Track Listing

1. I Love The Way You Love Me
2. No Matter What
3. All That I Need
4. Baby Can I Hold You
5. Picture Of You
6. Isn't It A Wonder
7. A Different Beat
8. Words
9. Father And Son
10. So Good
11. Coming Home Now
12. Key To My Life
13. Love Me For A Reason
14. When The Going Gets Tough
15. You Needed Me
16. When You Say Nothing At All
17. All The Time In The World
18. I'll Never Not Need You
19. So They Told Me

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1232 in Music
• Released on: 1999-05-31
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 70 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Boyzone have always favoured covers--from their earliest singles (versions of 1970s pop groups the Detroit Spinners' "Working My Way Back To You" and the Osmonds' "Love Me For A Reason") to their first million-selling hit, a faithful reading of Australian high-pitched harmony singers, the Bee Gees' "Words". So the release of By Request compilation of cover versions in 1999 came as no real surprise, then. What is a surprise, however, is the amount of emotion and pathos Ronan and co-manage to invest in songs like Cat Stevens' "Father & Son" and Tracy Chapman's "Baby Can I Hold You"--far exceeding the brief most boy bands have of merely smiling sweetly at the camera and making sure the dance steps are inch perfect. Musically, all the songs here veer towards the brand of harmony-laden, lightweight dance-pop Boyzone have virtually claimed for their own. --Everett True

Customer Reviews

A great album!
I have to admit that I only bought this album for the song "Love Me For A Reason" but when I got it, found that there were many more Boyzone tracks that I like.
This is an excellent collection of hits and a must have for all the fans!

the best of album
I like Boyzone, they are my favourite white boy band alongsides with Take That, Westlife, Backstreet Boys, East 17. They sang Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons revival 'Working My Way Back To You' was later revivaled by the Detroit Spinners which is not included in this album.

Irish quintet very popular in nineties Britain
Ronan Keating, Stephen Gately, Keith Duffy, Shane Lynch and Mikey Graham together made up Boyzone. Although UK singles charts of the nineties (and since) are much less important than charts from earlier decades (because of the dwindling singles market), Boyzone had an impressive run in the singles charts (every track here made the UK top four - seven made number one and six others made number two) while they were together and they also sold over ten million albums (including this one to me) - so their appeal stretched far beyond singles buyers. I suppose their style of music would best be described as soft rock.

Their hits were a mix of originals and covers, the latter coming from a wide range of sources. The covers include Love me for a reason (Osmonds), Father and son (Cat Stevens), Words (Bee Gees), Baby can I hold you (Tracy Chapman), When the going gets tough (Billy Ocean) and You needed me (Anne Murray). When you say nothing at all (originally recorded by country singer Keith Whitley but made more famous by bluegrass singer Alison Krauss) is actually a Ronan Keating solo track. The opening track, I love the way you love me, also began as a country song, being co-written by Victoria Shaw who has written songs for Garth Brooks among others. The members of Boyzone wrote some of their own songs including Picture of you, Isn't it a wonder, A different beat, So good, Coming home now and Key to my life.

At around the time this compilation was originally released, Ronan Keating went solo and the group disbanded. Ronan has been very successful as a solo singer and his solo greatest hits album (which also includes When you say nothing at all) was a big seller in the UK when released in time for Christmas 2004. The music on this compilation is the best of what he and the others did before he went solo.