Neil Diamond's five-decade career as a singer, songwriter, and performer has certainly been a successful one by any standard. He’s sold well over 115 million records worldwide to date and has had eight number one singles ("Cracklin Rosie," "Song Sung Blue," "Desiree," "You Don't Bring Me Flowers," "Love on the Rocks," "America," "Yesterday's Songs," and "Heartlight"), and if he hasn't always generated the kind of critical respect he probably deserves, he’s been a steady and dependable artist who has managed to keep his large core audience happy. This 23-track set surveys the whole of Diamond's recording career, collecting his key and signature sides, beginning with his first hits for Bang Records in the mid-'60s through his commercial peak for Uni/MCA between 1968 and 1972, cuts from 1980’s The Jazz Singer (a soundtrack album that went platinum five times over on Capitol Records), and ending with tracks from Diamond's two Rick Rubin-produced albums, 2005’s 12 Songs and 2008’s Home Before Dark, on Columbia Records. Amazingly, this is the first multi-label single-disc collection of Diamond's signature songs like “Forever in Blue Jeans,” “Cherry, Cherry,” “I Am...I Said,” “Sweet Caroline,” “Cracklin’ Rosie,” “I’m a Believer,” “Holly Holy,” “Solitary Man,” “Song Sung Blue,” “Kentucky Woman,” “Brother Love’s Traveling Salvation Show,” his hit duet with Barbra Streisand “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers,” and many others. The end result is the perfect career-spanning single-disc introduction to this iconic singer and songwriter. ~ Steve Leggett