Seventeen-track anthology focuses mostly on their popular 1963-66 recordings, including "Deep Purple," "Whispering," "Stardust," "All Strung Out," several lower-charting items, and some LP tracks. They milked the "Deep Purple" formula too many times, but this is enjoyably frothy pop, and "All Strung Out" is a genuinely soulful, accurate approximation of Phil Spector's work with the Righteous Brothers. The disc also includes Stevens's 1959 solo single "Teach Me Tiger," a bizarre cover of "I Love How You Love Me" (with battling bagpipes and fuzzy guitars), and one undistinguished track each from 1985 and 1996.

Best Of…1958-1980: Come and Get Me is a generous collection of Jackie DeShannon's biggest hits, important album cuts, and obscure non-LP singles. The keys to DeShannon's talent lie not only in her own songwriting and ability to handle non-originals as if they were her own compositions, but her versatility as a performer. DeShannon's arsenal of orchestrated pop, rockabilly, the Phil Spector-inspired girl group sound, soul, gospel, folk-rock, and country-pop is rivaled by few. She could also pull off sentimental ballads and was believable when in the singer/songwriter mode. There are many peaks in this anthology, including the proto folk-rock of "Needles and Pins" (written by Sonny Bono and Jack Nitzsche) and "When You Walk in the Room" (a sole composition from 1964 that sounds like a Byrds tune as carried out by the Ronettes), as well as the soulful rocker "It's Love Baby" (which features a hot guitar solo) and the initial recorded version of "Bette Davis Eyes" (co-written by DeShannon and later a number one hit for Kim Carnes). A 4,000-word essay by longtime fan Glenn A. Baker rounds out the package.

The intention of the Universal Music Group compilation series called The Definitive Collection is to occupy the price point in between its more expensive two-CD Gold series and its budget-priced 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection series. It is, thus, aimed at the fan who wants a reasonably complete single-disc anthology of a particular artist's hits. In that sense, the Righteous Brothers' edition of the series is a good example. The duo reached Billboard magazine's Hot 100 21 times between 1963 and 1974, and 17 of those chart entries are contained on this album. (The most notable exceptions are the two follow-ups to the novelty comeback hit "Rock and Roll Heaven," "Give It to the People" and "Dream On," which UMG didn't choose to license from EMI.) Also included are a couple of LP tracks and a solo track each by Bill Medley and Bobby Hatfield. All have been digitally remastered and are in excellent sound.