Bonnie Raitt

This was a gift for a co-worker but after hearing this CD I might have to get one for myself.

Urban Cowboy: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Love this soundtrack! Can't believe it took me this long to replace the cassette with a CD.

The movie was one of John Travolta's best and it is great to hear all of those songs on one CD. It's a shame that Gilley's is no more.

Like other memorable soundtracks...this one is a keeper. Great gift & it arrived quickly!

The songs on theis CD are REAL American music..... What a terrific collection of fantastic country tunes that show how really strong this type of culture is and how it is good for our country.

People who listen to rap all the time should have their heads examined. It makes them nothing but ignorant and mean. RAP is A-W-F-U-L!!!

Country and Western music LIVES ON!!!!!

i admit i wasn't a big fan before - i know her and some of her songs but never own her albums. until i bought this The Best of Bonnie Raitt on Amazon.. WHOA! is all i can say. what a voice! there's a wide range of music; blues, country, even pop... and what a great performer!!
i start with the well known tracks like: "nick of time", "something to talk about", "i can't make you love me".. her voice, the music composition, instruments, etc., all first class. until i hit track #11 "love me like a man", it instantly become my favorit song! and i read the bio, it was recorded back in 1972! and further amazes me, she also play the sultry guitar!! WHOA! i have a LOT OF RESPECT for her and what a find for this record!

I never, met Bonnie, but I knew her former boyfriend, Dick Waterman, who managed the old timers, like Son House, Fred McDowell, Skip James, as well, as back then Buddy Guy, Jr. Wells, and Luther Allison.
Bonnie cut her eye teeth playing with the old guys, learning that bottleneck thing, and she does justice to it. Just as John Mooney, who learned from Son House, does.
BTW, I recorded Eddie'Son'House in the fall of 1969 in my dorm room, before that fateful day when some kids, wanting to learn bottleneck, gave him a jug of wine. One bitter cold night in Rochester, a snowdrift, and frost-bitten fingers...and Son House's career was history.

I don't know if it was the great service or the fact this CD brings back such memories....I am thoroughly enjoying it! Thanks for the very easy shopping experience!

Fabulous! The live version of Love Me Like a Man was so good! No one can do the ballads/torch songs as well as she does - Dimming of the Day, I Can't Make You Love Me. Her blues numbers are without comparison.
Perhaps the only disappointment in this collection was that I would definitely have included Come To Me - which wasn't here.
Other than that, if you are a Bonnie Raitt fan, this CD is a string of home runs, one after another.

This CD captures the energy of Bonnie Raitt in concert. Turn it up loud and sing along. It's great.

People, this album costs SEVEN DOLLARS. It is probably Bonnie's best album. Take advantage of this opportunity.

It was the summer of 1973, and I was 21. I had never heard of Bonnie Raitt. I had been enveloped in Motown and Aretha Franklin (which is cool) for years. A girl I was working with on an archaelogical dig said "Get this record." I took her word for it and will always be indebted to her. I got this and the first one, Bonnie Raitt. I was instantly hooked, and it's not exaggerating to say that this changed my life. This changed my life. Both albums are terrifically underproduced, recorded live or next to it, real, amazing. I mean, one guy recorded naked. There was a dog. Her band and the music are prime.

Not only did this album teach me who Bonnie Raitt was, it started introducing me to those key blues folks who played with Bonnie and whom Bonnie played and toured with (including the wonderful Sippie Wallace, whom I was so lucky to see once with Bonnie), Jackson Browne, Chris Smither (I mean, PEOPLE), Joel Zoss (I instantly got his album), Barbara George, Eric Kaz and Libby Titus, some fine songwriters. I learned what bottleneck slide was, and what a virtuoso was.

Get it get it get it. Why this album costs $7 is beyond me, but SOMEONE'S missing the boat. You need to catch it.

I have been a Bonnie Raitt fan for 35+ years. I have every album, cd and DVD. I've seen her in concert 10+ times. If you have to own only one of her albums this is it. Great, spontaneous music. Listen to "Give It Up" on a really good audio system. It is dense, lively. "Love Has No Pride" is a classic. The whole thing stands the test of time.

