Amy Grant - Collection (LP Version)

Amy Grant's first compilation, Collection, was released initially as both a ten-track LP and as a 15-track cassette. The LP version focused primarily on her recent and then-present work; only one of its songs, "Father's Eyes," came from before 1982's breakthrough album Age to Age, and Collection contained two brand-new songs, "Stay for Awhile" and "Love Can Do," both of which looked forward to Grant's secular pop career. The cassette version better addressed the interests of Grant's longtime fans as well as the large fan base she began to acquire in the mid-'80s, but only slightly. "Father's Eyes" was still the only track from 1979's My Father's Eyes. But "All I Ever Have to Be" was culled from 1980's Never Alone. The other additions were two more from Age to Age, "In a Little While" and "I Have Decided"; the Grammy-winning single "Ageless Medley"; and one more from 1984's Straight Ahead, "Where Do You Hide Your Heart." Of these five additional tracks, only "In a Little While" and "Ageless Medley" were hits on CCM radio. So, on cassette, Collection still short-changed old fans who might have expected that early favorites like "Old Man's Rubble," "What a Difference You've Made in My Life," and "Look What Has Happened to Me" (not to mention 1984-1986 radio hits like "Jehovah," "Wise Up," and "Sharayah") would be included on a best-of covering Grant's first decade of recording. The singer can perhaps be forgiven for considering her early work juvenilia, however. (In 1990, a 17-track version of Collection was released on CD and cassette, adding the 1980 song "Too Late" and the 1981 song "I'm Gonna Fly," which gave the album a better balance of older songs and ones from the mid-'80s.) ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide