Before anyone says they’ve never heard Willy DeVille’s music before let’s start off with this little bit of trivia. Storybook love, from his album Miracle, is the theme song for Rob Reiner’s cult classic love story Princess Bride. If you say you’ve never seen that film then your probably lying. Aside from that his band Mink DeVille was a house band for the now defunct NYC CBGB. The rest of Deville’s history seems to be all over the map and this best of album truly covers that.

When I finished off Come A Little Bit Closer for the first time I felt like I had just listened to a mixed tape featuring Tom Waits, Frank Zappa, George Thorogood, Lou Reed, and Calexico, to name a few. DeVille, who was a journeyman musician for most of his musical life, having lived everywhere from New Orleans to New York to London, offers up the limitless passion of music. Blues, Rock, Jazz, Americana, Doo Wop, and so much more gets tossed into the mix and never does it sound anything less then natural.

To describe DeVille’s sound would be difficult. This collection of tunes ranges from 1977 to 2006 and features various incarnations of his band so don’t expect to hear a flat DeVille era. What you get here is some acoustic versions, songs form his full blown electric band, but nevertheless you get a wide range of styles, all thrown together to give you that big DeVille sound. Horns are mostly present throughout. Latin flavored tracks run wild. Blues and Doo Wop collide, but like the liner notes say, the greatest instrument in DeVille’s arsenal is his voice, and this is why its so hard to describe his sound. Just look above at all the artists I mentioned before and you’ll get a taste of what’s on the album. It’s simply an amazing collection any music lover and or music player would be proud to own. Definitely check it out.