Joni Mitchell ("Both Sides Now"), and Elton John ("Your Song") on the rock performer/composer side to Burt Bacharach ("Make It Easy On Yourself", "Alfie"), Victor Young ("Love Letters") and Galt MacDermot ("Aquarius") on the "legit" (i.e. formal pop) side. Not surprisingly, there's not a bad, or even a less than impressive track here, and the state-of-the-art digital sound is superb. There's no annotation but as part of EMI's budget-priced "Gold" line that's par for the course.