THE MAN
He has a great voice and his lyrics are captivating. This CD will never get old.

Rock Star Identity Crisis
From the beginning, Lenny Kravitz has been an enigma. He's a rock star with streamers in so many gene pools that his songs were often surprise packages of whom he'd be this year. He's a man with a soul obsession with Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye, the idealistic rocker that worships John Lennon and Led Zepplin, and the modern pop rock desires that would have him emulate Prince and work with Madonna. He also plays guitar with a Hendrixian flair. Scope that over a decade's worth of music, and you get the culmination of tracks that compose Kravitz' Greatest Hits.

Kravitz' crazy-quilt of style is a music fan's delight. From his early Beatles hommage "Let Love Rule" to the Princely message funk of "Mr Cab Driver," Kravitz made an audacious debut on Let Love Rule. He came off as a one man flower-child, which made the sudden left-turn into the easy grooving Mama Said shocking. But the Curtis Mayfield hit "It Ain't Over Till It's Over" pushed Kravitz into hitmaker territory. At the same time, those rock instincts were pushing the envelope as Guns and Roses guitar slinger Slash co-wrote "Always On The Run."

As he came more and more into his own voice, Kravitz aimed for the stadium bleachers and scored when the Hendrix styled "Are You Gonna Go My Way" became a mammoth rock radio hit and a retro-video smash. The insistently classic rock loaded Are You Gonna Go My Way album remains his most consistent album, but it was the followup, Circus, that gave Kravitz his first top ten album. This time, the Zep influence howls from "Rock and Roll Is Dead." But is was also where Kravitz lost focus, which is indicated by the fact that only two songs from that album are included here.

Kravitz took a four year break, cut his hair, trimmed his musical excesses, and came back with 5. Focused and less dependant on retro-rocking, the slow build of "Fly Away" and the killer remake of "American Woman" (which was featured in "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me") captured an artist at the peak of maturity and prowess. "Black Velveteen" returns full-circle to his Prince fascination. It wraps up Kravitz first decade, along with a powerful new song "Again."

As collections go, it serves its subject well. Lenny Kravitz' classic rock identity crisis made for fascinating musical evolution before finally resolving itself. Given that his career since has held steady (Lenny to the recent It Is Time For A Love Revolution), Volume Two will probably just as solid as this best of.

Milli Vanilli Hendrix Wanna Be!
MTV has been a two edged sword for the music industry.

On one hand, it has been a great way to break new music to the masses,on the other hand it has parlayed superficiality over substance to heights unimagined.

Lenny is the poster boy for what is wrong the music industry:
a soulless, contrived product,aimed at a demographic anxious to learn what is hip because MTV said so!

Well,there are two things Lenny ain't : hip and Hendrix.

He doesn't write much of his stuff, and tends to do cover tunes that are right up there with Pat Boone.

Listen to covers of Princes' Kiss by Tom Jones and LK.

It' amazing, that a 68 year old Welsh white man has so much more soul and feeling when doing that song.

It's surprising that Prince hasn't called up Lenny and asked him to pull that song from his repertoire.

But then again,royalties is royalties.

Lenny should stick to selling tight jeans and sunglasses,because making music ain't his strong point.

Lenny fans this is a must!
I have owned this cd about 4 times and it keeps disappearing. Its that good! If you are a Lenny fan and would like a one cd to not have to keep changing cds out , this is perfect. If you have never experienced Lenny or want only his main steam hits, it is perfect!

Great starter collection
There's been a few Kavitz songs that I've heard and loved, so I started with this CD in purchasing his music. I really enjoy it. Looking to exploring which CD(s) to buy from here. Very enjoyable.