Earth, Wind & Fire - Let's Groove (1990)

As a part of Sony's budget line, Earth, Wind & Fire's Let's Groove collection reinforces the adage of "you get what you pay for." Although nine of the ten tracks were charting singles, fully half of these are mid-chart hits at best, meaning that it's not a true greatest-hits package. Also, since a good portion of the material here is from the early '80s, it doesn't cover the group's most fertile period creatively. Instead, Let's Groove rather haphazardly gathers a quartet of better-known radio hits, including the number one "Shining Star" and Top Tens "September," "Got to Get You Into My Life," and "Let's Groove." Of the rest, the sumptuous "Keep Your Head to the Sky" (with a typically silky vocal performance by Philip Bailey) and the percolating "Let Me Talk" are the most essential tracks here. Fans of Earth, Wind & Fire's chart successes will be better served by the Columbia greatest-hits packages, while the band's devoted followers will want the original studio albums, leaving Let's Groove as a fairly inconsequential repackaging.