Customer Reviews

Al Green - Greatest Hits

5 star:		(116)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Al Green has one of the most soulful voices of all time and his talent for interpreting other artist's songs and making them his own is simply stunning. Ok, so why am I telling you NOT to buy this disc after giving it 5 stars? Hear me out. If you're an Al Green fan, then you already own most, if not all, of these songs. If you're new to Green's work, (maybe you saw him on "Alley McBeal") you're most likely looking for a good sampling of his stuff. Problem is, this stuff is TOO good! After falling in love with these timeless performances, you're going to want to get more Al Green. (Trust me, you will.) So save yourself some time and money and start with the albums "Let's Stay Together" and "Still In Love With You" - every track on these disc are every bit as good as any track on his greatest hits. After that, go on to "Call Me" or "Explores Your Mind". Eventually you will have all the tracks on "Greatest Hit's" and many more amazing songs to go with them.

Greatest hit's albums are great when you want to avoid the dud's and "filler" that you find on some artist discs, but the work Green did in the 70's has NO dud's or filler. It was a run of amazing artistic accomplishment that has not been seen in R & B since. You own it to yourself to check out the whole picture.

This is paper thin collection of Al Green's "Greatest Hits" may satisfy those who are unacquainted with Al Green, but the selected 15 tracks are woefully inadequate for fans who followed Al Green's soul singing career in the Seventies.

Among the missing and unaccounted for songs in this "greatest hits" collection are: "Talk To Me", "How Can You Mend A Broken Heart", "Funny How Time Slips Away", "Let's Get Married", "Together Again", and the transcendental "Take Me To The River". Doing an Al Green greatest hits collection without the song "Take Me To The River" is like doing a Marvin Gaye collection without "What's Going On?" .

Instead of the inferior Capital collection, I recommend the double CD collection "Hi and Mighty- The Story of Al Green (1969-1978)" as only current collection that does justice to the Rev. Al Green's R&B career on Hi Records. It is a UK import and retails at a little over $25 (around $17 from an Amazon seller). The price is reasonable because "Hi and Mighty" will be the only Al Green collection you'll ever need. You will have to spend a lot more money get all the songs on import "Hi and Mighty" because there is no single unified collection of all Green's hits available on an American label.

Several years back, Capitol records bought exclusive United States licensing rights to most of Al Green's songs from his original label, Hi Records. Subsequently, in the spirit of maximizing profits, Capital has plundered their catalog of Al Green music by releasing several incomplete, inferior sounding "greatest hits" collections. This low budget, chopped up edition isn't even digitally remastered. The sound of Capitol's master tapes are only so-so.

Fortunately Hi Records retained rights to Al Green's songs and original master tapes in the United Kingdom this release "Hi and Mighty" in the UK provide us with a complete selection of songs from Al Green's massive catalog. As a result, the only official Hi Records collection of Al Green's greatest hits is the UK import.

Contrary to Capitol's fast buck USA collections, the UK masters have a far superior suound. The masters directly from Hi Records retain the clean analogic fidelity of Willie Mitchell's amazing production. The wonders of the chugging bluesy grooves of the Hodges brothers, Lee (bass), Teeny (guitar) and Charles (organ) who along with Wayne Jackson signature trumpet sound formed the backbone of Al Green's studio band are heard best on the UK masters. Most important to Al Green's session players was Booker T. and the MGs drummer Al Jackson's crisp drumming. (Listen to Al Jackson's inventive drumming on Booker T.s "Time Is Tight" and see why an entire generation of drummers practiced to that song).

Al Green is too significant an artist to waste your money on this incomplete and sonically inferior product designed by major label giant with the sole purpose of cashing in on Al Green's work. The UK collection, "Hi and Mighty" may cost a few bucks extra, but it does justice to Al Green's storied career.

When it comes to the purveyors and pioneers of soul, most forget Al Green. This Greatest Hits compilation is for those who have forgotten. It's not for the Al Green enthusiast, it's for the Al Green window shopper. As a single disc compilation, it's excellent. It has all of Green's most memorable hits and non-hits. There's 15 tracks and no excess. Great songs like "I'm Tired of Being Alone", "Here I Am (Come and Take Me)" which UB40 had a late 80's hit with. It has "Let's Stay Together", "Love and Happiness" and a cover of The Temptations' "I Can't Get Next To You." This Greatest Hits compilation is a must have for any rock collector.

Just as I recently praised the 20-track chronology The Best of Simon and Garfunkel for being a more complete collection than their Greatest Hits, which has only 14, I have to thank Right Stuff for not only reissuing Al Green-Greatest Hits but also for 5 Bonus tracks that were hits after the initial release in 1975.

