An update of the 1981 Australian LP Pop Princess, with updated liner notes by Glenn Baker, great photos, and an unreleased (and unannotated) version of Baby (When Ya Kiss Me). 29 tracks, 75 minutes.
For committed fans of Jackie DeShannon, this is a bit of a mixed delight, with 29 songs representing Jackie’s career from 1958's rockabilly Buddy to 1980's sublime movie ballad I Don’t Need You Anymore.
The plus points: nice recording quality, excellent liner notes with well chosen photographs, and a good choice of songs. A newcomer to Jackie's work will enjoy this album - and particular congratulations to Raven Records for bringing together material from Liberty, Imperial, Capitol, Atlantic, Columbia, Amherst and RCA sources.
Less good points: the front cover picture, a blurred representation of a woman who looks nothing like Jackie DeShannon, is a disaster. Do they want to sell this record or what? And for those who do collect Jackie's material, this is an unadventurous choice of songs. Only 6 have not appeared on CD before, and I could seriously quibble in particular with the meagre and predictable selections from Jackie's Capitol, Atlantic and Columbia output.
I'd like to see a sequel to this exploring some of Jackie's lesser known early Liberty material (and what about the material she recorded in the 50s for 4 or 5 other labels before joining Liberty? And there is allegedly a lot of material "in the vaults" from Atlantic and later. It would be good to look at this in the context of contemporary material from Carole King, Joni Mitchell and others.
To conclude: a good selection for people new to Jackie, or those having a passing interest in her work and wanting to know more. Not so good value for the committed fan, as we've had most of it, on CD, before. ~ Peter Lerner
