The Greatest of Carmen McRae is a compilation album by American singer Carmen McRae, released in 1977 by MCA Records. This album is a compilation of Carmen's songs from her works previously released on Decca and Kapp Records. All tracks were selected by jazz musician and journalist Leonard Feather and approved by MacRae.
Scott Yanow of AllMusic stated that it is "an excellent sampler that features McRae in 19 different settings, this was a pretty definitive set before the CD era." Among the most striking songs he noted: "Good Morning Heartache", "Something to Live For", "Yardbird Suite", "Isn't It Romantic", "I Was Doing All Right", "Perdido" and "Baltimore Oriole."[1]
The Cash Box magazine wrote the following: "The title of this album may be open to question since one would need much more than these 32 tracks to constitute the greatest of Carmen McRae, but much of this would certainly warrant inclusion. Ms. McRae sings excellent m terial with a natural feel for proper tempo and is an excellent interpreter of lyrics as well. Varied accompaniment, with everything from big band to solo guitar represented. Fans of the best in jazz oriented popular singing could hardly do better than this."[4]
