This particular series focuses on female pop stars and rockers, again with a nice variety and a couple rare songs.

1) "What's Love Got to Do With it," Tina Turner -- Despite how common this classic, calm pop/rock tune is, I still like it.

2) "I Hate Myself For Loving You," Joan Jett -- One of the more rare tunes here. I'm glad it was included over the overplayed but still great 'I Love Rock & Roll.' This is an angsty hard rocker and the title is self explanatory.

3) "We Belong," Pat Benatar -- Though usually rocking, PB slows it down for this 1984 melodic, keyboard heavy pop/rock ballad. Another one of her underappreciated tunes.

4) "We Got the Beat," Go Go's -- Ah, the opening mall shot from 'Fast Times at Ridgemont High' is what comes to mind when I hear this fun, extremely energetic surf rock tinged pop track.

5) "Walk Like an Egyptian," Bangles -- More of a New Wave compilation type song, and total pop. By no means is it bad though. I enjoy the humorous lyrics and the beat.

6) "The Warrior," Scandal -- Another song overdone on compilations, but you know what? I'll never tire of it. It's a great gutsy yet fun poppy hard rock.

7) "Only The Lonely," Motels -- The next ballad of the album is a pretty good one, even if it, too, appears on many of these compilations. A soft rock tinged melodic pop tune that I'll never get sick of.

8) "Bette Davis Eyes," Kim Carnes -- This early 80s tune still has a few remnants of Disco and 70s pop in it. It's good but not great mid tempo tune. Again, it's not exactly uncommon on these type of collections.

9) "Solitaire," Laura Branigan -- The next rare tune is a good one. Instead of 'Gloria' for the millionth time, the dramatic vocalled pop singer gives us an extremely keyboard heavy tune. Starting out as a nice ballad, it explodes into an uptempo rocker near the end (well, a rocker for this kind of singer, at least).

This is actually one of the few volumes of the series I still see regularly, so it's likely still in print and not dead stock. It's a nice collection, but I had to take off one star, just for the fact that 7 out of the 9 songs are easily available elsewhere. Than again, the first place I owned many of them was on this collection. My younger self was glad to get it than.
The song "With I'm With You" is definately the best love song ever recorded. It makes one wonder why Sheriff hasn't resurfaced. Along with "When I See You Smile" and "Sister Christian" along with other great 80's power ballads, this CD is a great one to have in any music collection.

Rockin' Ladies of the early 80's.
"From The Heart" is a great compilation. I picked it up a few years ago when I was chasing after a particular young lady. Naturally I ended up listening to it alone and pining over her later. From the first to the last song, this album is filled with great power ballads from the 80's. Priority Records did a great job compiling this disc. It gives us the somewhat hard to find "When I'm With You" by Sheriff, who disbanded quickly after the song was released. Who knows, they might have been as big as REO Speedwagon when it comes to love songs. It also gives us "The Flame" which is one of the best Cheap Trick songs ever. Jeff Healey's "Angel Eyes" is a great love song for oafs like myself who don't quite understand why some ladies fall for them. Bad English, REO Speedwagon, Alias, .38 Special, Night Ranger and Survivor round out this album. It's more than worth the price, and it's great for reminiscing about the good ol' days. As a matter of fact, many of these love serenades still work on the ladies.

Get this disc if you loved the power ballads of the eighties. It may not have some of the harder rockers who are known for ballads like Whitesnake and Def Leppard, but it gives you a good selection of great hits that everyone knows and loves. Highly recommended.

Great Love Collection
NOTES: In the early 90's, Priority Records issued several budget priced, short compilations (with only 9 songs apiece) called "80's Greatest Rock Hits."

THE FOLLOWING IS MY REVIEW FOR VOLUME 5: FROM THE HEART.

This particular series takes the power ballad route, taking slow yet rocking ballads from pop/metal to medium rock acts.

1. "When I See You Smile," Bad English -- The John Waite-fronted somewhat hair metal band sings this keyboard drenched, slightly uptempo emotional, happy power ballad about being in love. A very big hit that's no longer recognized. You'd have a be a rapper or an old grump not to love it.

2. "When I'm With You," Sheriff -- Quieter, also happy power ballad about devotion. Even though it has a teeny bit of a soft rock tinge, it's not gutless and will still be loved by hard rock ballad fans.

3. "More Than Words Can Say," Alias -- Freddie Curci, singer of Sheriff, actually formed this new band in 1989/90 and did this very similar sounding tune. The afforementioned has a slightly more classic rock ballad sound to it, whereas this is a bit more late 80's/early 90's pop based, and a little more rocking. Of the two songs, this is narrowly my favorite, but they're both extremely similar.

4. "The Flame," Cheap Trick -- Late 70's power pop/hard rockers had their '88 comeback here, with yet another 'happy in love/devoted' song. A little more pop based and unique, only a dork could not love the accoustic guitar intro, elecric guitar solo and the emotional, catchy verses.

5. "Second Chance," 38 Special -- We take a small adult contemporary turn with the southern arena rockers' biggest hit. The steady, somewhat rock based breakup tune begs for, just that. Don't be put off, it's still very much in style with the metal ballads.

6. "Can't Fight This Feeling," REO Speedwagon -- Poppy arena rockers' yearning, slightly uptempo ballad that I'm sure everyone has heard before. It's generally keyboard laden and kinda soft, the guitar solo makes it rock a bit. Even though it's the classic example of a song you'd laugh at today, it's one of my favorites of all time, no joke.

7. "The Search is Over," Survivor -- Extremely melodic power ballad by the arena rock band. A somewhat forgotten hit about the love you always wanted being right in fromt of you. A perfect cross of styles, fans of soft rock and hair metal alike could love this.

8. "Angel Eyes," Jeff Healey Band -- The most unique tune to deviate from the style. A still somewhat rocking, blues based ballad by the blind guitarist/songwriter.

9. "Sister Christian," -- The big hair tinged pop/arena rock band slows things down a bit. A piano and guitar based ballad about one of the guys' little sisters hanging with dangerous, older guys, from what I've heard.

In general, a nice budget priced collection. Yet, a few things might've helped it. First of all, many collections of this type will 'cheat' a little on their song selection.

An example is they'll include some mid tempo tunes (i.e. Pat Benatar's "Love is a Battlefield") or uptempo songs by more pop based arena rock acts (i.e. Eddie Money, "Take Me Home Tonight"). While some may dislike that and think of it as inconsistent, to me it makes that much better of a mix. Also, every song is a full ballad or very close. Even just one mid tempo tune, or a more rare one would've made this perfect. But, hey, it's pretty close. It's also one of the only volumes of this collection still in print.

A Real
There's not a bad song on this disc. Great CD all the way around. It'll make you remember times driving at night on lonely highways when your mind was on that special someone. I fell in love with my copy, so now I'm sending one to my girlfriend at college. This is the kind of CD you'd normally want to burn for somebody special, but they saved you the time! Don't pass this one up!!