Gordon Lightfoot Complete Greatest Hits is mastery

Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, if you wanted all of Gordon Lightfoot's best-known material, you needed to get two different albums, picking up 1975's Gord's Gold I and later 1988's Gord's Gold II.

In 2002, Warner Bros finally made a compilation to put everything on one disc, and it is wonderfully mastered.

Gordon Lightfoot: Complete Greatest Hits largely includes most of Gord's Gold I while bringing in a few top songs from Gord's Gold II (most notably The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, released after the first compilation came out).

It misses a few songs I like, such as Cold on the Shoulder and Minstrel of the Dawn, but this disappointment is fixed by the fact one gets 20 tracks with this compilation.

Speaking to Lightfoot's style, it is beautiful yet offers surprises to new listeners, giving it redeeming value for your collection. A little on the light side, but it's not frou-frou. It is light folk, weaving tales and musical goodness. This compilation captures most of the best songs I like -- all of the singles, like Carefree Highway, Sundown, et. al. -- and is both good driving music and nice listening music.

Tracklist 

1.    Early Morning Rain
2.    For Lovin' Me
3.    Go-Go Round
4.    Canadian Railroad Trilogy
5.    Pussywillows, Cat-Tails
6.    Bitter Green
7.    If You Could Read My Mind
8.    Summer Side Of Life
9.    Cotton Jenny
10.    Beautiful
11.    Sundown
12.    Carefree Highway
13.    Rainy Day People
14.    Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald, The
15.    Race Among The Ruins
16.    Daylight Katy
17.    Circle Is Small, The
18.    Baby Step Back
19.    Stay Loose
20.    Restless