“The Very Best of Ozzy” is a 13-track sampler that runs 9 minutes and 1 second, pulling songs from Ozzy Osbourne’s first four albums after Black Sabbath. It is a small record with a large job: proving that Ozzy’s solo career had a center outside the old band. It mostly does.
Track List
| # | Title |
|---|---|
| 1 | Paranoid |
| 2 | Bark at the Moon |
| 3 | Shot in the Dark |
| 4 | Crazy Babies |
| 5 | No More Tears |
| 6 | Mama, I’m Coming Home |
| 7 | I Don’t Want to Change the World |
| 8 | Goodbye to Romance |
| 9 | Crazy Train |
| 10 | Mr. Crowley |
| 11 | Over the Mountain |
| 12 | I Just Want You |
| 13 | Back on Earth |
Paranoid opens the record and sets the tone fast, a heavy cover that shows where Ozzy started. Bark at the Moon follows and earns its place — the guitar work here is sharp, and the song holds up as one of the record’s best moments. Shot in the Dark and Crazy Babies sit further down, solid but not essential.
No More Tears and Mama, I’m Coming Home are bigger names than they get here. Neither earns its place on this record, and both feel like filler next to the songs around them. I Don’t Want to Change the World and Goodbye to Romance are pleasant but easy to forget, the kind of tracks that fill space without adding much to it.
Crazy Train is the standout. Mr. Crowley is close behind, a dark, driving track that proves Ozzy could still sound dangerous. Over the Mountain is the other clear highlight, a track that shows off the guitar playing that made this collection matter in the first place.
The closer, Back on Earth, ends things on a quiet note, a calm finish after the record’s heavier middle.
What Works
The record succeeds because it knows what to leave out. The songs from the first four albums are strong enough to stand on their own, and the guitar playing behind them is the clear reason anyone cares about this collection. Bark at the Moon, Crazy Train, Mr. Crowley and Over the Mountain carry the weight of the whole record, and they carry it well.
The lesser tracks — Shot in the Dark, Crazy Babies, No More Tears and Mama, I’m Coming Home — exist to round things out, not to make a case. They are serviceable, not memorable, and they do not hurt the record so much as they keep it from being great.
What Doesn’t Work
The lesser tracks — Shot in the Dark, Crazy Babies, No More Tears and Mama, I’m Coming Home — exist to round things out, not to make a case. They are serviceable, not memorable, and they do not hurt the record so much as they keep it from being great.
The Verdict
This is a fine collection, not a great one. It does what a best-of should do: it gathers the strongest material from a long career and lets listeners hear why Ozzy Osbourne mattered after Black Sabbath. The highlights — Bark at the Moon, Crazy Train, Mr. Crowley and Over the Mountain — are among the best songs he ever recorded, and they justify the whole thing.
The lesser tracks keep it from greatness, and the record’s short length means nothing here is wasted. It is a small record with a clear purpose, and it delivers on that purpose.
- Paranoid
- Bark at the Moon4:17
- Shot in the Dark
- Crazy Babies
- No More Tears
- Mama, I’m Coming Home
- I Don’t Want to Change the World
- Goodbye to Romance
- Crazy Train
- Mr. Crowley
- Over the Mountain
- I Just Want You
- Back on Earth5:00
