I was looking for a solid Minnie compilation that would cover her entire output nicely. I recently brought the Capitol Gold collection from 1993 and after I heard it, it left me wanting more. I also have her masterpiece, Come To My Garden from 1970 and I listen to it almost every week because everything on that classic record is beautiful. As I scanned the tracklisting from the Petals compilation, I find it to be very exhaustive and complete. I just don't know if I should get into it right now. Can anyone help?

Oh yeah, did anyone catch the vintage Soul Train episode on CW this saturday, which paid tribute to Minnie Riperton? It was wonderful to see Stevie even sing her biggest hit, Loving You!
[Edited 1/20/08 19:59pm]

I remember Harlepolis posting it at another board (the Maryluvs) and I never got a chance to d'l it.

But Minnie was a beautiful woman and great vocalist and yeah I saw the ST tribute, beautiful stuff.

I have her first two albums, the aforementioned "Come to My Garden" and "Perfect Angel", both of which are so good that they also inspired me to seek out more.

And the most logical "more" seems to be "Petals: The Minnie Riperton Collection".

It appears to be the only significant collection (2 discs/34 tracks) that spans the diversity of her entire career (1966-1979).

Seems like this plus those first two albums would give me great coverage of this great artist, since I'm not interested in tracking down every single note.

But, as I said, I haven't heard "Petals" yet, so it's all just theory right now based other opinions that seem to rank this compilation highly.

Not bad.., speaking of Minnie I heard Dancin' & Actin' Crazy on a local A.M. radio sta. a couple of days ago... trip'd me slap tha fuk out.

Brendan said:

It's covering all of her albums, but a couple of good songs are missing, but that's typical of a GH or Collection CD. all in all,not bad. There are some 2 for 1 CD's on Minnie, and they are complete sets.

Perfect Angel/Adventures in Paradise
Stay in Love/Minnie

The only two missing are, Come To My Garden & Love Lives Forever.
[Edited 1/20/08 23:12pm]

I've been wanting to get this for awhile.I have the Capitol Gold collection from 1993 but I really need to get the 2-CD 'Petals' collection.I noticed that several of her albums have been remastered in recent years.Gotta get those,too.

This was my 1st introduction to Minnie Riperton's world when it 1st got released.

I can't stress enough about having it.

The liner notes are the MOST informative piece I ever read about Minnie - it was a mini-bio and the process of recording the songs are worth having this collection, alone. One of the funny bits of her recordings, was the "bird" story from "Loving You" recording session.

The George Benson gift is def priceless - "Loving You" live, featuring the Grover Washington Jr. band, in a speed-up version.

The best compilation from Minnie, Rhino did her justice the most IMO.

Thanx you guys! I'll have to order this at Amazon marketplace today!

Y'all gotta know that before Minnie went solo (with Stevie's help- he wrote Perfect Angel for her) she was in a Chicago based group called called Rotary Connection that was waaaay ahead of it's time.

Although she sang lead or co-lead on a reasonable portion of their songs the band employed her prinicply as an orchestral instrument contributing swooping high register glissandos on many of the tracks.

If you've never heard them you owe it to yourself to look into one of the most progressive bands that ever was. My belief is the reason they never came to prominence was because their sound was so thick with strings and orchestration that the recording technology of the day couldn't properly capture it.

They also could not take that level of instrumentation on the road but that was our boon because the live performances were very funky renditions of the more florid studio tracks.

As far as I know there is only one live recording in existence of a performance they did at a Texas uni versity but I've never been able to find a copy.

The early Rotary Connection catalog is also pretty hard to get on CD but their later oeuvre is available.

http://www.amazon.com/s/r...Connection

There's an album called Minnie Riperton Her Chess Years that features 16 Rotary Connection tracks and a couple of real oldies from when Minnie sang in a Supremes-like girl group called The Gems and from a solo bid under the name Andrea Davis.

http://www.amazon.com/s/r...rs&x=9&y=8
[Edited 1/21/08 11:08am]

She was my favorite when I was a kid - maybe just b/c her album cover had her holding that ice cream or something but I loved this woman's voice. Thinking about picking this up. I have a Minnie comp but not this one

CalhounSq said:

I remember when I was a kid for some reason or another I associated her song "Loving you" with the colour of yellow and summer, this was when the song first came out.

Still miss you Minnie.
[Edited 1/21/08 13:41pm]

The 'Chess Years' collection is brilliant. You have to give that a listen.

1 minute samples of Rotary Connection's entire catalog can be heard here:

http://www.minnieriperton...otary.html

CalhounSq said:

You're referring to her 1974 masterpiece 'Perfect Angel'


I freakin' LOVE this album!! It's a beautiful album filled with one gem after another.I especially like "Everytime He Comes Around",one of her strongest songs.

Harlepolis said:

I love Rhino Records! They always do a good job with compilations.The liner notes are always superb and very informative.

MINNIE RIPERTON is truly missed. A great vocalist...Who can hit notes like this LADY...No one. Effortlessly she takes us through the highs and lows of love and her CONTROL is THE BEST.

henree said:

Damn she used to record on that label. I used to get the chess label and
checkers label confused. I know my great great grandfather used to listen
to stuff on these labels.

SoulAlive said:

I particular love "Reasons"

I sampled Everytime He Comes Around once

paisleypark4 said:

"Reasons" is nice,and so is "Take A Little Trip" and of course,"Lovin You".One of the best R&B albums of the 70s.