TALES OF 1001 NIGHTS VOLUME 1

This is a great compilation album from their early days with Sire records, probably their strongest period. It features some of their best music from Turn of the Cards, Scheherazade and Other Stories, and Live at Carnegie Hall. The only bad thing is that it is missing their best song of all, The Song of Scheherazade. They try to make up for this by putting in "The Young Prince and Princess", one of the movements of said track, but it hardly makes up for its absence.

There are also no albums from before they signed with Sire, but they make up for this by including the live versions of the songs from Prologue and Ashes are Burning. Unfortunately there are also no songs from the first two Renaissance albums.

Still, this is a good album to start with if you just want to hear what Renaissance is all about, and how they sounded during their best period. It's also easy to find, which is helpful because most Renaissance albums are not. Pick it up to test the waters, but, if you're already a fan, you're better off tracking down the albums themselves.