I can't even imagine my single life in the 70s & 80s without Bonnie and these songs, oh my gosh how I adore this woman. We used to always see her at Wolf Trap (in VA) along with John Prine, wow, I feel so lucky to have been there at the right time. There's no one more soulful, she can belt em out and also just KILL your heart with tenderness... she's just so so so so COOL, and I always have to sing along to her songs at the top of my lungs even as my teenagers run screaming from the room (not from Bonnie, from me)...this is such a dumb review, I just don't have words enough to describe Bonnie Raitt. I can tell you that at one of her concerts at Wolf Trap, probably early 80's, I broke my foot falling drunkenly down the stairs and stayed for the rest of the concert so I wouldn't miss any of the show. She's just one of a kind and a very generous musician, too, always giving the spotlight to other people. I love her. And so will you if by some horrifying chance, you've never heard her before. All of her albums are perfect, but this one may be my ultimate favorite.

What a classic album. So many great songs and in very diverse styles. I don't think you'll find one filler on this one - easily her best album. It has beautiful ballads, rockin' blues, a touch of Dixieland jazz, little bit of everything. We used to wear the grooves out of this one back in our college days back in the early-mid 70's. And the one thing you absolutely had to love about Bonnie, she pulled no punches. A real gutsy gal and solid musician. Top shelf.
Dennis A

It is refreshing to read reviews from fans who were actually there when this CD was first released (as an album, ofcourse) back in '72, because listening to it today, one can also feel the same adoration for Bonnie. My stance is that, if you truly call yourself a music lover, then this CD is a must. It is gorgeous to listen to from the first song to the last. The musicians are in mint condition, and I must I agree with a reviewer who stated that this CD gives you the feeling of a casual studio session with everyone very relax and just there to make beautiful music. It is mainly Blues tinge but you will notice some New Orleans style dixieland blues in "Give it Up or Let Me Go" and "You Got to Know How." It makes you think that Bonnie is from the South, but she was actually born in Burbank, CA back in 1949. Wow, She a real Gem!!!

I absolutely LOVE The Roads My Middle Name (11th song on this album) Why is it that we have never heard of this song or why it didn't go to #1??? As a blues singer myself, I am definitely working on this one and I know it will be well accepted and liked. I am so hooked.

a cold winter day in NYC or a warm summer night in Savannah, GA. This album full of wonderful tunes makes me remember how a singer/songwriiter can elevate the blues and make you feel like the true thing IS ringing in your ear.

I feel in love with my wife to this soundtrak of Nikc of time in 1990 and we have it always to remind us

Hmmm. With a review title like that, you can see why my career in marketing was short lived.

But marketing savvy obviously wasn't lacking at Capitol Records in 1989 when they released this, Bonnie Raitt's breakthrough album. Question is: What did they do that Warner's failed to do? Warner's had had her under contract for nearly two decades, released nine of her albums to generally solid reviews--but somehow never managed to make this talented (and likeable and ULTIMATELY marketable) connect with the mass audience. When she carried home all those Grammies in the spring of 1990, they must have been kicking themselves (or lopping off each other's heads).

But that's the business end. Artistically, Bonnie has proven a consistently strong artist/performer throughout her entire career. Yes, some of the albums were stronger than others, but she could always be counted on to put out interesting, engaging work. As a vocalist, she had the advantage of being able to "sing pretty," but with character and style. No one could put over an LA ballad better than Bonnie, her slight rasp gave those numbers a certain ache that few other singers could hope to duplicate. Her version of "Love Has No Pride," a number recorded by just about every female singer around in the 70s, was considered by many to be definitive (though I personally like Tracy Nelson's just as much). Why the raves? Well, she could bring a little attitude to a ballad that some might otherwise find maudlin (and others might find the story of their lives). Her straightforward, sincere-but-never-sappy readings of that song and all her other ballads could win the hearts of even the most hard-boiled critics.

And of course, she could turn right around and play a mean slide guitar on a blues or rock number. She should have been a star from the get-go. In fact, for those of us who weren't carefully monitoring such things, she WAS a star--or at least as big a star as she wanted to be. I mean, I was aware that she wasn't going triple platinum, but I always thought she had a solid career and a loyal following. And after a few albums, she even mustered a Top 40 hit in "Runaway," a song I've always loved even if some critics--and even some fans--didn't go for it.

