From Sammi Smith comes Best of, a country and pop compilation on Varese Sarabande. This is the CD edition. This edition was released on October 22, 1996.
Sammi Smith's first greatest hits CD compilation features her #1 pop and country hit "Help Me Make It Through the Night," as well as "Then You Walked In," "I've Got to Have You" and more. Most tracks make their CD debut. So much gets made of countrypolitan's expansive, pop-influenced sound that it's easy to forget that it was also a medium of great singers. Few of them were as good as Sammi Smith. Blessed with a deep, husky voice that was nevertheless soft and tender, and breathing soulfulness, Smith had her best-known moment with 1970's "Help Me Make It Through the Night," a Top 10 crossover smash that she invested with a smoldering sense of emotional and physical need. On all of her best recordings, Smith's voice invites the listener into an emotional world so revealing and familiar that it often seems as if she's right there beside you, whispering into your ear. Such remarkable intimacies are only enhanced by their often breathtaking countrypolitan settings. --David Cantwell
