Customer Reviews

The Best of the Runaways: 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection

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...but this Millennium Collection is strictly Runaways 101. There are much better places to begin your Runaways collection. Even the mid-'80's Mercury compilation features all these songs and more. For those totally unfamiliar with the Runaways' music, it's crunchy, hard-shelled glitter rock(not quite punk, although critics were quick to call it that in 1977), with sexually diffuse lyrics and lots of bad-girl-on-the-schoolyard sneering. However, the Runaways were definitely not posers, and Lita Ford showed flashy, amazing guitar skills even then(she didn't have much speed, but she was adept with this jailbait material). But for the uninitiated, the Mercury comp. is the better buy.

If you're checking out this compilation, chances are you've heard about the Runaways - the all-girl rock band from the late 70's that featured, among others, a young Joan Jett and Lita Ford - and want to see what the band was all about. You've come to the right place. Once again, the 20th Century Masters "Best Of" series has provided an affordable way to sample an artist's music without committing to multiple studio albums.

This collection is short and to the point (it includes just 12 songs at close to 45 minutes), and is the perfect way to familiarize yourself with the Runaways' edgy, sexy, punk-infused rock & roll sound. You get a nice selection of songs from the band's back catalog, including a few live tracks (I can only imagine how much fun a live Runaways show was), all with digitally remastered sound. The remastering is a nice bonus, but this is one of those bands that are probably better experienced on a scratchy LP.

The Best of the Runaways: the 20th Century Masters Millennium Collection is an ideal introduction to one of the more underrated early all-girl rock acts. It provides a great overview of the band's catalog to the casual fan, features high quality sound, and is quite affordable.

Everyone knows how important the Runaways were to the future of women in hard rock, and it's great that so many still appreciate their music today.

I keep this collection along with the Edgeplay soundtrack (CD) side by side when I wanna rock out old school to the women of hard rock.

This CD comes with a nice foldout history of the band, plus a few group pics to enjoy, and/or laugh at how young they were and looked...especially Joan and Lita.

I have been a long time fan of Joan Jett so I bought this album to hear her first band.I was suprised that some of these songs were pretty good. Secrets should of been a hit single catchy and has a great guitar drum break in the middle of the song also Wait For Me is so catchy and such a sing along.I liked Cherrie as lead vocalist better but Joan did a great job when she quit the band the other songs are good everyone knows Cherry Bomb but the other songs are worth listening to.they were one of the first female rock bands and one of the best cause every other female band since has tried to copy them.Hole L7,The Donnas you name it as for the Go Go's are better that someone said in a review , yeah they were more polished and had a great songwriter in the band The Runaways should of stood together and been givin a chance to grow and make better records but they didn't anyway for any fan of Joan Jett or Lita Ford a good listen! also get the 80's Mercury best of which has Cmon one of the best songs The Runaways ever did that should of been on this cd.

While this CD is good, it doesn't include some of their best songs that could have easily replaced a few of the tracks on here (not that they are bad). Its disappointing that "California Paradise", "Dead End Justice", "I Wanna' Be Where The Boys Are", and "Midnight Music" aren't included, after all, some of these are more recognized songs by The Runaways. I plan on getting the Mercury Albums Anthology for a few dollars more, its a great bargain and includes 41 songs as opposed to 12.

Last weekend I went to see the bio-pic THE RUNAWAYS at my local Landmark theater. I was memorized by the story of the '70s hard rock band The Runaways. When I left the theater, I walked away as a fan of the band. To get a general idea of the band's music, I downloaded the 20th Century Masters collection of The Runaways' music. I must say I have been enjoying the collection immensely. The songs are catchy yet aggressive courtesy of Joan Jett and Lita Ford's guitar riffs. My personal favorite songs right now are "Cherry Bomb" and "Queens of Noise". While the ballads aren't too bad, I think the band sounds the best when they are in full rock mode. The production on the collection may not be the best but I have heard worse. My intentions was to expose myself to the original Runaways songs after I had seen the film. This collection is a good introduction for this new fan.

It's hard to evaluate this compilation. When you compare these songs to other bands from the era, this material is gritty and hard rocking but it has it's limitations. It can get pretty weak.

The Runaways will never be in the Rock and Rll Hall of Fame. However, that criticism is highly unfair since you are listening to young teenage girls and not experienced musicians. When you think about it, these high school-aged girls were right out of the starting blocks and they were able to compete okay with the big boys. Joan Jett developed into rock and roll royalty and Lita Ford didn't do so bad herself...so nothing was coincidental...this was a spawning ground for some future great artists. How were supergroups like Led Zep, Pink Floyd, U2 or anybody else when they were 15 or 16? Would their works be as listenable as this?

This is raw, stripped down, 3 chord rock, highly compareable to what English punk rock groups or The Ramones were doing during the same era.

"Cherry Bomb" is the highlight

After watching the movie I was interested in hearing their music and was pleasantly surprised on how these girls could rock with the big boys !!!! I am glad that I found the Amazon web site where I bought the Best of the Runaways. The price was great and the CD was delivered promptly. I would use this site the next time I find something that I wish to purchase.

I saw this movie at the Sundance Film Festival. During my life, I've enjoyed the music from the Runaways, yet I never knew anything about the band. Great group of girls that forged the way for many female singers and bands to follow. Thanx :)

This copmes as a smart and snaqppy introduction into the band, taking 3 cuts from the four albums, the highlights being the 'in concert' tracks which seque from 'You Drive Me Wild' to 'Neon Angels.' These are mainline songs as only the slower tempo "Waiting for the Night" break the overall style of good stomping rock and roll songs while more out of the way songs like 'Heartbeat' and 'Dead End Justice' don't figure. This is a fair measure of the band.