Greatest Hits

Very smart clean vinyl with a nice crisp gloss cover.

At any given moment one can find five to ten thousand Marilyn Monroe items on eBay, which is more than you may encounter for Jimi Hendrix and John Lennon, though thousands shy of Elvis. So it's no surprise that a dance-mix album featuring the chanteuse would emerge, and though not perfect, Marilyn Monroe Greatest Hits Remixed is a fun listening experience. The "Dreamer Remix" of "Kiss Me" would segue nicely with Esquivel and other purveyors of the space-age lounge set. Ditto for James Hardway's rendition of "Happy Birthday," perhaps the album's most experimental track, and the one that adds something unique and extra to the sparse Monroe audio catalog. The "Swing Cats Remix" of "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" is opportune in that it borrows heavy percussion from Adam Ant's 1983 single "Goody Two Shoes," which itself probably lifted the horn lines from Marilyn's original version of "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" from the 1953 film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. How will it sit with the Marilyn purists? Well, these tracks are entertaining, perhaps because they attempt to balance fresh sounds with the original recordings. "I Wanna Be Loved by You" has pleasant blends of the old and the new -- vintage strings encountering synths -- a definitely unholy marriage, but one that does amuse. There's lots here to recommend this disc, though "You'd Be Surprised" highlights the drawbacks. The groove here is totally re-created, the effect being that of something barging in rather than playing with the original work. Marilyn gets pushed into the background and the accompaniment starts to clutter, but for the most part Danny B. Harvey, Effcee, and James Hardway (aka David Harrow) find a decent balance and do add something to diva Marilyn's recorded output. "I Wanna Be Loved by You and "A Little Girl from Little Rock" deserve to be heard by new audiences, and find interesting new settings here.