Customer Reviews

Best of 1981-1985

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Best 0f '81 to '85 collects most of the best tracks Y & T ever recorded as the albums they made after this didn't touch the material featured here. If these songs were recorded a few years later and if they were marketed correctly, Y & T would have been hard rock superstars. Unfortunately, their best work was behind them by the time MTV & radio embraced hard rock or what some would call hair metal.

The majority of the tracks here are top notch whether it's heavy rockers ("Open Fire", "Mean Streak", "Hurricane"), or mid-tempo material ("Black Tiger", "Midnight In Tokyo", "Dirty Girl"). "Summertime Girls" was their most popular song and should have been a huge hit. But what Y & T excelled at was their power ballads and their live show. Their best ballads are all here as "Rescue Me", "Forever", and "I Believe In You" are among the best ballads ever recorded in the genre, much better than the sugar coated sappy ballads that would be hits for bands like Bon Jovi and Def Leppard years later. The two live tracks here are decent but there's a much better live version of "Barroom Boogie" on the out of print Open Fire album. The tracks "Beautiful Dreamer" and "Hang 'Em High" are not among their best work. This is a good compliation, but it would be stronger if it featured a couple more live tracks from Open Fire such as the title track and "Forever" and more tracks from the underrated In Rock We Trust album like "Don't Stop Runnin'" and "Break Out Tonight." Definitely worth picking up if you're a fan of good melodic heavy metal from the '80s.

Y&T was/is one of the great undiscovered hard rock bands of all time. Fronted by an outstanding lead singer and guitarist, Y & T always put together a range of songs on any of their albums, from blues, to ballads, to straight ahead rockers, and, my personal favorites, the "epic rocking ballad." This last category was Y & T's specialty, and this album gathers the three best: "Rescue Me" (off Earthshaker), "Forever" (off Black Tiger), and "Midnite in Tokyo" (off Mean Streak). After Mean Streak, Y & T was never quite the same to me, although they do have a very great pop rock song, "I'll Keep on Believin'" on "In Rock we Trust". An inferior song from that release, a cover of "Summertime Girls," is on this lp. True fans will need to buy all of these releases. Those who just want the high points don't have it easy though, as Mean Streak also boasts "Lonely Side of Town," one of the all time great Y & T songs, although I'm not sure if the band realizes this. Great great stuff.....

Not having been much of a Y&T fan over the years, I listened to this CD and found a lot of good, raw rock'n'roll. Rescue Me, Dirty Girl and Forever are very good. The intro on Black Tiger is good, the song is okay. Fun stuff hits with Lipstick and Leather and Summertime Girls.

A good comparison for me regarding Y&T would be Helix. The Best Of Y&T 81-85 is worth picking up and then crankin' up!

Y&T FIRST BLEW ME AWAY OH SO MANY MOONS AGO WITH "RESCUE ME" OFF EARTH SHAKER. THE FOLLOWING ALBUMS BLACK TIGER AND MEANSTREAK MAKE UP THE TRILOGY. ALL THE GREAT TRACKS FROM THE TRILOGY ARE INCLUDED ON THIS CD. JUST PLAIN OLD FASHION KICK A** ROCK. IF YOU LIKE DOKKEN YOU'LL LOVE THIS CD.

Y&T never received the recognition they deserved. Dave Meniketti was great on lead guitar and lead vocals. I don't know of a band that had a front man that played lead and sang lead. An album that I thought was excellent was Contagious. These guys put out some unbelievable rip on guitar solos. I've always been a Y&T fan and will continue to be one. I would group them with other bands like April Wine, Dokken, and Vandenberg.

I bought this cd after a relative talked about seeing them in concert and how good they were in a live setting. From listening to this cd, I think that the biggest thing this band had going for it was Dave Meniketti, who is a great guitarist and an excellent singer. Unfortunately, a lot of the songs now seem derivative and cheesy and the production is often absolutely painful to listen to. These guys deserved better. I do like Rescue Me, Mean Streak, Midnight in Tokyo. Summertime Girls is pretty catchy too.

As often mentioned ,Y&T were always criminally under-rated. Their 1st 5 albums were Early American blues based Heavy Metal staples. not too many bands can put together 5 consecutive killer albums as these guys did from the mid 70's to the early 80's. Sadly the emergence of Fluff metal and Record company bullsH#@% victimized this band as the 80's came to an end. But their glory today is due to those 1st 5 albums.
This compilation focuses on albums 3.4 and 5. Y&T's "heavy 3" Earthshaker, Black Tiger and Meanstreak. 11 of the 16 tracks are from those 3 albums. also a couple off of the 2 that followed. Would actually have been nice to have "Dont stop Runnin" on here from IRWT. But that aside, this best of is almost Flawless and the insert includes an intro from Brian Slagel (founder of Metal Blade Records) who is quite a fan of the band.
UP THE IRONS

This truly is a must have for ANY Y & T fan or any fan of hair bands. Every song a classic.

Good hard rock/heavy metal band.
Not a mainstream success but very good none the less.

Great band, great songs great guitar and what a voice!
If these songs were recorded by Journey, or a similar radio friendly band, they would be cherished classics. For anyone looking for hidden gems of eighties metal/hard rock then look no further than Y&T. I'm going to see them next week.
An ideal band to cover for any up and coming metal band that cant write songs as good as these...