So what was new with NICK? Actually, not all that much. You couldn't really say that Warners had no clue what to do with Bonnie all those years. This wasn't like Aretha's tenure at Columbia. Bonnie Raitt was recording the albums she wanted to do. The conventional wisdom was with the new contract at Capitol, she finally hooked up with a producer (Don Was) who knew what to do with her. Well, it certainly IS a well produced record (one of many to come), but the earlier ones for her old label weren't exactly dishwater either. Was did have a feel for texture that was unsurpassed: the sound is layered and crisp and designed to bring out Bonnie's unique vocal style to the best possible effect.

And of course, there's the material. Bonnie Raitt never claimed to be a great or especially prolific songwriter, but actually she has always been a consistently good one, as her compositions here evidence. The title track was just about as perfect an expression of aging boomer anxiety as you will find. The verses about hearing the bio-clock ticking, seeing one's parents (and one's self) age before one's eyes, and maybe lucking out and finding true love "in the nick of time" may seem even more poignant now in light of the subsequent loss of the singer's dad and the ultimate dissolution of her marriage to actor Michael O'Keefe.

No one could argue that her career took off pretty much "in the nick of time." Bonnie was by this point, a mature woman just entering her 40s, and while hardly "washed up" by any means, mass stardom was probably getting less and less likely with each passing year. Of course, there had been Tina Turner's remarkable career renaissance a few years earlier. And Grace Slick was enjoying greater commercial success (if much less critical acclaim) than just about at any time in her career. But in Bonnie Raitt's case, one got the sense that her grown up status was an actual selling point and not something to be glossed over with a spiky do or outrageous duds.

She still rocked out of course, as she proved on some of the album's other tracks, including the hit single "Thing Called Love," a witty John Hiatt number, and even more so on the harder rockers: "Real Man" and "I Will Not Be Denied" (both from the pen of Jerry L. Williams) and her own closer, "The Road Is My Middle Name"--and I always thought it was "Lynn." She had lost none of her spirit and spunk facing middle age. In fact, she was rocking out harder than ever.

Her ballads on this record were as sensitively performed as ever, with "Cry On My Shoulder" and "Too Soon To Tell" being real standouts. Her reading of "Nobody's Girl" is spot on, and "I Ain't Gonna Let You Break My Heart Again" serves as proof that in another life, she could have easily been a smoky voiced chanteuse. But it's on the mid-tempo numbers where Bonnie really hits her stride. The two numbers written by namesake Bonnie Hayes seem ideally suited for Bonnie Raitt. "Love Letter" and "Have a Heart" are among the CD's true gems. If the former's lyrics make it come off as a kind of distaff "Every Breath You Take," its slow funk groove makes the tune much more playful than predatory. As for "Have a Heart," well, what can you say about a song that begins with the lyrics, "Hey, shut up!..." and still manages to be as emotive as any of the sensitive tunes in Bonnie R.'s repertoire.

Strictly speaking, NICK OF TIME was probably not a bold step forward artistically. But its solid production values, excellent song selection and confident performances augured well for the success it ultimately proved to be. That and the fact that she finally had a record company that got behind her.

if you are a guitar player,you will want both the nick of time album and songbook. that way,you can play along with the songs thing called love, loveletter,nick of time,have a heart,nobody's girl,i will not be denied,real man,and the road is my middle name.the album and songbook go great together,so get both,strap on your guitar and have some fun. ed wilson

I was into Bonnie long before this album was released.This album garnered her a pile of Grammy awards and rightfully so.I consider this to be one of the top 20 albums in Rock history.If you only own one Bonnie Raitt CD this is the one!

I bought this CD several years ago and a friend borrowed it - well you know how that goes! Anyway, I bought it again and I love this CD - a nice mixture of blues & rock - LOVE IT!

Previously had this on tape--wore it out listening. There is not a bad song on this CD.

My favorite Bonnie Raitt CD; very soulful and heartfelt. This is a replacement of the first one I bought when it was first released (it finally wore out). You can't mistake anyone else for Bonnie's unique voice. From gritty blues to sultry love songs, she'll draw you in and keep you awhile. I agree with some of the other reviews that note she isn't a bigger megastar because she has such a broad range of music that she can't be "classified" - thank heaven. I think most true artists fall into the unclassified category. Buy this CD and she will take you on a Slow Ride you'll enjoy for years to come. Another artist you might want to check out is Eva Cassidy; softer, smoother voice, but just as incredible an artist (see her on youtube).

