Michael is a very talented and gifted artist, never compromising his art in any endeavor. I greatly respect him
for this. This one truely shows his every talent and a treasure to listen to. I greatly look forward to seeing one
of his concerts locally in September. He latest cuts prove he only gets better and remains constant. Each song and his talent reaches the depths of your soul. The only change he will have is to get better and better. He is truely "Mr. Blue Eyes Soul Man". So underrated by critics, but so loved by his fans as I am. That is what is most important.
Yes, this one is more than 5 stars in my book.

Boy, is it ever worth it! This collection is SO much better than the newly released collection by Rhino.

After I finally got sick of waiting for the Rhino CD to come out, I gave up one day and bought this album. I had seen it many times before, but I held back 'cause of the price. Not any longer. This is the best compilation that this extyremely talented musician could've released.

I knew many of the hits and I was pleasantly surprised by the cuts I was unfamiliar with. Every one is just terrific!

Your collection definately needs this one ;)

Mike McDonald was too big to be just a backing singer -- even on Steely Dan's classic KATY LIED -- and too much of a keyboardsman to survive for long in the guitar-centred Doobie Brothers. It was inevitable that with his strong songwriting abilities, he would end up in a solo career.

The tragedy for Mike was that his solo career happened in the 1980s, which was a terrible decade for synthesized drum and keyboard sounds. So many artist retrospectives have been ruined by the Yamaha DX7 and Simmons drum tones that dominated that era and now sound very dated.

Mike McDonald recorded some magnificent singles -- so good that they soar above any dubious-sounding keyboard backing. The stand-out tracks here are the sublime duet 'On My Own', co-written by Bayer Sager and the demi-god, Bacharach, 'I Keep Forgetting', and the Quincy Jones team's 'Yah Mo B There'. These three tracks on their own justify the price of this, or any other collection.

It is extraordinary that the US has never issued its own compilation of McDonald recordings. His many fans have had to rely on expertly remastered imports such as this.

A collection of songs that won't go away from a man that refuses to hang it up. Known for bringing cacophonous, high-pitched whines to the Doobie Brothers' sound, McDonald then dropped a few octaves and hit the 80s bad movie soundtrack scene. It's hard to find any kind of ascent or plateau in the quality of his work, he always seems to be sliding downhill head-first, grasping at every gimmick branch that comes his way. "Sweet Freedom" overstayed it's welcome in the 80s, and Michael McDonald is overstaying his welcome in the light rock industry. "On My Own" is right--you are all by yourself, Michael, at the very bottom of the festering heap of has-been light rockers the decades have forgotten. The lone benefit of this recording is that you can now have all of his "hits" conveniently packaged for easy burning or stomping. This is coaster material folks, nothing more...

Amazon.com allows you to pre-order MM's upcoming greatest hits album (title'The Very Best...'), though the release date is said to be 1/1/10. If you can't wait ten years I recommend you consider this import greatest hits album. It is quite expensive by comparison but please note the one track absent from the upcoming album that is on Sweet Freedom, namely 'What a Fool Believes' with the Doobies. This is a grave omission as it is one of his finest songs. Get this album, and also pick up Christopher Cross' self-title album which include background vocals on a couple of the tracks. MM helped define an awesome early 80's sound that will no doubt come back into vogue in the 2010's.