Julio Iglesias Starry

Blessed with good looks, a powerful voice, and a gift for communicating with an audience, Julio Iglesias is one of the most popular and enduring figures in the history of Latin music, a true international superstar who has sold over 300 million albums worldwide and remains a popular concert draw and chart-topping recording artist in a career that has spanned six decades. "Starry Night is dedicated to my faithful companion HEY! Always with me in the silence and the shadows."

The double-disc compilation The Essential Julio Iglesias contains 37 of the crooner’s biggest hits of the '80s and beyond, slightly favoring his Spanish-language smashes but also containing several English-language crossovers, including duets with All-4-One, Sting, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, and Frank Sinatra. The only major item missing is the Willie Nelson duet “To All the Girls I’ve Loved Before” (the song is present in a solo Spanish version), but everything else here is solid.

Having recently declared that he's in far better voice than he was in his '70s/'80s heyday, romantic crooner Julio Iglesias gets to put his money where his mouth is on this alternative greatest-hits collection, Vol. 1. His first studio release since 2007's Quelque Chose de France sees Spain's most successful musical export revisit 15 of his most cherished songs from his enduring 40-year career, with tracks spanning from 1973's Un Canto a Galicia (the title track) right up to 2006's Romantic Classics (a Spanish-language version of Elvis' "Always on My Mind"). But other than the inevitable maturity in Iglesias' voice and a slightly glossier production, there's little variation between the originals and the new recordings, which, with the exception of the breezy Gallic lounge-pop of "As Vezes Tu, As Vezes Eu," stick to his trademark orchestral and flamenco-tinged chansons.

It's a little surprising to consider that Julio Iglesias didn't have a comprehensive hits collection until My Life: The Greatest Hits was released in the fall of 1998, but the result was so strong that it made the wait worthwhile. Featuring no less than 37 songs over the course of two CDs, My Life has all of his biggest hits, most popular duets, and fan favorites, including "To All the Girls I've Loved Before," "All of You," "My Love," and "Summer Wind," a duet with Frank Sinatra. With only a couple of exceptions, the first disc is devoted to English-language hits, the second entirely to Latin hits. For some listeners, it may be too much material to digest, especially in one sitting, but there's little question that this is the definitive Julio Iglesias compilation.