"16 Biggest Hits" is a compilation album by American singer and actress Liza Minnelli, released in July 2000 by Legacy Recordings. The album gathers songs released by the artist while she was under contract with Columbia Records.
Liza Minnelli's career spans several decades of success in various fields, ranging from music to theater and cinema. Consequently, creating a comprehensive compilation of her hits is a challenging task from both a commercial and bureaucratic standpoint because her recordings are scattered across different record labels.
Previous compilations before "16 Biggest Hits" had their tracklists specifically organized according to the record labels under which the songs were originally released. The recordings from the early days of her music career when she was signed with Capitol Records were featured in albums like "A Touch of Class" (1997) and "The Capitol Years" (2001). Recordings released during her contract with A&M Records were included in albums like "The Liza Minnelli Foursider" (1973) and "The Collection" (1998). Her Columbia Records era is represented in albums like "Simply The Best" (1982), "Liza" (1993), and "All that Jazz" (1999).
For the content of "16 Biggest Hits," producer Didier C. Deutsch selected songs by Minnelli that were not necessarily "hits" but rather those that represent the best and most celebrated moments of her career, as well as standards with which she became associated.
As many of the albums and singles were originally released on other record labels, the producer replaced the original versions with tracks from her live albums. From her Broadway phase, songs like "Quiet Thing" from the musical "Flora, the Red Menace," as well as "My Own Best Friend" and "All That Jazz" from the musical "Chicago," were chosen. Her film appearances are represented by tracks like "Cabaret" and "Theme from New York, New York." The song "Liza with a Z" represents the concert film of the same name, one of Minnelli's biggest career successes that received awards and good viewership during its TV debut. "Losing My Mind" is the song that performed best on music charts for the singer and is featured on the 1989 album "Results."
The album was released in Brazil and some Latin American countries as a double album titled "21 Grandes Sucessos" and "Los Exitos Del Siglo," respectively, with a new cover and artwork, as well as five additional songs: "Don't Drop Bombs," "Rent," and "So Sorry, I Said" from the album "Results," and two live songs: "Stepping Out" and "There's No Business Like Show Business."
Reviews from music critics for "16 Biggest Hits" were favorable, although the album did not chart on global music charts. William Ruhlmann of AllMusic gave it three out of five stars and wrote that while Minnelli's chosen phonograms are familiar and even enjoyable, "there are songs that don't have a special connection to the singer and can hardly be considered one of her 'biggest hits.'" He criticized the fact that some of her better-known songs were not included in the tracklist, "despite the availability of more than one live version on Columbia's albums," such as "Maybe This Time" from the "Cabaret" soundtrack.
Max O. Preeo of Show Music praised the album in a favorable review, highlighting the songs intended for the Broadway musical "Chicago."
Commercially, it failed to chart on the Billboard 200.
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