The Essential Boney M.

Bought this new Boney M. compilation CD. I was expecting great things from it, seeing as the title talks about it being The Essential Boney M. This CD certainly is not The Essential Boney M., as while it contains some great tracks, many of the tracks on the CD are not the full single / album version.

Firstly the CD cover has some great photos of the group, but in the inlay Sony Music have not used the correct Boney M. logo - while the M is correct, they have used the wrong font for Boney which has meant the Y is not angled correctly. Whilst to most people this would not be seen as a problem to a fan of Boney M. it does not set the correct tone for the release.

CD 1
There is a good collection of tracks on here, however for some of the tracks Sony Music have used the masters from the Boney M. compilations Gold, More Gold and The Magic Of Boney M. from 2006 This is a no no as the tracks are not the original versions.
Track 1 Baby Do You Wanna Bump is the highlight of the CD, because it is the original single version lasting for 3 minutes 42.
Daddy Cool, Sunny, Ma Baker, Belfast, Rivers of Babylon, Brown Girl In The Ring, Painter Man, Hooray! Hooray! It's a Holi-Holiday, I'm Born Again, Bahama Mama, I See A Boat On The River, My Friend Jack and Children of Paradise are OK, as they are proper length versions of the tracks. Rasputin is the 4:25 edited version from the Gold CD, and this is a no no as the 4:43 7" single version should have been used. No Women No Cry at 4:20 is the edited version from the Gold CD, rather than the single / album version. Gotta Go Home at 2:30 is again the Gold CD version, when the 7" single should have been used instead.

We then come to Mary's Boy Child, this the 4:01 version from Gold, which misses out the verse beginning "Now Joseph and his wife Mary..." In an ideal world the 5:43 7" version, the one used on the remastered Nightflight To Venus CD should have been used. Finally we come to El Lute. When this was released on single it lasted for 5:05 and on LP 5:50 yet on this CD the 3:58 edited version is used.

CD 2

An interesting selection of tracks appear on CD 2 including 5 remixes, and the 7" single version of Stories. Happy Song is included, but not the 7" version, just an edited version running at 3:56. For the fans track 13, which says it is the 12" version of Megamix from 1988, is not actually this megamix, it is one from 2006, which is a plus point as it has not appeared on a mainstream release before. Going Back West is included on the CD, but perhaps as it was the B side to The Carnival Is Over, that track should have been included, along with My Cherie Amour and Exodus, if the intention was to showcase the main single releases.

Supposedly both these CD's are in chronological order, however on CD 1 No Women No Cry comes after Sunny, which would be OK if it was in order of album release. On CD 2 Gadda Da Vida should have been before Felicidad, as it was released first, with Children of Paradise as the A side.

Some people would say that the CD should have finished at Young, Free and Single, and not included anything after that, but I think it is good to show Boney M's later remix releases.

For the future if Sony Music want to release an "Essential" collection, then they should use the orignal single versions, either 7" or 12" along with album versions as appropriate, rather than raid the Gold, More Gold and The Magic Of Boney M masters, as this would create a much better compilation for the fans, and a better legacy.

Looking at what Universal Music have done with the Abba back catalogue, I think that Frank Farian & Sony Music should have done the same sort of thing, to preserve the legacy of Boney M, rather than release compilations with second rate versions of the tracks, which don't show the true Boney M. legacy.

I would have released this CD, with the same tracks but used all the 7" versions of each of the tracks, and if the track was not available on single then the album track. The remix versions I would have kept, but added one from the 88/89 sessions, to showcase this part of the Boney M. legacy

All in all this CD could have been and should have been much better.