20th Century Masters: The Best of Joe Jackson; 20th Century Masters: The Best of Smokey Robinson

In these half-hour-shy music video compilations from the 20th Century Masters series, New Wave pioneer Joe Jackson and romantic soul crooner Smokey Robinson are showcased in five numbers each. The Best of Joe Jackson opens with the best cut: a no-frills live 1983 performance in Utrecht of Jackson's breakout 1979 hit “Is She Really Going Out With Him?” (off his landmark Look Sharp! album) performed a cappella with backup singers. The remaining four songs—“I'm the Man” and “It's Different for Girls” from 1979's follow-up I'm the Man, and “Steppin' Out” and “Breaking Us in Two,” from Jackson's 1982 career redefining Night and Day—are all excellent songs (with the first two emphasizing Jackson's punk/New Wave roots and the last two sporting the lush smooth sound that the eclectic musician adopted in the early 1980s), but they're hampered by cheesy dawn-of-MTV storylines and/or primitive video effects that are now commonly found on even entry-level camcorders. The Best of Smokey Robinson is no better: of the five post-Miracles soul ballads featured here, the best is “Being With You” from the titular 1981 album, and the worst is “Ebony Eyes,” a collaboration with the late Rick James from the latter's 1983 Cold Blooded album (the music video is a nonsensical and badly acted piece that finds Robinson and James crash-landing a WWII-era plane on a desert island and then being magically reunited with their main squeezes). The other three—“One Heartbeat” and “Just to See Her” from 1987's One Heartbeat, and “Everything You Touch,” off 1990's Love, Smokey—are all musically solid and visually so-so. Even at $7.98 each, these are disappointing compilations—presented in PCM stereo on extra-less discs—that in no way justify the “best” moniker, either in an audio or video sense. Neither title is recommended. [Note: also newly available in the 20th Century Masters series are The Best of Bobby Brown and The Best of the Cranberries.] Aud: P. (R. Pitman)