Best of [Import]

Stealers Wheel | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 11, 1993)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Connoisseur Coll.
• ASIN: B00000743P
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #121,581 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Stuck in the Middle With You

2. Nothing's Gonna Change My Mind

3. Star

4. This Morning

5. Steamboat Row

6. Next to Me

7. Right or Wrong

8. Go as You Please

9. Benediction

10. Waltz (You Know It Makes Sense)

11. Blind Faith

12. Late Again

13. Wheelin'

14. Jose

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

52 of 53 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stealer's Wheel - Ignored Pleasure, April 12, 2000

By 

Dan Crider (Dallas, Tx, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Best of (Audio CD)

It was with great sadness that I discovered that my "Stuck in the Middle With You" LP couldn't be replaced on CD. Joe Egan and Gerry Rafferty made a remarkable combination and I'm sorry that I discovered it long after the fact. If it wasn't for Reservoir Dogs, I guess they would have faded totally into oblivion. Thanks for small favors, I guess.

Okay...we'll do this in stages...did you like Stuck in the Middle with you? Did you like Gerry Rafferty's single Baker Street? Did you like the album it was on, City to City?

Okay, now lets work backwards...if you like City to City you'll LOVE Stealer's Wheel. If you like Baker Street, try the rest of the album, then this. If you think Stuck was done by Bob Dylan, then LEAVE NOW.

Stealers Wheel is unlike any other band. First of all, it was (obviously) only two guys. The vocal harmonies that they produced together are incredible. They sang around each other with the same grace as Simon and Garfunkel and Lennon and McCartney. They seemed to be uninterested in being a hit band and focused instead on songs that aim for the mind and the soul. There are no hearts on sleeves here, but the heartache is there, as is the joy. And yet, the hum factor is high...these are not depressed ruminations about mankind's doom and the futility of love. They are three minute pop songs that were, I guess, cursed with a lack of the goofiness that typically sells records.

The songs were written (most probably) on an acoustic guitar, but the arrangements of the songs are full and the ideas are completely realized. The arrangements are (how do you say this...)appropriate and never falter in getting across what the song says and what it doesn't. They never overdid it, yet nothing sounds sparse. The feel is almost Celtic in nature, full of sadness and hope and the light of the new day and the remorse of times past.

Stuck in the Middle is actually out of place on this album, and by the time you're done, it will be one of your least favorite SW songs. Based on the rest of the disc, you'll wonder why this great collaboration has been forgotten and you'll wish you could find more. Me too.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Collection But By Default, October 31, 2002

By 

Eugene Bentley (Des Moines, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Best of (Audio CD)

Gerry Rafferty went solo with the critically acclaimed "Can I Have My Money Back" album after he dissolved his partnership with Bill Connolly in the Humblebums. In 1972 Rafferty hooked up with another partner Joe Egan in Stealers Wheel.
Here, Rafferty hit his stride with a more worthwhile songwriting partner in Joe Egan. With 'Stuck In the Middle With You', it seemed like they were on to great fortune in releasing three solid albums in "Stealers Wheel", "Ferguslie Park" and "Right Or Wrong" with production from Lieber and Stoller ( of Coasters fame) on the first two albums and Mentor Williams (Dobie Gray's 'Drift Away') on the last. Unfortunately the hits dropped off dramatically after 'Stuck In the Middle' with their three album legacy tragically destilled (or hacked) down to this pleasing fourteen track compilation.
From the harmonium driven 'Late Again' to the haunting, surreal ballad 'Next To Me'(both from the "Stealer's Wheel" album 1972), from rockin' 'Wheelin'' and lively Brewer and Shipley styled hit 'Star' (both from "Fergulie Park" 1973) and from the power pop of 'Go As You Please' to the strange mix of Gregorian chant and Celtic waltz melody in 'Benediction'(both songs from "Right Or Wrong" 1975)you can't lose. Great folk CSN&Y harmonies abound sometimes set accessible pop melodies, or to haunting celtic arrangements and even some power pop sensibilities.
It is with a bit of trepidation that I am giving this compilation a five star. It is only by default because this seems to be the only release available by Stealer's Wheel and it is easy to have a good listening experience from a collection that came from already solid releases.
This Collection should be only a starting point. If you can find the original albums on CD then go for it (I was only able to obtain 'Ferguslie Park' on CD as a Japanese import about ten years ago) or otherwise seek out vinyl copies of "Stealers Wheel", "Ferguslie Park" and "Right Or Wrong". Or better yet, we all ought to petition the reissue labels to issue these original three on compact disc.
"Baker's Street" would actually be anti-climactic.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Steal This Wheel, July 12, 2002

By 

Brian D. Rubendall (Oakton, VA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Best of (Audio CD)

The 1970s British rock outfit Stealer's Wheel is remembered today, if at all, for their 1973 hit "Stuck in the Middle With You," which was so memorably used during the torture scene in Queton Tarrantino's movie "Reservoir Dogs." The band's lack of follow up hits eventually caused their demise. That's too bad, because leaders Gerry Rafferty and Joe Egan were first rate songwriters. This anthology contains fourteen songs including "Stuck..." There is a strong consistency throughout, and a few of the other standouts include the ballad "Late Again," "Star," and "Wheelin'." The CD also has a full page of liner notes, a necessity for a band with an abscure history like this one.

Overall, a set worthwhile for more than just the one big single.