The Best of Kansas [Extra tracks][Original recording reissued][Original recording remastered]

Kansas

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 23, 1999)
• Original Release Date: February 23, 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Extra tracks, Original recording reissued, Original recording remastered
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B00000I5Y6
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (74 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,269 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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  #42 in	Music > Classic Rock > Arena Rock
  #58 in	Music > Rock > Progressive > Progressive Rock

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

This digitally-remastered edition of Kansas's 1984 greatest hits collection includes three additional tracks chosen by the band, Closet Chronicles," "The Devil Game" and "The Pinnacle."
No Track Information Available
Media Type: CD
Artist: KANSAS
Title: BEST OF KANSAS
Street Release Date: 02/23/1999
Domestic
Genre: ROCK/POP

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Collection!, February 6, 2002

By	Samhot (Star Land) - See all my reviews

This is an excellent purchase for those who don't know much about the band Kansas, but would like to get a sampler of some of this excellent band's music.. It has great hard rock staples, as well as longer and elaborate prog-rock epics. To me, that's what makes a best of album spectacular. It has the popular "Carry On Wayward Son," the melodious quirk of "Point Of Know Return," and the inspirational "Hold On," just to name a few. However, my personal favorites are the extended prog numbers, like "Song For America" and "No One Together," which are elaborate and complex in arrangement, with great vocals and melody, and what surprises one is the fact that guitarist Kerry Livgren wrote most of these elaborate pieces by himself. Kerry & company were a talented bunch, and it's nothing to be taken lightly. "The Closet Chronicles" is performed live, yet sounds as crisp as a studio recording. This is another one of those elaborate epics featuring great vocals, with outstanding musicianship. One should know that, for the time being, this live version can only be found on this collection, as it was omitted from the remastering of their live double CD, _Two For The Show_, in order to keep the disc from being double (which was pretty dumb.) It's a real shame, because I believe the live version of this song leaves the studio version in the dust.

Overall, I am very pleased with this recording. If you like complex, elaborate, dramatic and sophisticated bands like Queen, you should love Kansas.

29 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Place To Start, July 1, 2000

By	Bill R. Moore (Oklahoma, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This is that rare best of album that actually features the band's best of. Not sacrificing longer tracks for shorter pieces (well, Magnum Opus maybe, but...) this collection truly gives a good overview of Kansas. The radio hits are here: Carry On, The Wall, Hold On, Point of No Return, and of course, Dust In The Wind, but even they feature prog overtones. But it's the longer pieces that show the band's excellent musicianship, like Song For America, No One Together, The Pinnacle, and Closet Chronicles. All in all, a good place to start if you're just getting into Kansas.

57 of 72 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Columbia revamps this album and improves it 100% but still.., October 26, 2003

By	David Pearlman "sound fanatic" (Arlington, MA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (VINE VOICE)

The original issue of this album, released in 1984, was attrocious. It contained the big hits (Wayward Son, Dust, Hold On) and a few key album rock staples (Point of Know Return, Song for America and The Wall). But the rest of the album was devoted to dire tracks from their 1980s output: The generic hard rock of Fight Fire With Fire, Play the Game Tonight and No One Together, and a perfectly dreadful "previously unreleased" track, Perfect Lover. Their first three albums, surely their most artistically accomplished (if not most commercial) were represented by the lone track "Song for America". In essence, this seemed a desperate effort to paint the group as still vital by placing undue focus on their then-recent output.

In a word: Worthless.

This reissue, in addition to modest improvement in fidelity, gooses the track list to make it much more palatable. The terrible Perfect Lover has been jettisoned completely, and in its place we get three new additions: The Pinnacle (from Masque), The Devil Game (from Song For America) and Closet Chronicles (from Point of Know Return). The album is now a far better balanced view of Kansas' career. There are still many more excellent tracks from their first five albums that could have been used in place of the 1980s filler (and surely one track from the not-completely-horrible Monolith could have been included), but this isn't bad.