Includes liner notes by Richard Dury.

Audio Mixer: Roberto Barillari.

Liner Note Author: Richard Drury.

Editor: Roberto Barillari.

Photographers: Raffaella Cavalieri; Roberto Serra.

This is a strange best-of. It features Paolo Conte's (the Italian Tom Waits and Serge Gainsbourg rolled into one) finest songs, but most of the tracks here are re-recorded versions of his RCA material and, to top it off, the disc is a remastered best-of, making the originals doubly absent. There is certainly charm in hearing the musically mature Conte sing "Elisir" once more, or "Sotte le Stelle del Jazz," or "Bartali," but there was something in those older versions, with their dime-store recording techniques, that somehow made them wilder and more untenable as recording industry product. The wildness, after all, is what gave Conte his rough charm. That said, certain tunes, such as the irrepressible "Happy Feat," the gorgeous tango "Alle Prese con una Verde Milonga," and the beat rant "Hemingway," are served well by the re-recording, in that Conte has grown into them with a certain charm missing from the originals. Anyway you cut it, it's still him -- greasy and full of pronouncements about sex, death, jazz, and poetry. He scats, sings, talks, growls, and careens wildly across his tunes like a drunken sailor baying at the moon in places, and that's what listeners love him for. So yes, this is a true best-of, with different nuances on the more vintage material that deepen and widen listeners' view of Conte, the poet and jazzman. ~ Thom Jurek

The Best of Paolo Conte is currently the only collection of the Italian singer/songwriter's music that is readily available in America. Fortunately for those with a soft spot for quirky romantics, it is a fine representation of his life's work. Conte is often compared to Tom Waits, presumably because both men have gravelly voices and write from a skewed, sometimes surreal perspective. Like Waits, Conte is a jazz aficionado, but despite these shared characteristics, the two sound nothing alike. Where Waits is aggressively avant-garde, Conte tends to be smooth, urbane, conversational. He arranges his songs (with the exception of a few synthetic-sounding tracks from the '80s) for small combos, with his own rolling piano lines and kazoo (yes, kazoo) at the center. Most striking is his eccentric singing style, which includes frequent detours through broken English and madcap scatting. For listeners who do not understand Italian, the 20 selections here may begin to blur together, but the handy translations in the liner notes reveal that Conte is a perceptive, poetic lyricist, whether he is commenting on lemon ice cream, neglected colleagues, Ernest Hemingway, or a passionate affair. His rollicking cocktail of lounge jazz, ragtime, cabaret, polka, and South American rhythms makes for a wry, soothing alternative to strident rockers and wimpy troubadours alike. ~ Daniel Browne

Consider him the Anti-Hanson. Paolo Conte's music is guaranteed not to appeal to anyone under the legal drinking age, and that's probably as it should be. This collection of tunes by the Italian singer/songwriter is full of the kind of passion and thoughtfulness that can only come from a long life fully lived. At the age of sixty, Conte, though he'd been known in Europe as a songwriter since the '60s and as a performer since the '70s, was virtually unknown in America, with most of his catalogue available only on import. One listen to this domestic compilation should convert American ears.

Conte can be pigeon-holed any number of ways; the Italian Leonard Cohen, Asti's Serge Gainsbourg, Jacques Brel ala Roma. While all these comparisons are apt, Conte's sound is uniquely his own. He combines traditional Italian styles with international influences (French, German, Argentinian) as well as American genres (blues, jazz, dixieland, boogie-woogie), weaving it all together to support his dark, emotive lyricism. Incidentally, the Surgeon General would like you to know that extended doses of Paolo Conte can lead to chain-smoking, whiskey drinking and nocturnal brooding in dimly-lit cafes.