![The Best Of Cilla [Cover Artwork]](bestofcb-140.jpg)
Re-Release
In 26 August 2002, EMI re-issued the 1968 hits album with 11 bonus tracks. The digitally remastered special edition CD now includes all the theme songs used on the BBC TV show "Cilla" as well as five rare 1970s A&B side singles which debut on CD format. The CD has received overseas releases as far a field as Hong Kong and Argentina.
On September 7,
2009, EMI
Records release
a special
mono collector's edition of the
album
exclusively to
digital
download. This
re-issue
features all of
the album's
original
recordings plus
rare bonus
tracks (all have
been digitally re-mastered by
Abbey Road
Studios from the
original ¼" mono
master tapes). A
digital booklet
containing
original album
artwork,
an interview
with Cilla, detailed track
information and
rare photographs
will be
available from
iTunes with
purchases of the
entire album
re-issue.
Credits
- Lead Vocals by Cilla Black
- Produced by George Martin
- Album Cover Photograph by John Kelly
2002 CD Reviews
Allmusic.com: 4.5/5 Star Rating (Album Pick): "...The 2002 Special Edition CD reissue of the album picks up from where the original version left off, following Black's recording career to the end of her EMI contract by adding 11 bonus tracks, among them the Top Five hits "Surround Yourself with Sorrow" and "Something Tells Me." It does not feature the missing hits left off the first version, and, in fact, it continues the pattern of inexplicable omissions by failing to include the 1969-1970 Top 20 hit "If I Thought You'd Ever Change Your Mind." Eight of the 11 new tracks, while released as A- or B-side singles, never charted for Black. Among them are successive theme songs to her BBC TV series Cilla, "Baby We Can't Go Wrong" and "It's Now," and covers of such songs as Jim Croce's "I'll Have to Say I Love You in a Song" and Stevie Wonder's "I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever)." On this '70s material, Black, who could sound like Dusty Springfield in the '60s, sounds a lot like Olivia Newton-John, employing a similar breathy, soft tone in contrast to the sometimes strident belting of her early years. This collection is imperfect, but it contains most of her career highlights as a recording artist."
Q magazine (Jan 2003): 3/5 Star Rating (Good): "Cilla Black's fragile, self questioning ballads with extravagantly orchestrated climaxes - think "Anyone Who Had a Heart" - yielded 19 hit singles in her pre-telly days. The Beatles' old mucker and ex-cavern cloakroom attendant lacks Dusty Springfield's delicacy or Lulu's soulfulness, but George Martin's imaginative production uses her deeply powerful voice to great effect across this career-spanning compilation."
Record Collector (Dec 2002): "An updated version of the 1968 hits package..."You're My World" which boasts a cardiac-arrestingly dramatic pizzicato arrangement, a fine version of "Goin' Out of My Head", and the brooding "Love's Just a Broken Heart" all suggest that our Cilla was a more sensitive and versatile singer than her reputation would suggest, while "Step Inside Love" remains one of Paul McCartney's most underrated songs...there's plenty here that's of genuine merit.."
