Review of Clapton Chronicles: The Best Of Eric Clapton

Introduction

Released in 1999 to accompany the CD version with the same name, "Clapton Chronicles" carries the sub-title "The Best of Eric Clapton". This is highly debatable, as perhaps only 2 or 3 of the songs included here are "the best". However, record companies have to come up with these titles, and as Clapton has not had that many "hits" despite shifting bucketloads of albums, it couldn`t be called greatest hits.

What we do get is a collection of songs from some of his albums for Warner, starting with "Forever Man" from "Behind the Sun", plus a few songs that have only appeared on film soundtracks. There are also a couple of tracks from the massive selling Unplugged..

Video

A mixed bag here. Despite the videos themselves being shot in a variety of formats (full-frame, 1.85:1 and 2.0:1 or thereabouts), they are all presented as full-frame, which is a shame as it would have been nice to see the wider ones in a nice anamorphic transfer.

The quality is largely good, with only "Bad Love" looking a bit dodgy, as it`s black and white, and with lots of smoke, fog and bright lights. The two tracks from "Unplugged" also have that nasty NTSC conversion look to them - you can read more about that in my Unplugged review.

Visually these aren`t perhaps the most stunning videos in the world, but there are a range of styles on offer, from the "shot in rehearsal" style of Bad Love, to the sepia tints of "Motherless Child". There are also some live performances and the more cinematic "Change The World" and "Blue Eyes Blue".

Audio

We get a PCM stereo soundtrack, which on the whole is as good as or marginally better than the equivalent song on CD. The exception is "Forever Man" which sounds distinctly muddy and muffled.

It`s a shame that the two tracks from Unplugged don`t keep their DD5.1 soundtrack, as it was a rather nice one.

Features

Sadly not.

Conclusion

A difficult disc to sum up. I didn`t buy the CD version, as I`ve got all of the tracks on it. I decided to buy the DVD version as you don`t see that many Clapton videos on TV, even on VH-1. That`s not to say that this is a stunning collection of videos, as it`s not, maybe it was more of a novelty value purchase.

As I said in the introduction, this is certainly not the "best of" Clapton. "Motherless Child" is probably my favourite, but "Pretending" and "Bad Love" from "Journeyman" are still enjoyable. It`s nice to see "Change The World" from the soundtrack of Travolta vehicle Phenomenon, and "Blue Eyes Blue" from the Gere/Roberts nonsense Runaway Bride, as you wouldn`t want to be seen with those soundtracks in your collection.

Probably recommended for die-hard fans, or just a very occasional Clapton fan, but not for those in between.