Greatest Hits 2 [Original recording reissued]

Chicago | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 28, 1995)
• Original Release Date: 1981
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording reissued
• Label: Chicago Records
• ASIN: B0000021RZ
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #238,973 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Baby, What a Big Surprise

2. Dialogue, Pt. 2

3. No Tell Lover

4. Alive Again

5. Old Days

6. If You Leave Me Now

7. Questions 67 & 68

8. Happy Man

9. Gone Long Gone

10. Take Me Back to Chicago

Editorial Reviews

Audio CD

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Chicago Compiled Carelessly, March 21, 2000

By 

Anthony G Pizza "trivialtony" (FL) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Greatest Hits 2 (Audio CD)

The year of this CD's original release (1981) was Chicago's floundering year. CBS dropped them after signing a seven-year deal in 1980, while their future label, Full Moon, had only released the first Peter Cetera solo album. "Greatest Hits Vol. II" represents how much the group meant to Columbia then. It is cut, pasted, and badly tossed together to reflect the band's falling fortune.

Don't be fooled by the top-selling ballads (the 1976 #1 "If You Leave Me Now" and its 1977 follow-up, "Baby What A Big Suprise.") The rest of the disc flounders with one song too many from "Hot Streets," and half of the epic "Dialogue" (that couldn't have been extended considering the potential length of CDs?) We get neither early chart hits like "Free" and "Lowdown" (both from 1971's criminally disregarded Chicago III) or even should-have-beens like "You Are On My Mind" or "Little One." Instead, we get VII's fluffy "Happy Man."

Chicago's fortunes would change the next year thanks to the new label, new producer (David Foster) and Chicago 16's top-selling single, "Hard To Say I'm Sorry." But "Greatest Hits II" works neither to continue their career timeline nor fill in their original one. Thus, while not the worst selection is their catalogue, "GHII" is certainly the least relevant.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Essential, but flawed compilation for the casual fan, June 2, 2000

By 

sml17 "music & film afficionado" (Pleasantville, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Greatest Hits 2 (Audio CD)

GH1 is among the great "best of" albums, both in sales and in content. It ranks with the Eagles' GH1, the Beatles' red and blue albums, Elton's GH1, and others. GH2 is a continuation for those who thought Chicago had played out after GH1 (often this is the case, being that a "best of" album so frequently comes toward the end of a group's career/label contract). GH2 I first bought in a cool record shop as a promo copy; I didn't need it, because I'd purchased every Chi album anyway (I was by then in college). As it stands, GH2 contains the mega-radio hits of the era, "Big Surprise", "Old Days", "Leave Me Now", and "Alive Again" (a fitting hit after the death of Terry Kath); it also contains the neglected "Questions" which, according to the band on the Carnegie Hall album was their "...boss hit-bound single which wasn't a boss hit-bound single". Happily, the album also contains strong tracks from the Hot Streets release and Danny

Seraphine's overlooked "Take Me Back". Sadly, the compilation leaves out the quintessential Chi track "Introduction", "Lowdown", and perhaps a few others to make it a fuller package. This is a far superior "best of" in comparison to the mellow rock of GH3, which highlights the band's years as Pete Cetera went solo, a couple of new guys were added, and the horn players seemed to be relegated to playing cards (or synths) during the Warner Bros. albums.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I guess the intern who compiled this did not like "Dialogue", June 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Greatest Hits 2 (Audio CD)

This album contains a fair grouping of Chicago's hits from the late 1970's. Later compilations such as Group Portrait and Heart of Chicago Volumes I and II have now made this volume redundant. Let the buyer beware. This package contains only the second half of "Dialogue". Part I which contains the verbal exchange between Kath and Cetera is strangely absent. Someone must have fallen asleep at the switch.