20th Century Masters – The Millennium Collection: The Best of Liza Minnelli

Album details

The compilation brings together songs from Liza Minnelli's time with A&M Records during the 1960s and 1970s. It is part of the 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection series, which Universal Music launched in 1999; Billboard reported that the series had released 400 affordably priced greatest hits albums. The cover photograph, taken by Guy Webster, had previously appeared on the cover of Minnelli's Come Saturday Morning album.

The track "The Look of Love" comes from her first A&M album, Liza Minnelli (1968), produced by Larry Marks, which marked a shift from her Broadway style toward contemporary pop and singer-songwriter material; Billboard and Cash Box highlighted the song as a standout. "Come Saturday Morning" and a medley of "MacArthur Park" / "Didn't We" are taken from the 1969 album Come Saturday Morning. The former was originally performed by the Sandpipers for the film The Sterile Cuckoo (1969), in which Minnelli starred. The album's recordings took place over three sessions in August 1969 at Western Recorders and Columbia Records Studios, and RPM magazine noted the medley as a standout track.

Critical reception

AllMusic's Kerry L. Smith wrote that the album captures Minnelli at her most powerful and dramatic, particularly on "Maybe This Time" and "The Look of Love", where she shows command of her voice and stage presence. Smith also noted the sincerity and humanity in her performances, citing "Come Saturday Morning" as an example of her emotional connection with the audience, and concluded that the collection reaffirms her charisma and talent. Critic Gina Vivinetto of the St. Petersburg Times, despite admiring Minnelli's talent and heritage, found the compilation disappointing. She argued that the problem lies not with the vocal performance, which she described as powerful, but with the track selection and the "over-the-top" and "sappy" arrangements, which she felt attempted to modernize classics with disco beats and rock fusions that sound dated and fail to capture Minnelli's essence.