I pulled this album out because I heard a cover of "I Can't Make you Love Me" and I haven't put it away yet. Greatness is timeless.

I was going through my fairly extensive Bonnie Raitt collection to put some tunes on my ipod, and I was reminded of how this album is, for me, Bonnie's best album ever. There are individual songs from other albums that are essential too (Under the Falling Sky, Opening Farewell, Runaway, River of Tears to name a few). But the variety of songs and styles on Luck of the Draw, and the absence of the weak songs that mar some of her other albums (even the iconic Nick of Time) make this the 'desert island disc' out of all of Bonnie's albums, at least for me.

If you like Bonnie's Road Tested or Luck of the Draw, this is NOT the album for you. It's along the lines of Fundamental which is one of my least favorites. Hard to find a track to sing along with....

If a fan of blues and especially Bonnie Raitt, you may have seen her on "Breakfast with the Arts" this summer, performing from her new album. She also showcased many of her other albums, which prompted me to buy this one. It explores some avenues of creativity and maturity in life and being a song writer. People will probably either like or dislike the changes in style. However, Bonnie Raitt is a performer and worth trying some of the audio samples if unsure whether you want to buy it or not.

The styling on this CD was unlike any other Bonnie Raitt CD I've ever heard. Takes some getting used to!

"Souls Alike" is an interesting and usually fun CD. Sure, it represents a departure from Bonnie's earlier music, but hey - after 35 years I think a new direction can be understood. It's not like she pulled a total switch here - the amazing slide guitar work, bluesy rhythms and of course Bonnie's matchless vocals are all here. To me the biggest differences are the addition of Jon Cleary's brilliant, rollicking keys (Unnecessarily Mercenary and Love on One Condition) and the opening up of several songs into sparser, more groove oriented tracks (the opening track and the three softer ballads). This is a rather disjointed CD, and song to song it tends to throw a few curves, but that's just fine. I don't really like my music too predictable, and songs like "God..." and "Love..." are not predictable - not to mention "Crooked Crown", a dirty groove if ever there was such a thing. This is a solid CD, and really blends several basic styles - blues, straight ahead rock, Cajun swamp music and even a little funk. I really enjoy this CD.

SOULS ALIKE is Bonnie Raitt at the top of her game. All the maturity and experience of this talented performer is on display here. Her vocals are the right blend of worldliness and emotion and her guitar playing is just stellar. The songs chosen here are a fine balance of softer ballads like the pretty "So Close," to the quirky "Trinkets" that sounds more like one Sheryl Crow would pick, but Bonnie has fun with it. Even when things get funky on songs like "Crooked Crown" and "Unnecessarily Mercenary," the feeling is not forced; the songs flow along. They don't sound like they were put here just because something upbeat was needed. Even when the sound is very different like on "Deep Water," something that almost sounds like something from Peter Gabriel, she makes it work for her. There really is nothing here that I didn't enjoy and it has proven to be the favorite of my Bonnie Raitt CD's.

I bought this first as a vinyl LP, then a cassette tape and now as a CD. I hadn't heard it for 10 or more years and it sounds even better now!!!!

If you're in doubt-buy this CD!

While there were some people who recognized Bonnie's talent from the beginning, Bonnie had to wait almost twenty years after its release for her major breakthrough, during which time she gradually acquired more fans. So it was that this album, which remains one of Bonnie's best, has continued to sell steadily as all those new fans discover Bonnie's legacy. This album mixes blues, pop, rock and R+B - other influences came later - though blues is the main influence here.

Bonnie wrote two of the songs here (Thank you, Finest loving man) but relied mainly on covers, beginning with a cover of Bluebird (written by Stephen Stills, famous as a member first of Buffalo Springfield then of Crosby Stills and Nash). One of Bonnie's major influences, Sippie Wallace, is represented by two songs (Mighty tight woman, Women be wise) while Bonnie also covers Any day woman (Paul Siebel), Walking blues (Robert Johnson) and Since I fell for you (Bud Johnson) among others.

No serious Bonnie Raitt fan should be without this classic album.

