Don't hate her because she's beautiful. Or successful. After all of her sultry, smoldering videos and prodigious platinum record awards, Sheryl Crow remains simply a very talented singer, songwriter, and performer. Developing a soulful, alternative-friendly twist on classic rock, Crow emerged as one of the few consistently satisfying mainstream artists of the 90's. With her debut album, Tuesday Night Music Club (1993), Crow appeared to rocket out of nowhere to instant stardom, but, truth be told, she was an overnight sensation years in the making. Sheryl had played supporting roles around Hollywood since the mid-80's, singing backup for Don Henley, Michael Jackson, Rod Stewart, and others, and placing songs with artists as prominent as Eric Clapton. Signed to A&M in 1991, Crow began recording with Hugh Padgham, best known for his work with Sting and Phil Collins; dissatisfied with the slick, ballad-laden, pop sound, she shelved the project.

A distraught Sheryl Crow subsequently fell in with a group of musicians including producer Bill Bottrell, David Baerwald, and David Ricketts (the latter two comprising both halves of David & David). Dubbed the "Tuesday Night Music Club" (after the loose atmosphere of their jam sessions and the evening on which they usually convened), Crow and her crew began developing a batch of songs that would eventually become her hugely popular debut. Even that success didn't come quickly, as the album's first two singles ("Run Baby Run" and "Leaving Las Vegas") made little impression. Tuesday Night Music Club languished for nearly a year before "All I Wanna Do" became a runaway radio smash. Musically organic and lyrically incisive, Tuesday Night Music Club fell into the yawing void between Nirvana and Michael Bolton, where a huge audience waited, hungry for entertaining, intelligent, adult-oriented rock. Eventually, Tuesday Night Music Club found that audience, peaking at #3 and spending over two years on the charts while yielding two more hit singles ("Strong Enough" and "Can't Cry Anymore") and earning a trophy case full of awards (three Grammys, seven-times platinum).

With the tremendous success of Tuesday Night Music Club monopolizing her attentions, Crow's self-titled sophomore disc didn't hit the shelves for three years. In the intervening period, the singer faced a number of public relations hurdles. Most profoundly, the other members of the Music Club felt Crow was underplaying their contributions to the hit album, with Baerwald particularly vocal in his insinuations that Crow was a minor player in the creative process. In addition, Crow was tied (however unfairly) to two deaths - writer John O'Brien (who wrote the book upon which "Leaving Las Vegas" was based) and Kevin Gilbert (Music Club drummer and former Crow paramour). Plus, Crow was fighting the perception of her as just another party girl - thanks to the superficially carefree perspective of her signature hit, "All I Wanna Do."

Fair or not, these perceptions were debunked by Sheryl Crow when it finally appeared in 1996. While not quite the equal of her debut, the album's songs were sufficiently strong and the sound sufficiently unique to prove that Sheryl Crow was her own woman and a force to be reckoned with. Crow produced the record herself (with assistance from Mitchell Froom), giving it a dense, claustrophobic feel that contrasted starkly with the warm, earthy groove of Tuesday Night Music Club. While the singles extracted from the album (including "If It Makes You Happy" and "Everyday Is A Winding Road") were relatively upbeat, the overall tenor of Sheryl Crow is dark, gloomy, and foreboding - hardly the demeanor of a party girl.

On her third album, The Globe Sessions (1998), Sheryl Crow returned to more of a naturalistic, group-oriented approach. Rather than the rootsy interplay of Tuesday Night Music Club, Crow opted for a hard rock sound not unlike the Rolling Stones circa Tattoo You. Standout tracks like "There Goes The Neighborhood" and "My Favorite Mistake" featured Keef-styled guitar riffs jousting with soulful horn licks, setting off lyrics notably more cogent and narrative than the stream-of-consciousness libretto of Sheryl Crow. Still, The Globe Sessions was a bit of a comedown from the knockout combination of her two previous albums. By this point, however, Crow was a proven star, and The Globe Sessions notched her third straight platinum album. (Insist upon the 1999 reissue of The Globe Sessions featuring Crow's folksy rendition of Guns 'N Roses' "Sweet Child O' Mine," her contribution to the soundtrack of Adam Sandler's movie, Big Daddy).

