 Decca followed up the single re-release of Music with "John Miles' Music", a compilation from his four albums with them. The tracks chosen were: Side 1)
1) Music 2) Remember Yesterday 3) Zaragon 4) Stand Up (and give me a reason) 5) Can't Keep a Good Man Down
Side 2)
6) Slow Down 7) Stranger In The City 8) Manhattan Skyline 9) No Hard Feelings 10) Rebel and 11) Highfly | | To me there was little imagination in the selection. All the tracks were either singles or album titles with the only exception being Stand Up. A nice touch was that the chart placings of his 4 hit singles are noted. The selection may have been biased towards boosting future sales of his first two albums. I say this as not only are there 3 tracks from Rebel and 5 from Stranger In The City compared to 2 from Zaragon and 1 from MMPH, but also the tracks from the first two albums state "featured on the album .." while the tracks from the last two albums merely say "First Released in ..". | | Another hint of this is that at the bottom of the sleeve are pictures of the Rebel and Stranger album covers under the heading "Also available". It was also true to say that around this time Decca deleted Zaragon and MMPH from their catalogue. | | The front cover featured a non-too flattering picture of John in probably his 1977 or 1979 days as he was sporting a moustache. The background was of a multi-colour chessboard. The title had "John Miles' " in a font that looks likes handwriting. However, it looks nothing like John's signature! The back cover showed a better picture of John probably from the MMPH era (again with a moustache). | | So what conclusions can we draw about "John Miles' Music"? A missed opportunity? Perhaps, but in 1982 it was a welcome piece of "new!" vinyl to ardent fans and also a possible introduction to any John Miles newcomers who were lucky enough to stumble upon it. | | Stephen Carson |
 | | As for the John Miles' Music album, I managed to buy this not long after it had come out in a local discount record store - I remember thinking "I've already got all of these tracks - but not all together on one album, plus it's a good action shot on the cover!" hence my decision to buy it anyway. I probably wasn't as hard core a JM fan in those days as now (well almost obsessive now I guess...!). | My favourite 4 tracks (as always dictated by guitar content in the main) would have to be:
1 Remember Yesterday - I just love this ballad, even if there isn't much guitar: I love the sentiment
2 Stand Up (And Give Me A Reason)
3 Can't Keep A Good Man Down
4 Slow Down | Now, as for what should have been included from the Decca albums...
1 Nice Man Jack
2 Pull The Damn Thing Down
3 We All Fall Down
4 Music Man | | As you can see, all heavily guitar dominated - after all, JM can run rings around most of the so-called great guitarists out there, and I think everyone should get to hear it loud and clear! | | Bimal Jangra |
 My top 4 from that album are:
1) Remember Yesterday
2) No Hard Feelings
3) Music
4) Zaragon | My top 4 missing tracks would be:
1) When You Lose Someone So Young
2) Time
3) There's A Man Behind The Guitar
4) Fella In The Cellar and a few more. | | Should have been a double album! | | John Webster |
 | John Miles Music top four is actually very easy due to the lack of the later material of which there are many which would displace these in my all time list. | 1 Music
2 Slowdown
3 Highfly
4 Can't Keep a Good Man Down. | | Mark Burgess |
 | Now (how anticlimactic can one be) here are my John Miles Music faves: | 1) Music
2) Remember Yesterday
3) Slow Down
4) No Hard Feelings | Tracks I wish were included:
1) Overture
2) Music Man
3) When You lose Someone So Young
4) We All Fall Down | | Jean Hickman |
 | Anyway my Music choices | 1) Remember Yesterday
2) Zaragon
3) Highfly
4) No Hard Feelings | | Mainly a ballad choice here. Must be the mood I'm in at the moment. Another week and I may have picked more of the uptempo tracks. | I would like to have seen:
1) Overture
2) Nice Man Jack
3) Fella In The Cellar
4) You Have It All | | Malcolm Leeves |
 My top 4 from Music would be
1 Music
2 Remember Yesterday
3 Slowdown
4 Highfly
As you can see I went for the singles. The tracks that should have also been on the LP from the Decca days are
1 You Have It All
2 Pull the Damn Thing Down
3 Fella in the Cella
4 Nice Man Jack | | As often is the case a Best Of recording concentrates on what the public knows and not the tracks that the true fans may really appreciate. This is true of this record which was nothing more than a last attempt to cash in on John following his departure from Decca. I wonder if many fans, especially those outside UK, have this record? | | Richard Townsend |
 | I can only vote on Rebel to MMPH bot here goes ; | 1. Remember Yesterday
2. Music
3. Overture
4. Music Man | | PS - with obvious great songwriting ability why hasn't John Miles written songs for other folk ? Or has he ???!! | | Neil Martlan |
 | Well, on to the review of Music. | My top 4 songs on the album are:
1. Zaragon - This is such a great song that I named one of my two cats "Zara" in honor of the title track to John's third album.
2. Rebel
3. Stranger in the City
4. Music
Did anyone notice that my top 4 songs are all title track of JM albums? Too Strange. | These are some of the songs I wish were on the album, but just didn't make it. (I have no Idea why.)
1. Fella in the Cellar
2. We All Fall Down
3. Overture
4. Nice Man Jack | | Becky Wildenberg |
 | Having taken note of John's comments a couple of days ago regarding past album reviews, I've put my bunch together. As there are so many I haven't commented on the individual tracks (I'd be at it for hours), so with no further ado the run down is as follows:- | 1) Remember Yesterday
2) Music
3) Stand Up And Give Me A Reason
4) Manhattan Skyline | | Zoë Pinchin |
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