AMG Review of Love Songs

Andy Kellman
All Music Guide

It's kind of surprising that Al Jarreau's catalog hasn't been treated with greater care. Best of Al Jarreau, released by Warner Bros. back in 1996, remains the best anthology of Jarreau's career, and the various Love Songs series put together by different labels have tended to exist merely as a way to take advantage of the Valentine's Day market (Sony BMG released a Love Songs comp for the Bay City Rollers, of all artists), but this particular Love Songs is more than something to fill the shelves, compiling many of Jarreau's biggest hits released from 1976 through 2006. Since it skips across 30 years, a number of favorites are bound to be missing -- "Your Precious Love," "Since I Fell for You," and "Moonlighting," for instance. Even so, this covers the basics rather well.