Greatest Hits [Original recording remastered]

The Band | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 10, 2003)
• Original Release Date: September 26, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Capitol
• ASIN: B00004YL5D
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,152 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #23 in Music > Music Deals > $8.99 and Under
  • #29 in Music > Rock > Country Rock
  • #63 in Music > Rock > Folk Rock

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

It seems odd that the Band emerged in 1968, defying the counterculture's extravagant rejections of U.S. culture with literary, often Southern-tinged musical and lyrical vehicles. Hearing this 18-song anthology, with its heavy weighting toward the Canadian quintet's first three albums--Music from Big Pink (four tunes), The Band (five tunes), and Stage Fright (three tunes)--what still stands out is the Band's command of yearning vocal harmonies, their sense of plainly laid melodies that reveal acoustic depth, and a nostalgia for an imagined American culture. With all their quirkiness and the advance of Robbie Robertson as their centerpiece, the Band lost their celebrated place in the rock pantheon within a decade. This set, which opens so magnificently with "The Weight," "Tears of Rage" (cowritten with Dylan), and the big organ-vamping "Chest Fever," declines rather steeply on the final tracks, "Acadian Driftwood" and "The Saga of Pepote Rouge." Up till then, however, this set is fantastic. --Andrew Bartlett

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Justice to the Year 2000 Remastered Series, November 29, 2003

By 

Bud (Seminole, Texas, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Greatest Hits (Audio CD)

The Band's "Greatest Hits" is one of the very few compilation albums that those interested in the group would be fortunate to buy before actually buying the original albums themselves. The reason for that is solely because this Greatest Hits package is from the Band Remaster series of 2000; each track here represents the amazingly sharp and high quality job the sound engineers did in restoring The Band's original catalog of work. Each track here will prove to new fans that, if they're interested in dipping into the career of this remarkable group, they should definitely choose the CD's from the 2000 editions. This is most notable on the tracks from "Stage Fright"--'The Shape I'm In' and that album's title track far outweigh the relatively flat sound heard on earlier remastering attempts. To be specific, Garth Hudson's wildly immaculate keyboards, the effects on Rick Danko's vocals, and Robbie Robertson's unusual guitar work are finally heard the way they were meant to be.
But other than that, it has to be said that the track selection is classic--but predictable. The sequencing is a bit uneven as well...in other words, Richard Manuel's glorious, hymn-like vocal and piano on 'I Shall Be Released' somehow doesn't fit placed between the wonderfully bizarre 'Chest Fever' and the "drunkard's dream" 'Up On Cripple Creek' (which was ironically The Band's only Top 30 hit in the US). Also, the relatively mediocre 'Time To Kill' was obviously only included because it was a minor hit for "Stage Fright." Perhaps it could have been better replaced by 'The Rumor.' The classic duet between Manuel and Van Morrison on '4% Pantomime' (from "Cahoots") is missing, and the albums "Moondog Matinee" and even the swan song "Islands" could have been represented much better.
But in the end, despite the standard compilation album bringdowns, "Greatest Hits" serves best as a clue to new fans that the 2000 Remastered Editions are the best way to go.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tough to pack it into one disk, April 25, 2005

By 

John Stodder "a.k.a. Juan La Princi" (livin' just enough) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Greatest Hits (Audio CD)

The Band is one of pop music's most glorious accidents. This was a group of road musicians that lived from nightclub to nightclub, and had little likelihood of rising much above that scene, until Bob Dylan rather whimsically decided to make them his onstage backup band to perform his newfangled "rock" songs in the mid-60s. Then, because they were neighbors in upstate NY, they played on the demos that became "The Basement Tapes." Anyone who spent that much time with Bob Dylan might well decide, "hey, I should be a songwriter," and that's what some members, chiefly Robbie Robertson, did. When it came time to record their first album, what blossomed was their road-hardened musicianship, combined with the Dylan-bred desire to make of each recording a new thing unlike anything else that has existed before. Thus, amazing tracks like "Tears of Rage" and "The Weight" came into being. Along with covers of yet-unreleased Dylan songs like "This Wheel's On Fire" and "I Shall Be Released," the "Music from Big Pink" album essentially changed the course of American pop for a few years. If Jimi Hendrix was the most influential US musician in 1967, by 1969 it was the Band, and that's a radical shift.

It turned out they didn't have a bottomless well of great songs in them, but the quality at the beginning is astonishing. Robertson (with some help from Richard Manuel) was able to fill the Band's first two albums and most of the third with nonstop classic songs. They stumbled badly with their fourth album, made a great album of covers and a great live album, both taking advantage of their superb musical skills, had a partial creative comeback with their seventh album, and then ran aground for good--Robertson essentially admitting he was out of ideas by planning the grandiose "Last Waltz."

If the question is, "are these the Band's 18 best songs," the answer is not quite. "Time to Kill" doesn't belong here, nor does "The Saga of Pepote Rouge"--the weirdest choice of the bunch. I might argue with the inclusion of "Rag Mama Rag" over "Whispering Pines," "Unfaithful Servant" or "Across the Great Divide" from the second album; and you could argue for "In a Station" or "Lonesome Suzie" instead of "Chest Fever" from the first album. "Stage Fright" seems underrepresented--where's "W.S. Walcott's Medicine Show," or "Sleeping"? I could lose "Ophelia" to make room for those. Also, why no selections from the live "Rock of Ages" album? Not only do you miss "Baby Don't Do It," but the live version of "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" is a tour de force, and belonged on this instead of the studio version.

All this really means is, you should get this (as I write, it's $7.99. They're practically giving it away!), but then go out and buy the first three albums, plus Rock of Ages, Moondog Matinee and Northern Lights, Southern Cross, and appreciate the unlikely little miracle that was The Band.

91 of 115 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Greatest Hits?! Please...., April 24, 2002

By 

T. Schmidt "strangebird" (Mansfield TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Greatest Hits (Audio CD)

First of all, The Band only had two bonafide hits. One of those (their magnificant live cover of Marvin Gaye's "Don't Do It") isn't even included in this collection! With that out of the way, let's get down to bidness...

As far as single-disc collections go, this is not bad. Yes, everybody out there could probably think of a song that should have been included, but, with five strong studio albums, one has to pick and choose when making selections. My personal gripes are the afore-mentioned absence of "Don't Do It" and the presence of the weak cover of "Ain't Go No Home" in the place of the great "Mystery Train" from Moondog Matinee.

This collection works for two groups of people. It's ideal for those who own nothing by The Band and have no idea where to begin. There have been many comments about the heavy leaning of the set towards the first three albums. This is justified in that The Band recorded their strongest material on those three albums. After all, who would want a Dylan compilation with equal numbers of tracks from Blonde on Blonde and Under the Red Sky? All of their "hits" are here in one handy little package.

The second group (I'm included in this category) consists of those people who want a quick road trip CD. This really is a great, concise CD to play when you're on a trip with people who have (gasp!) never really heard The Band.

It's almost guaranteed that most who hear this collection will want to delve deeper into The Band's catalog. After all, every one of their studio albums has something to offer. So, instead of overly criticizing this collection, we should be encouraging people to give this a spin. Who knows where it could lead from there...