Customer Reviews

Greatest Hits

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This is one of the greatest rock and roll bands I have ever heard. They are the most unpretentious, straight ahead and yet very talented group of rock musicians I have ever seen or heard in my 20-plus years of listening to rock music. Their melodic sound is equally awesome on such killer rockers as "Don't Tell Me You Love Me" and "(You Can Still) Rock In America" as it is on such ballads as the famous "Sister Christian" and the equally-as-good "Sentimental Street" and "Goodbye". I could rave about each and every song on this disk. If you are a fan of Night Ranger and '80s melodic rock, you know exactly what I mean. But what about the song selection?

That too is just about perfect. Every top 40 song is here. Every rock radio track is here. A couple of extra Night Ranger staples are thrown in. Every album to this point in their career is represented, even the latter two which didn't spawn the big hits their three amazing predecessors did.

For me, this collection still isn't enough. Each and every album represented on this collection has awesome tunes that aren't included here. But for "radio fans" of the band, this collection is about perfect. It truly is a great summary of one of the best bands I have ever listened to.

Of the hard rock bands of the 80s, Night Ranger did an awesome job without actually being classified as metal. Some of their songs were tinged with the synths that typified 80's music, and along with contemporaries like Loverboy, their biggest hits were power ballads. Yet they did have quite a hard-edge without them going into metal. Case in point was "(You Can Still) Rock In America," their hardest rocking hit with a pulsing and snarling guitar a la Riggs that could've been on the Heavy Metal soundtrack, yet only made it to #51 in 1984. Barely scraping the Top 40 is another hard-edged number, "Don't Tell Me You Love Me" from Dawn Patrol, as is "Eddie's Comin' Out Tonight" from the same album.

"Sing Me Away" from Dawn Patrol (1982) alternated between hard rock guitar in the verses and a chorus tempered by synths. A pleasant enough number that somehow stalled at #54. However, their biggest hit was the power ballad "Sister Christian" of a teenage girl growing up and feeling the pangs of adolescence, from their second album Midnight Madness, which starts out with a gentle piano before the drums transition into the power guitars. This was their second Top 40 hit and only Top 5. "When You Close Your Eyes," also from MM, was more upbeat rock, though with a more poppified rock beat, kind of like Rick Springfield. This reached #14. The rocker "Rumours In The Air," also from MM, is a Loverboy-type number.

However, they had more power ballads, particularly on 7 Wishes, their second biggest album. It stood to reason, considering the success of "Sister Christian." I saw videos from 7 Wishes during my MTV years, so this is where I came in. "Sentimental Street," with its majestic synths opening and steady mid-paced beat, was their second biggest hit, charting at #8. The #19 song "Four In The Morning (I Can't Take It Anymore)" was quicker-paced, with the standard pop backbeat coupled with their usual sound, putting them in the same company as hard-rock tempered by pop groups like Loverboy, Heart, and Journey. And the wistful Auld Lang Syne-type rock ballad "Goodbye" is a magical combination of synths and guitars. Brad Gillis' guitar works its magic at the finale, accompanied by the synths. It seemed appropriate, as it turned out to be their last Top 40 hit, peaking at #17.

The only representative from Big Life, their 1987 album, is "The Secret Of My Success," the title track for the Michael J. Fox movie of the same name. With an uptempo Jan Hammer keyboard backbeat and a more pop/rock sound, it isn't as hard as their earlier oeuvre, but again, with repeated airplay on MTV, I got accustomed to this song, where others might've cringed. It peaked at #64, far below their usual chartings. "Restless Kind" from Man In Motion (1988), reverted to the usual power ballad genre, but by that time, two groups of metal had eclipsed Night Ranger, who had never ventured beyond hard rock, veterans like Def Leppard who exploded with Hysteria and newcomers like Skid Row and Guns N Roses. Needless to say, the song failed to even chart.

Following Night Ranger's breakup, bassist and lead vocalist Jack Blades joined Damn Yankees, where he scored a hit higher than "Sister Christian," namely "High Enough" which hit #3. Brad Gillis, who had been Ozzy's guitarist for the live Speak of the Devil album, tried his hand at a solo career before resurrecting Night Ranger with drummer and lead vocalist Kelly Keaggy.

