While nothing is as good as hearing Joe Cocker live and in person, this album comes pretty darned close. His passion comes through as strongly as his talent. A raw, but lived-in voice, lends meaning to the words. A good solid portfolio of his work.

What a treat to hear a great talent sing these songs again. I had forgotten how pleasing it is to listen to Joe Cocker. This album invites playing over again and again. An excellent collection.

Joe Cocker deserves every bit of his fame as one of the truly great singers of all time. Any sign of a great singer/performer is when they can take someone else's songs and completely make them their own. Joe did this over and over again. In fact in most cases his versions of others people songs are more well known than the originals. Case in point would be his cover of Randy Newman's "You Can Leave Your Hat On."

This 2 disc "Gold" compilation collections blows away the single disc Ultimate Collection set which up until this set had been the best Joe Cocker compilation available.

The best part of Gold is that it covers his entire career from 1969 up through 2005 with his cover of U2's "One".
All of the songs are remastered in crystal clarity and sound fantastic.

There are 36 tracks on this set with 18 songs on each disc. Disc One clocks in at a little over 70 minutes long and Disc Two at about 73 1/2 minutes.

The booklet details his entire career via some excellent liner notes that also show which albums/soundtracks that all of the songs were pulled from. There are also some really nice vintage photographs sprinkled throughout as well.

For the more passive fan, the Ultimate Collection might work better for that but for people wanting to dig a bit deeper, this 2 disc Gold set is highly recommended.

I've seen 4 or 5 greatest hits,retrospectives on Joe Cocker and all i can say is this one is the best out there. For an artist who has been around as long as he has he has alot of material to cover and this one comes as close to complete I've seen. If you have a friend who likes Joe Cocker and you have to get him a gift this is it,they will be happy with the selection of songs too. The sound is great.

There has been so much going around with Universal and there Gold compilations of some of the most acclaimed artists of their eras, and while there have been some great artists highlighted well like Lionel Richie, Patti LaBelle, and The Supremes, there also have been a few overshadowings as well. That just hasn't been the case for them alone, Joe Cocker has also been one of the few that has shown his growth. His musical milestones have been around for almost five decades, and his last hits record, Ultimate Collection didn't really deliver what die hard Cocker fans had completely desired. Can his Gold be just be better reflecting on Joe as well?

Joe Cocker: Gold, the 2006 double-album does a much better job than his previous Ultimate Collection was conjured out to be. The album reflects on not only his time with the A&M era, but also branches out quite nicely with his times through Capitol and independent records through his 90's and 80's periods as well. The album includes some great Joe Cocker classics like You Can Leave Your Hat On, the #1 ballad You Are So Beautiful, Up Where We Belong with Jennifer Warnes from An Officer And A Gentleman, Civilized Man, and his bluesy rendidtion of Elton John's Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word. While the album does a better job reflecting Joe, there still are a few of his songs that were overlooked including his rendiditon of the Inxs classic Never Tear Us Apart from his 2002 album Respect Yourself, Don't You Love Me Anymore, and Feels Like Forever.

Nevertheless, Joe Cocker: Gold is a great album for anybody who doesn't own any of his classics pop gems, or heard of the Bluesy melodies he has performed through the years. This happens to be a mostly good hits package for anybody who still enjoys Joe's voice and soul, and that is something that is still so beautiful.


Album Cover: B+

Songs: A-

Price: A-

Remastering: B+

Overall: B+