The Very Best of Sandra

Had no idea this even existed until I just came upon this thing by chance 2-3 weeks ago!! HUGE Sandra fan, since the late 80s when the PWL mix of her cover of "Everlasting Love" was being promoted in the US and played on this popular NYC dance radio station. I flipped because it's one of my all-time fave songs and that was the best version I ever heard, partly due to it having a 2nd verse missing in the early versions, like Carl Carlton's 1976 Top 10 hit. Anyhoo, been a huge fan ever since, and everything related to Sandra that I find out is usually by accident or meant to happen.So I was browsing Amazon, curious if she had anything in the works...and boom, this collection (surprised it's on Polydor/Island Germany, not longtime label Virgin/EMI, but EMI was split in two, some going to Universal and some over to Parlophone/Warner, and I guess her's went to Universal, and Polydor/Island was a key label and game to have Sandra and her catalogue), and even better, this 2CD/1DVD deluxe with the updated video collection was the label's first Sandra release (I hope remasters of her albums on CD are to follow, some like "The Long Play" sound like crap, sound too low in volume!!!!)...too bad the DVD is still the PAL format, I can still play it on my laptop but not my DVD/recorder, was hoping to do that...will try it on a BluRay player. But I love the packaging, the photos, liner notes in English, her letter, the way Sandra included her fans to pick the tracklisting...too bad I was not involved as I didn't know about it in 2016, nor did I know about a, gulp, US TOUR(?!?!), but not NYC, just Dallas (Dallas??? That's a weird random choice, not even Nashville!!), LA & Chicago...I woulda known if she played NYC, but I woulda taken a roadtrip or flown to Chicago cheap to see her live!! Also found out in the booklet that she rerecorded some Arabesque songs, would love to hear those and see what she chose cuz Arabesque are amazing.Anyhoo, the tracklisting is almost perfect...it's fan chosen too..."Platinum" in 2009 had 40 tracks on Discs 1 & 2 (not counting the remix disc 3 because the "So80s Sandra" 2CD makes that disc obsolete with its completeness)...this only has 34 and coulda fit more to make it almost 40...but I guess the rule was choose 30 and 4 are bonus tracks. They took off the album tracks, added missing singles and updated tracks...and I am really happy her 1984 12" of her German language cover of Alphaville's "Big In Japan" FINALLY made its CD debut here...and the B-side "Sekunden"...YET they coulda went even further and added her 1976 debut single of "Andy Mein Freund" and B-side while they were at it...the song WAS on the DVD of "The Complete History" in the bonuses...and maybe an Arabesque song or two...just saying, and there IS enough room for em.The remastering sounds great, and they have all the right versions but 2 have me curious...these were on "Platinum" and not on the albums...the single mixes of "Around My Heart" and "Midnight Man"...was hoping they were on here, not album versions, espesh "Midnight Man" with the xylophone hook. Some album tracks that shoulda been singles that were on "Platinum" remastered too and not on here and shoulda been were "Lovelight In Your Eyes" (from "Paintings In Yellow"), "Celebrate Your Life" (from "Into A Secret Land"), "Sisters And Brothers" (from "The Long Play"), & "Won't Run Away" (from "Fading Shades"), but they were only selecting 30 and fans didn't choose them. However, there are a couple of others which are great, "You And I" & "You'll Be Mine"...if "Two Lovers Tonight" or "Mirror Of Love" were included (my favourite overlooked album tracks & shoulda been singles), I woulda fallen outta my chair in delight and shock, haha.But because of these omissions and wrong choices in a coupla mixes, and the lovely booklet, you still need to hang onto your "Platinum" if you still have it....the 2CD, not the 3, even tho the packaging was better on that triple. Yet, this new collection is worth it, espesh for the updated DVD (it's still missing the extended 7 minute vidclip of "Everlasting Love", shoulda been included as a bonus, perfect opportunity blown, as well as "Don't Cry (The Breakup Of The World)", it was on the "Ten On One" video collection VHS only), but hang onto your "Complete History" for the Sandra interview and bonus tracks and fun quiz...The beautiful Sandra is still amazing...

One of the best singers of her generation!!!

cd player

i love her songs , brings back a lot of memories .

We really didn't need another haphazard Sandra comp, but perhaps one with all the single mixes and bonus rarities mastered from the original tapes would have been nice. This latest collection has a track list supposedly culled from the fans themselves (doubtful considering all the awful late-era tracks included) and while it sounds decent, is nothing to write home about. The reason to own this: two (previously unavailable on digital format) early tracks from Michael Cretu, in German. A true fan will need these, pity the CD didn't offer more such treats. (Why they used an edited album version of In The Heat Of The Night instead of the rare 7" mix, I don't know.)

The Sandra CD was delivered with broken jewel case for the doble album.This jewel case difficult to find and you cannot use the top of the case from other cases.