Here, you have a near-perfect 15-song compilation of one of Soul Music's greatest voices ever. The rhythms are smooth, the tunes are quite romantic, and the constant man-loves-woman themes can only make one draw comparisons with Marvin Gaye's Let's Get It On and Barry White's Greatest Hits.

It is often that artists are supported by great production arrangements in order to sound good, but in this collection Al Green, just like Gaye and White, had vocals that ended up being the main instrument.

Why is Al Green so much better than so many recording artists who think that they have soul?

Al doesn't sound forced or unnatural, and rarely shows you the full range of expression of which he is capable. The biggest hit that he ever had, "Let's Stay Together," begins with Al and the background vocalists whispering, and thereafter he does not raise his voice much from that. All the parts are very subtle, with each instrument seemingly arranged to disturb the whole the least. It's simple, danceable, and has real dynamics, even when the songs are generally quiet.

While I appreciate R+B made in the last twenty years, I don't like the group of mainly female vocalists who think that soul is shrieking your way up and down a given scale. Saying more with less notes is the heart of soul, and it makes for a consistently enjoyable listening experience.

Buy this. It's tremendously... for the value, and if you like soul, it will be one of the few CD's in your collection to which you can listen without skipping. In fact, it might even irritate you that fifteen songs is all that's here.

...I've had this for many years and in many incarnations, distributed by different labels and I've gotta tellya. First, any Al Green CD/vinyl/tape is gonna have fabuloso music on it. Second, sometimes in trying to get a 'popular' sequencing of tunes, record companies make a faux pas...the faux pas here was in removing Al's version of the Bee Gee's "How Do You Mend A Broken Heart" from the original sequencing. And for those recent Al Green converts that is truly a disservice. You just have to find it on another Al Green CD; to me, it's inclusion on the original packaging made a primo product that much more superb... Plus, one of my earlier CDs of this has the extended "Let's Stay Together" which to me allows the listener to get 'caught up' in the music like Al evidently was during the recording. My last two cents: The most underrated cut on this CD has gotta be the Whitfield/Strong song "I Can't Get Next to You", which gets a bumpin' gospel blues turnout/makeover with assistance from those great Memphis/Nashville sessionmen. It's so nice that I keep track 8 in replay mode til I fill my jones...

I bought this album simply because it makes me happy. The music is great and it inspires great memories within me. We danced to this album on Holidays. I love Al Green's passion, and mood making. His voice is so awesome. This is truly wonderful ear and soul candy. It's hard to find a good love song now that doesn't break out into a rap song, so I tend to stay with the older soul and R&B music.

One really can't listen to any of the songs and not feel moved in some way. My favorite song on this collection is 'Tired of Being Alone'. It is a good example of his voice, and the range. Other awesome songs are "Love and Happiness", "Here I am", and the wonderful love ballad "Let's Get Married". There are so many other songs on here though that showcase his talent all the more. Describing each song would have me here until the next millennium!

Whether he is pelting out a gospel tune or a soul one, it's a hit with me. His voice is like no other and it's pure joy, pain, and laughter all bunched into one. If it's good you feel it. And you will feel it.

One song I strongly suggest checking out that isn't on this album is :

For The Good Times (commonly referred to as 'Lay your head on my pillow' ) - More Greatest Hits Album

Either way you go, you can't go wrong. Al Green is timeless and wonderful!

I'm a fan of rock, progressive rock, and pop-rock--not soul--but throughout my childhood and teen years I heard enough of Al Green's enchanting melodies, soulful vocals, catchy chord changes, and sweet string and horn arrangements that I thought a best-hits CD might be in order for when I'm in a mellow mood (or have a young lady over...). I was pleasantly surprised to find that this CD is not just mood music, but envigorating and entertaining in its own right. It contains a number of great songs that I've heard on the radio many times over the years, but I was most impressed with a song I'd never heard: "Let's Get Married," which I've been happily replaying in my head for weeks now and I'm STILL not tired of it. Anyone who's even remotely an Al Green fan will love this CD.

Unlike some other people on this web-site, I try not to hand out stars like I would flyers. This album , however, is truly one of the best out there regardless of the genre of music you prefer. No one portrays emotion like Al Green. Every song on this album is great in its own way. His voice is soothing and exhilirating at the same time. Take away his voice, and still the music itself is gorgeous. This is one the best Greatest Hits collections EVER! Unfortunately, Vol. II is a different story.

This is without a doubt THE best music I own. His voice, the words in each song, the accompaniment of the instruments and the sounds that come from them are brilliant. Such talent did God give this man.