AMG Review of Greatest Hits

Steve Huey
All Music Guide

Digitally remastered in 2000, RCA's triple-disc package Greatest Hits is a stellar overview of Harry Belafonte's career, covering 53 tracks spanning the years 1952-1972. While Belafonte is, of course, best known for popularizing calypso music, Greatest Hits doesn't place a disproportionate emphasis on that aspect of his career; instead, the collection is a testament to Belafonte's eclecticism and versatility. His voice may have been tailor-made for straight-ahead pop, but Belafonte was most at home on folk material, and his sources ranged far and wide. Not only from standard American folk repertory and his beloved Caribbean, but jazz, blues, Appalachian folk, British folk, and slave spirituals and work songs, not to mention the wealth of material rediscovered during the 1960s folk revival. Greatest Hits isn't the ultimate word on Belafonte -- some of his individual albums remain important, essential works in their own right, particularly Calypso -- but as a thorough encapsulation of his career, it's richly rewarding and virtually flawless.