Dance With Me: The Best of Orleans

Love these tunes

Orleans was a band that had a few hit singles --- "Still The One" being the one that most everyone has heard --- during their relatively brief recording career, but they deserve much more recognition and respect from critics than they've received. I think that this single disc compilation from Rhino of their "best" tunes is the best one that's available.Orleans tends to get pigeonholed as a "soft rock" or "pop" group, but they showed a musical versatility that belied such simple generalizations. I like this paragraph in the liner notes that sums up their sound: "Good-time party band of serious-minded songwriting vehicle? Purveyors of uplifting love songs or messengers of politically-charged rock broadsides? R&B/reggae groove-meisters or harmonizing folkies? All of the above could be applied to Orleans."Indeed, this band really WAS able to play with chameleon-like dexterity, blending sounds and shifting musical focus when they wanted. Perhaps those traits didn't endear them to critics, but as you can say from the many reviews on this page, the fans loved their music. One of their earliest songs, "Half Moon" was also recorded by Janis Joplin, and later by Chaka Khan and Rufus. That song showed the funkier side of the band, but as the liner notes indicated, they could play some tenderly beautiful ballads, uptempo rockers, or even songs with a reggae rhythm. Lead singer John Hall wrote many of these songs with his wife Johanna, some of which touched on environmental issues. You could say that Hall was one of the first artists to express concern about climate change in a song, using "Cold Spell" as an example.This CD comes with a 16-page booklet with a history of the band and comments from some of the band members, who later regrouped and recorded new songs in the late 1980s and early 1990s (none of which are included on this collection).One side note: Reading the reviews for this CD, many people have compared the music of Orleans to that of other 1970s bands such as Firefall, Ambrosia, Player, and even Poco. One fan went so far as to rate Orleans behind Ambrosia, but ahead of Poco and Firefall. I'd put it the other way around. As much as I like Orleans, I don't think they are/were quite in the same league as a pioneering band like Poco. But I certainly would rank Orleans ahead of the other bunch of "soft rock" 1970s acts. They really did have many good songs, with hooks, harmonies, and lyrical substance.

Exactly what my mother in law ordered. Great shipping time!!

Rhino has become synonymous with great, well remastered rejuvenation of classic artistes and their classic albums and most of the time, they get it right. However, although the track selections are brilliant and with 20 tracks on one disc you are getting great value for money and great liner notes written by members of the band themselves, the usually brilliantly remastered sound quality that you'd expect from a Rhino album just isn't here on this album. The sound quality is okay but not as good as most of their other projects. Still, this is the one (pun intended)to get if you are looking for the best compilation of Orleans that is currently out there. While they have been compared with other bands like Poco and Firefall, Player and Ambrosia, I'd say they rank behind Ambrosia in terms of quality but way ahead of the others mentioned. Very good soft 70's style rock if you like that genre; if you like what you hear on this album, may I also recommend to you "Anthology" by Ambrosia which is one heck of a great album.

I grew up listening to this music in the late 70's early 80's; it brought back memories. Anytime when you get a "greatest hits" collection and find at least a 3rd of songs or more that you can appreciate that's 👍 to me. Nothing to complain about.

I always liked the hits Orleans had back in the seventies, especially "Still The One" and "Dance With Me" of course. I really wasn't familiar with their other music except for hearing a couple of their albums that friends of mine had. But after sampling other tracks online, I decided this was the best collection of Orleans music for me. I think there are more comprehensive collections available, but for the casual fan who recalls the hits and not much else, this is a very good place to start getting to know their music. The hits are here, and the other tracks are all good at least, some being very good and on a par with their best-known songs.The sound quality is nothing special, but not bad either. Some tracks sound better than others but it is all very listenable, not getting in the way of the music.Like one of their better songs says: "Let There Be Music"!

Very good CD

Love all there songs but when we are paying for CDs the cases should not come broken the CD is in excellent condition. Anyway Thank You for your time . Ida

I bought this merely for the title track but as I listen to the CD more music is beginning to grow on me but not like a fungus.

オーリアンズはアメリカ西海岸で活躍した爽やかなサウンドとハーモニーが特徴のグループです。70年代のウエストコーストにはイーグルスやCSN&Yをはじめ数多くの実力派グループが存在していましたが、日本は意外に知名度の低いアーティストが多いのも事実でした。当時の日本の洋楽好きはハードロックやプログレがブームで、そんな中でアコースティック的なサウンドや華麗なハーモニーを全面に出したウエストコーストサウンドをあまり聴く機会がなかったのかもしれませんね。私もそんな一人でしたが、20代も半ばになってハードなサウンドを聴くのに疲れた頃、耳を癒やしてくれたのはゆったりとした海や草原の風景を彷彿とさせるウエストコーストサウンドでした。その中の一つがこのオーリアンズです。風のようなハーモニー、ジョン･ホールの控えめながらもメリハリのあるギターがとても印象的です。このCDはベスト盤なのでソウルフルな曲や中期のAOR的な曲なども選曲されていますが、個人的には「Fresh Wind」「Dance with me 」「Let there be music」という初期の爽やかな絵画のような雰囲気が味わえる曲を特に気に入っています。ジャニス･ジョプリンも取り上げた「Half moon」が一曲目に入っているのもいいですね。全20曲、とても聴き応えがありますよ。

This Is The Best Package If You Want The ORIGINAL Recordings For ASYLUM Records ( Without The " Re-Mastered " Nonsense )The Boys Had Two Massive Singles In The USA ( " Dance With Me " And " Still The One " ) And Did Five LPs !Unfortunately, The Group Was With David Geffen's ASYLUM Label And The Imprint Was More Focused On Promoting The Super-Group The Eagles, Thus, The Boys Were Almost Put On The " Back-Burner" When It Came To Release Dates And Promotion.This Sometimes Happens When An Act Becomes So Successful, That They Actually " Dominate " An Entire Label Operation ( ie: The Doors At ELEKTRA Records For The Period 1966-1968 As Bands Such As Rhinoceros, Also Signed To The, Label Couldn't Make The Grade )None-The-Less, This Is The Real McCoy By A Group That Should Have Had A Much Longer And Productive Run.

It's truly exceptional , but then again I am ahuge fan of this brilliant group . To have allthis music on CD at last , after listening toit on vinyl for 47 years is just fantastic .Great value too at just over 6 quid . It's a nobrainer , that included delivery ! bargain .

Totally awesome! I never knew that these guys did a few of the hits that I really really liked! I know I know, if I really REALLY liked them I would have done what I could to find them, right? I never heard of these guys before but I've heard their music and you know what? I am really impressed with the tunes that I know already and then the ones that I didn't know, well they are really good as well. It is actually amazing, for a guy that has a TON of music from 70's and 80's that I didn't even know the name of this band. I guess funnier things have happened to other people but for me I am glad that I finally have this CD!! For a band that, from today's standards, does not run through your mind at all, well, slap me silly, I'm glad that I've got it now! TOTALLY AWESOME!!! See ya!