Not counting a guest-cluttered concert album (Live From Central Park, 1999), Sheryl Crow took a well-deserved break from the recording studio, not returning till 2002 with the bright, upbeat C'mon C'mon. While no masterpiece, the album seemed to signal that Crow finally felt at home in her own skin, content to pursue her muse wherever it leads - to waters as shallow (if irresistible) as "Soak Up The Sun" or cliffs as craggy as the title song, a bittersweet tale of doomed lovers. Crow had a hand in writing and producing every song on C'mon C'mon but felt comfortable sharing the spotlight with nearly half the Greater Los Angeles white pages - Stevie Nicks, Don Henley, Liz Phair, Lenny Kravitz, Natalie Maines, and Gwynyth Paltrow, to name but a few, appear on the record.

Thus, C'mon C'mon plays like a satisfying denouement to the first portion of Sheryl Crow's career, proof that she no longer has anything to prove. Like Steve McQueen, she don't need no fast machine - she'll proceed at her own pace towards a destination of her own choosing. The Very Best Of Sheryl Crow (2003), then, serves well as a bookend, neatly collecting nearly every significant track from her first ten years as a headline act. Throughout Crow's career, the cream of her music has always risen to the top, with her most memorable songs inevitably being released as singles and almost invariably scaling the top of the charts. The Very Best Of Sheryl Crow has most of these, and what's missing is relatively minor (including "Can't Cry Anymore" from Tuesday Night Music Club; "Anything But Down" from The Globe Sessions; and the title track from C'mon C'mon). Two new tracks ("Light In Your Eyes" and a cover of Cat Stevens' "The First Cut Is the Deepest") help take up the slack.

Stopping short of calling Crow a singles artist - she makes good albums, and I own them all - The Very Best Of Sheryl Crow will suffice for most fans. On the downside, this otherwise laudable collection does virtually nothing to corral Crow's countless non-LP tracks recorded as b-sides or for compilations and soundtracks. While The Very Best Of Sheryl Crow (regrettably) includes the singer's duet with Kid Rock (why do people take that moron seriously?), it omits every other hard-to-find Sheryl Crow cut. In addition to "Sweet Child O' Mine" (mentioned above), these scattered recordings include "All By Myself" (Eric Carmen cover, b-side of "Run Baby Run," 1993); Solitaire (from If I Were A Carpenter, 1994); "D'yer Mak'er" (from Encomium: A Tribute To Led Zeppelin, 1995); "Keep On Growing" (Derek & the Dominos cover, b-side of "If It Makes You Happy," 1996); "Tomorrow Never Dies" (title song from the James Bond movie, 1997); "Straight To The Moon" (b-side of "There Goes The Neighborhood," 1998); "Juanita" (from Return Of The Grievous Angel: A Tribute to Gram Parsons, 1999); "Long Gone Lonesome Blues" (from Timeless: Hank Williams Tribute, 2001); "Mother Nature's Son" (Beatles cover from I Am Sam, 2002); and "Missing" (bonus track from UK edition of C'mon C'mon, 2002). And that's just the highlights....

Despite Sheryl Crow's productive first decade, I suspect her best - or, at least, most important - work is behind her. Never the most original rocker in town, she continues to draw heavily on traditional music, classic rock, and a host of obvious influences - Bonnie Bramlett, Fleetwood Mac, Little Feat, the aforementioned Stones, and others. Crow made her mark early on, and her music has grown more conservative (though only slightly less satisfying) ever since. The Very Best Of Sheryl Crow only reinforces that position by placing the razzle-dazzle of her early work in proper perspective. Crow comes across a confident artist of some depth but never impresses the way, for instance, Tom Petty does. The sense of risk, uncertainty, even danger necessary for great art just isn't part of Sheryl Crow's music. While she is sincere, insightful, professional - and looks smashing in leather pants - that's not the stuff of which legends are made.

In other words, she is not a major artist, and she probably never will be. But we need Sheryl Crow - or someone like her. As talented as she is, and as sexy as she looks, most women can imagine being her and most men could imagine dating her (or something to that effect). And that's an invaluable service these days, when most media stars are buffed, pumped, and polished to a humanly unattainable degree. Sheryl Crow has a way of wrapping serpentine melodies around tough, soulful, even funky arrangements that makes for genuinely memorable records. That she ain't hard to look at is undeniable, but it's just icing on the cake.