Essential Gloria Estefan

 (25 customer reviews)

Well worth the wait...now only Celine Dion seems to remain among Sony superstars not yet included in the "Essential" series. This nicely-done compilation fills two discs with 37 career highlights, including rare single mixes of "Live For Loving You" (much livelier than the LP version), "Bad Boy" (the glaring omission, along with "Dr. Beat," from the first GH set), and "1-2-3", among others. "Dr. Beat" is here as well, along with a recent/bizarre Eurohit remix called "Doctor Pressure".

Disc 1 has the fast ones, Disc 2 has the slow ones, both with plenty of high points. All three of Mrs. Estefan's pop #1's were ballads and are on the 2nd disc: "Anything For You" (my favorite), "Don't Wanna Lose You", and the inspirational "Coming Out of the Dark."

All but three chart hits are here, hope they're not deal-breakers for you, gentle reader: "Betcha Say That", "Seal Our Fate", and "Can't Forget You".

I lived in North Miami Beach when even the...Read more

"The Essential Gloria Estefan," a two-CD retrospective on the English-language career of Gloria Estefan (with a few Spanish highlights such as the anthemic "Mi Tierra" thrown in for good measure) presents the singer as something more than the pop songstress she has been labeled as. Disc one, the fast disc, highlights most of Estefan's dance hits, opening with the 80's kitch of the sadly underrated "Dr. Beat" (which also closes the disc in a remixed form that topped European dance charts again last year, twenty years after its initial release). And all the Miami Sound Machine songs that brought Gloria to the top of the charts are accounted for: the timeless and wonderfully Latin-tinged "Conga," which not only opened the door for crossover success but broke it down, "1-2-3," "Rhythm Is Gonna Get You," and "Get On Your Feet." ("Essential" also marks the first time that "Bad Boy" and "Falling In Love (Uh-Oh)" appear on an Estefan compilation, righting some of the wrongs committed on...Read more

There have been numerous hits collections that really have made an artists career seem definitive, or somebody feel like there career could've used more improvement. That has been the same with so many of the younger female artists like Jessica Simpson, Beyonce', and Ashanti. Although they've tried to stretch themselves into so many positions as singers, actresses and other positions, they don't seem to really have the organic feeling of what great music is all about. For somebody like Gloria Estefan, she is somebody who has been through hell and back from a nearly fatal accident in 1989, to being told she couldn't have kids. She had beaten all those odds, and now a definitive hits collection shines out of Gloria's music.

The 2006 Essential Gloria Estefan is a very long, overdue definitive hits collection taht spotlights her longevity as the most successful crossover female Latin/Pop artists ever. The double album does a very good job at highlighting her career throughout 3...Read more