Celine Dion - My Love: Essential Collection

For almost 18 years Celine Dion's been a major star. In 1990, the French-Canadian singer, who already had a career singing in French, released her first English-language album, Unison. "Where Does My Heart Beat Now" became her first major English single, hitting #4 in the US and #6 in Canada. The rest as they say is history, as Dion's subsequent releases during the 1990s climbed higher in the charts, broke her in Europe, and won her many Grammy Awards. Her star began to fade in 2000s, not helped by the fact that she spent most of the decade in Vegas' Caesar's Palace and away from top 40 and AC radio.

My Love: Essential Collection is Dion's first comprehensive hits collection. In 1999 she released All the Way - A Decade of Song, which was half a greatest hits and half a new album, neither of which was really that satisfying due to the obvious omissions (like the aforementioned "Where Does My Heart Beat Now" which is included on My Love). The 17 tracks cover all her major US hits ("I Want You to Need Me," which was a Canadian #1 is not included) and include a new song, "There Comes a Time." There's also a live version of her current single, "My Love," which first appeared on her last album, Taking Chances, and her 1996 Olympics theme "The Power of the Dream." With the exception of "My Love," the tracks are sequenced chronologically, which I generally prefer. All the big ones are here--"The Power of Love," "Because You Loved Me," "It's All Coming Back to Me Now," "My Heart Will Go On," etc.

Notably, the European release is completely different, a testament to the fact that her career didn't take off there as quickly as it did in North America. Gone are the early singles "Where Does My Heart Beat Now" and "If You Asked Me To," which were not major hits in Europe, as well as the Olympic theme and her R. Kelly duet, "I'm Your Angel." Instead there is "Think Twice," which was her first UK #1 (but a flop in the US), her Barbra Streisand duet "Tell Him," "Falling Into You" (which wasn't released in North America), her Bee Gees Collaboration "Immortality," and her Heart remake "Alone." Interestingly, the European version is not sequenced in the order the singles were released, but all mixed up, with the bigger hits generally up front. There's yet another version just for France that includes no French-language songs, has an entirely different track order, and includes "One Heart" and "Ten Days."

As if that's not enough, there are also 2-disc "Ultimate Essential Collection" releases in all three of those territories. The North American version adds in her upbeat "Love Can Move Mountains," her French release "Pour que Tu M'aimes Encore," "To Love You More," "River Deep, Mountain High (which was not a single)," "The Prayer," "Tell Him," the studio version of "My Love," "I Knew I Loved You" (a new track, not a remake of the Savage Garden hit), and Luther Vandross' "Dance with My Father." Best of all though, this set includes "You Make Me Feel (Like a Natural Woman)," which until now has never appeared on a Dion album in the US.

The European version is much more expanded, which 36 tracks over the two discs. The first disc is the single-disc version of the album and the second has all the additional material, including "You and I" from Dion's live Vegas album, which was chosen by Hillary Rodham Clinton as her presidential campaign song, "Only One Road," "Have You Ever Been in Love," "Call the Man," "The Reason," and "Eyes on Me," among others. The French two disc set is chronologically sequenced, has 30 tracks, and doesn't include any tracks that don't appear on the US and European versions, other than "Ten Days."

In sum, these sets gather 43 different tracks. Yet, despite that, there are still gaps for completists, even if you bought all 3 "ultimate sets." Her 1994 duet with Clive Griffin from Sleepless in Seattle, "When I Fall in Love," is an obvious omission, as is her Canadian #1 "I Want You to Need Me." Also missing are US top 40 hits "(If There Was) Any Other Way" and "Nothing Broken But My Heart"--neither of which have yet to appear on a Dion collection--her version of "At Last," which as a US AC hit, and "Stand By Your Side," which was also an AC hit. Still, any version is pretty comprehensive, particularly the nicely sequenced North American version.