Take That had eight British number one hits including Back for good, which gave them an American top ten hit a few months before they disbanded. Their other UK number ones were Pray, Relight my fire (a cover of a Dan Hartman song featuring Lulu as guest vocalist), Babe, Everything changes, Sure, Never forget and How deep is your love (a Bee Gees cover). They had several other UK top ten hits including covers of Could it be magic (Barry Manilow) and It only takes a minute (Tavares) with the former featuring Robbie Williams as lead singer - a rarity on Take That recordings.

If you buy this because Robbie Williams was a group member, you may be disappointed since he rarely sings lead. I, on the other hand, you are looking for simple, mainstream pop music, superbly performed, you might enjoy the music of Take That.

TT's Greatest Hits is a fantastic buy, and has songs on it for every mood. My personal favourites are 'Never Forget' (made more sad when it was released shortly after Robbie left) and 'Back For Good'.

BTW, if you were wondering what the guys are up to:
Robbie - I think we all know what he's up to!
Gary - Writes music for other artists (recently co-wrote the song 'Guilty' by Blue)
Mark - Attempting a comeback, won Celebrity Big Brother in November 2002
Howard - Is DJing
Jason - Not sure what he's up to, but I think acting.

This does unfortauntely mean that the best tracks come near the start. Back For Good is one of the great piano-driven pop songs of the 90s, and Never Forget is nearly as good (both written by Gary Barlow himself, as with most of their big hits), two songs which cross borders to be huge in student unions, karaoke bars and retro radio alike.

In their early days they did a lot of uptempo pop, especially the covers such as Could It Be Magic? and Relight My Fire, on which 60s legend Lula guests (surprisingly, her only number 1). However, tracks like 1993 Christmas number 2 Babe showed that Gary Barlow's real strength was George Micahel style balladry, much as George himself evolved away from Club Tropicana onto Careless Whisper.

As well as the two aforementioned classics, the jazzy A Million Love Songs and the morose Love Ain't Here Anymore are worthy of a place in every collection, from casual to serious. If only Westlife were half this good.

I recently found this cd on sale and bought it on impulse just to see what all the fuss was about - intending to pass it on to my twenty-something cousin, as she had been one of their greatest fans. However, I was very pleasantly surprised at how good the album is. Even though Take That were a 'manufactured' boyband, they were innovative too in that most of their songs were self-penned.

My particular favourites are the ballads, 'Back for Good', the song that really propelled them to the top, as well as 'Love aint Here Anymore' and 'Why Cant I Wake Up With You'. There are the obligatory covers - but even those are 'good' covers (although that may be seen as a bit of an oxymoron!), like the fresh take on both the 70s penned Bee Gee's 'How Deep is Your Love' and Barry Manilow classic 'Could it Be Magic' both old favourites of mine. Their duet with Lulu on 'Relight My Fire' is credited with resurrecting her career too, another very good track.

All in all a great album that stands up very well to the test of time, and is worthy of a place alongside today's crop of boyband/groups too. It therefore remains firmly in my own album collection!