I do like Nick of Time and some of the tunes on Silver Lining, but I think this is the real Bonnie Raitt. The music has a little raw edge to it (it was recorded in a garage after all) but, the slide guitar work is great, and it clearly shows Bonnie Raitt was had a lot of talent even at the tender age of 21. It doesn't hurt that Junior Wells, local heros Willie Murphy and Dave Ray (of Koerner Ray and Glover) were involved. This is a great album.

A truly great blues record with the contribution of Junior Wells. It is unfortunate that Bonnie went far afield of these roots to become much more commercially successful. A great time capsule of the beginning of her career as a guitar player and singer.

I have been a fan since the first time I heard this album.
I enjoyed each successive release, but more on a cut by cut basis up until the release of "Nick of Time." That's when I stopped buying her music. This one is the one I still love all the way through.
There is a joy to this music. Bonnie and her fellow musicians had a good time making this record, and that is obvious to anyone who listens to it.

I grew up listening to this classic from Bonnie Raitt. My mom played the album so many times, the words are imbedded in my memory. Now I own the cd and can't thank my mom enough for turning me into a huge Bonnie Raitt fan!
Most of these songs bring me to a deeper, bluesy place. I usually choose to listen to this cd when I need to slow down, get a little perspective, and can enjoy a good glass of wine.

It's a must-have for any blues music lover!

This album was my first introduction to Bonnie Raitt some 33 years ago and I've never stopped loving it. For some strange reason the second track I Gave My Love A Candle got lodged so deeply in my head, I remember having a vivid dream about it and meeting Raitt, like some special discourse with a kindred soul. A very emotional experience (the dream & album) and though critics have named other albums as her best, this and the overlooked Fundamental remain my biggest faves. Takin My Time has great staying power.

A decade and a half before Bonnie captured the public imagination with her 1989 album, Nick of time, she was already building a solid reputation with her blend of blues, rock and folk music, of which this album is a fine example although the blues are the dominant influence here. It may not have been what mainstream commercial radio stations were looking for at the time but, like Bonnie's other early albums, continues to sell steadily while many bigger-selling artists of the time are now represented only by greatest hits compilations.

One reason why Bonnie's music stands the test of time so well is her uncanny ability to pick great songs that suited her outstanding, bluesy voice. Bonnie was also able to persuade some of the finest musicians of the day to play on her albums. On this album, the musicians include members of Little Feat (Lowell George among them), Taj Mahal and the brilliant saxophonist, Ernie Watts.

The set opens with You've been in love too long, a cover of a brilliant but relatively unknown Motown song that Barbara Acklin and Martha Reeves recorded. Bonnie doesn't usually cover Motown but her choice here is impeccable. More predictably, Bonnie covers songs written by some of the finest blues and rock songwriters such as Mose Allison (Everybody's crying mercy), Eric Kaz (Cry like a rainstorm), Jackson Browne (I thought I was a child), Fred McDowell (Write me a few of your lines / Kokomo blues) and Randy Newman (Guilty).

Maybe this isn't the place to begin a collection of Bonnie's music but it should be a high priority if you are interested in collecting at least some of her original albums.

The first Bonnie Raitt album I ever bought, and after over 30 years, still my favorite. It'll bring you to tears, and bring you to your feet. Listen to it and wonder why it took so darn long for Bonnie to become a major star. Music doesn't get much better than this.

This is the stuff she was playing at Jack's tiny club on Mass. Ave. in Cambridge, MA back around 1970. Care about history--pick this up. This is Bonnie when she was uncertain of her future and had the blues maybe even better than she expressed them.

Very good Bonnie Raitt and excellent to have some of the top blues-rock friends to join her on this combo pack for cd and dvd.

I bought this as i'm a big fan of bonnie raitt for a long number of years.
The band she has assembled for this outing is second to none.Great sound,
in 5.1 dolby if you own a home cinema system. The only small gripe I would have is that the cd part of the package doesn't have the same tracks as the dvd.. Otherwise excellent.

Was very disappointed in the CD. Had just seen her in concert - felt like her show was an exact repeat of this CD - could have stayed home and felt like I had seen the show. Was a purchase I could have done without.

I have been a Bonnie Raitt fan for many years and Bonnie Raitt and Friends
CD plus the DVD is fantastic. So all Bonnie Raitt fans out there all I can say is BUY IT NOW!!

