Glenn Frey

The problem with assembling a Glenn Frey compilation -- and this discount-priced one is the second, following 1995's full-priced Solo Collection -- is that his debut solo album, No Fun Aloud (1982), was released on Asylum Records, making it the property of Warner, while the rest of his solo recordings were released on MCA Records, the property of Universal, and the two major record labels have not shown an interest in pooling their resources. Thus, Frey's first three Top 40 hits, "I Found Somebody," "The One You Love," and "All Those Lies," are unavailable to MCA in their original form, though both Solo Collection and this album have used the live version of "The One You Love" from 1993's Glenn Frey Live. A compilation is particularly important for the collection of a Frey fan, because his two biggest hits, "The Heat Is On" and "You Belong to the City," appeared on soundtracks, not his solo albums. Those two are here, of course, along with what turns out to be a slightly more comprehensive selection of his singles than Solo Collection contained. That 16-track album featured only nine of the 17 tracks Frey placed on one chart or another between 1982 and 1993; this one has ten, including the minor hit "The Allnighter," which is not on Solo Collection. Given the more favorable price point, this album gets the edge as the Frey album for casual fans. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide