Album Review:
The Andrew Lloyd Webber Collection
- Release Date: 1998
- Genre: Vocal Music
- Label: Polygram International
- Artist: Sarah Brightman
- Flags: Compilation (best of)
- Type: Compilation
- Rating:
- Styles: Show Tunes, Musicals, Adult Contemporary
- Track Picks: "Don't Cry for Me Argentina," "Memory," "The Phantom of the Opera"
- Similar Albums: Talk on Corners [Japan], Talk on Corners [Special Edition 12 Tracks],
Until Now , Red Rice, Talk on Corners, Best of Dolores Keane, Celtic Moods [Virgin], So Far: The Collection 1979-1995, Suas E!, Shine, There Was a Lady: The Voice of Celtic Women, Rogha: The Best of Clannad,Battlefields of Green: Songs Of... ,Forward to Scot
Review
Despite a long history of pop and musical-theater success in England, Sarah Brightman was not well known in the U.S. until her 1997 album Time to Say Goodbye became a triumph, topping the Billboard classical crossover chart for most of 1998. Really Useful Records, her former husband Andrew Lloyd Webber's label, took advantage of her sudden popularity to release this compilation of recordings of Lloyd Webber songs she'd made between 1985 and 1995, and since she had served as a real muse to the composer, many of his most popular songs were included. Several of them -- "Pie Jesu," "All I Ask of You," "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again," and "Amigos Para Siempre (Friends for Life)" -- had been chart hits for Brightman in the U.K. So had "The Phantom of the Opera," the title song of a musical Lloyd Webber had written for her and in which she had starred, albeit in a different recording from the one included here, which was the Original London Cast version featuring her co-star, Michael Crawford. Also included were the most memorable songs from such Lloyd Webber shows as Evita ("Don't Cry for Me Argentina"), Song & Dance ("Unexpected Song," "Tell Me on a Sunday"), Aspects of Love ("Love Changes Everything"), and Cats ("Memory," "Gus: The Theatre Cat," "Macavity: The Mystery Cat"). Even the songs that had not been tailored specifically for Brightman had been written for her kind of voice, a full-bodied, dramatic soprano, and she sang with a thorough understanding of the composer's intentions. The result was an excellent primer for anyone who had first encountered Brightman with "Time to Say Goodbye" and was wondering where she came from. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music GuideTracks
| Track Title | iTunes | Composers | Performers | Time |
| The Phantom of the Opera | Andrew Lloyd Webber, |
Michael Crawford, Sarah Brightman | (4:21) | |
| Unexpected Song |  |
Andrew Lloyd Webber, |
Sarah Brightman | (2:56) |
| Chanson d'Enfance | |
Andrew Lloyd Webber, |
Sarah Brightman | (3:55) |
| All I Ask of You | Andrew Lloyd Webber, Charles Hart, |
Cliff Richard, Sarah Brightman | (4:10) | |
| Don't Cry for Me Argentina | |
Andrew Lloyd Webber, |
Sarah Brightman | (5:54) |
| Another Suitcase in Another Hall | |
Andrew Lloyd Webber, |
Sarah Brightman | (3:21) |
| Love Changes Everything | |
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Charles Hart, Donald Black | Sarah Brightman | (3:34) |
| Amigos Para Siempre (Friends for Life) | Andrew Lloyd Webber, |
Sarah Brightman, |
(4:36) | |
| Memory | |
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Trevor Nunn, T.S. Eliot | Sarah Brightman | (3:58) |
| Gus: The Theatre Cat | Andrew Lloyd Webber, T.S. Eliot | Sarah Brightman, Sir John Gielgud | (5:11) | |
| Anything But Lonely | |
Andrew Lloyd Webber, |
Sarah Brightman | (2:57) |
| Macavity: The Mystery Cat | Andrew Lloyd Webber, T.S. Eliot | Sarah Brightman | (4:46) | |
| Tell Me on a Sunday | |
Andrew Lloyd Webber, |
Sarah Brightman | (3:45) |
| Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again | |
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Charles Hart, |
Sarah Brightman | (3:31) |
| Pie Jesu | |
Andrew Lloyd Webber | Sarah Brightman, Paul Miles-Kingston | (3:55) |
| The Music of the Night | |
Andrew Lloyd Webber, Charles Hart, |
Sarah Brightman | (5:22) |