I'VE LISTENED TO ROCK, POP, BLUES & JAZZ FOR THE LAST 50 YRS.
BONNIE WAS THERE FOR MOST OF THEM. SHE'S ONE OF THE FEW THAT HAS INFLUENCED THEM ALL. THESE DISCS REALLY SHOW HER GIFT FOR COLABORATING & AT THE SAME TIME ILLUMINATING THE GIFTS OF HER CONTEMPORARIES AS WELL
AS HER MUSICAL FOLLOWERS. IF YOU KNOW BONNIES WORK, IT'S A GREAT ADDITION.
IF YOU DONT, IT'S A GREAT PLACE TO GET STARTED.

I like this collection of Bonnie's songs. She can hold her own against some of the best. Her blues oriented songs are so soulful and true to heart. She's an ideal songstress to listen to on a long road trip. Go Bonnie!!

Bonnie, I love the old blues songs that you sing!!! There are a few of them on this album, very FUN.

This cd showcases Bonnie Raitt's older songs and some of her most beloved popular radio songs. I bought it for the older blues like "Love Me Like a Man" and "Give it Up of Let Me Go". There are 20 songs on this cd and it's a great listen.

There are few women in the blues genre that can break the male mold... I love her!

The problem with "best of" collections is that fans will get into endless squabbles over what SHOULD have been included. Bonnie Raitt fans are no exception apparently. A cursory look at the fan reviews below attests as much. I understand how they feel, but folks, you know it's all good, and you gotta draw the line somewhere. After Raitt's extraordinary late 80s success on Capitol, a Warners retrospective was inevitable. They had lost a good thing in Bonnie and wised up just a little late. But graciously, Bonnie assisted in the selection of the songs and provided commentary. No hard feelings, boys.

A solid, consistent performer who has evolved but never felt compelled to constantly "reinvent" herself, Bonnie Raitt is not an easy artist to sum up, let alone encapsulate in a twenty song retrospective. But a twenty song sampler at least gives the new listener a broad enough overview. Die hard fans will buy it for the "live" versions of staples "Women Be Wise" (sung as a duet with originator Sippie Wallace) and "Angel From Montgomery" (here a duet with composer John Prine).

It's hard to imagine that a newcomer to Bonnie Raitt's oeuvre would want to stop here and not check out the individual releases (all available as of this writing). The earliest records with their rootsy feel have a special charm, as evidenced by the tracks included here: "Finest Lovin' Man" and "Give It Up." But even in those days, Bonnie was demonstrating her flair for contemporary material, as evidenced by her rocking take on Jackson Browne's "Under the Falling Sky." And although the Warners albums also included tracks penned by such staples of the So-Cal rock scene as Joni Mitchell and Stephen Stills, she also had a flair for finding material from less obvious sources. Paul Siebel's "Louise" isn't half bad--in fact, it's darn good. And she captures the essence of Chris Smither's "I Feel the Same" like no one else could (save the songwriter himself). Like her contemporaries, Tracy Nelson and Linda Ronstadt, she was discovering a virtual treasure trove in the works of Eric Kaz. Lots of folks find Bonnie's version of "Love Has No Pride" to be "definitive." I'm learning to throw that word out of my vocabulary, since my tastes can change from day to day. But of all the women--and men--who have assayed that song, Bonnie Raitt was able to bring something unique to it. Hers is a dignified reading, with more than a hint of vulnerability. Nelson's take on it, from the recently re-released eponymous Atlantic album, is also an interesting one, so strong and proud that it virtually belies the song's title. I can't decide which version I prefer, so instead I decided, hey, I don't have to.

Interesting that Bonnie Raitt emerged in '71, a year after Janis Joplin's tragic demise. Like Nelson, Raitt offered an alternate version of the white blues mama. Both brought a little more restraint and discipline to their art. Some found Raitt a little earnest in her politics and in her almost studious approach to the blues. But au contraire, mes amis, Bonnie had class and discipline--and she loved a good liberal cause as much as anyone else--but she was also as sassy and sly as you could want. And she sang like a husky voiced angel from Los Angeles. And played a mean slide guitar to boot.

Who could have asked for more? Eat your hearts out (17 years after the fact), Warners execs!