Despite the absence of "Interstate Love Affair" from the movie Teachers, this collection captures the hard rockers at their best, and is ideal for those of us 80's people wanting a stroll down a Sentimental Street.

"And all this could be such a dream so it seems/I was never much good at goodbye" From Goodbye.

Before listening to this album, the only songs I knew that were by Night Ranger were "Sister Christian" and "Don't Tell Me You Love Me." I was impressed with the whole album. It has everything any rock 'n roll or metal fan could want out of their music. It has everything from rockin' metal in songs such as "Sister Christian" and "You Can Still Rock In America," to good ballads such as "When You Close Your Eyes" and "Sentimental Street."

The majority of these songs might not be major hits, but they could've been easily because they all sound great. I recommend anybody who likes rock or metal to get this album by Night Ranger.

Here is the question: What exactly IS Night Ranger? Are they Glam-Rockers? Heavy Metal? Pop/Rock? No matter what YOU think they are, just remember to put the word, 'successful' in front of whatever definition you give them, because selling millions of albums MEANS something in the recording business. The debate will rage for a long time about Night Ranger being 'too pop' but I think if you judged these guys based upon musical talent and the sheer likability of their tunes ALONE, folks would forget entirely the silly debate and enjoy what these guys did best.

Who could hear 'You Can Still Rock In America' or 'Sing Me Away' and doubt their talent as rock & rollers? Or take a listen to 'Sister Christian' (I am STILL curious as to what Motorin' means from the lyrics...) or 'Sentimental Street' and assume that power ballad's were beyond their ability...no Night Ranger went beyond the typical definition of what bands usually were in the 80's. These are of course the big radio songs that made Night Ranger popular, however several other stand-out songs propel this greatest hits package to above-average status...like: 'Rumour's In The Air' (one of my personal fav's) and although the movie was huge, the title track from 'The Secret of My Success' never made it nearly as big, but should have. These guys are also great performers on stage. If you ever saw one of their concerts, you'd know what I mean.

I must confess that I was one of the naysayers about this group until my boss at the radio station assigned me to attend the Night Ranger Concert and officiate all of our backstage pass winners instead of going to the Van Halen concert that I REALLY wanted to go to...well I was rather upset and feeling bitter against my boss AND the band...but it didn't take long for these boys to win me over (and I consider myself pretty picky). Not only were they VERY nice, but they could actually perform really WELL. VERY impressive, and I've seen a LOT of concerts, too. Are they as good as Pink Floyd? Not by a long shot...but they were better than the night I saw Van Halen and David Lee Roth was drunk off his hind-quarters. All I'm saying is if you are a Night Ranger fan, you are gonna love this CD, if you aren't, then pass it by and grab something else...I for one am happy to add this one to my personal collection.

-DJ Jazzy Jeff

This CD is a guilty pleasure, but what a pleasure! The one word that sums up this greatest hits compilation is "fun." If you were a fan of Night Ranger during its heyday, this CD will put a smile on your face. This may not be the greatest rock ever created, but it's energetic, well-done and...fun. Sure, it's a little cheesy in places ("Secret of My Success", for instance), but that just bumps up the fun meter another notch. If you grew up in the midwest, you will likely enjoy it even more, because you heard half these songs on the radio all the time in the 80s.

The secret of your success in selecting music is buying this disc!

Night Ranger seemed to me to be one of those bands that just kept missing the brass ring. Musically, they had the chops--bear in mind that guitarist Brad Gillis played with Ozzy Osbourne before Night Ranger, and Ozzy has pretty good taste in guitarists--but their songs were just a little too generic. However, they did excel at ballads, long before the Warrants and the Firehouses of the world did. "Sister Christian" is perhaps the best known, but "Sentimental Street" and particularly the beautifully arranged "Goodbye" are a cut above the norm, and drummer Kelly Keagy's rough-edged vocals complement them perfectly. Overall, a decent package of a band that never could decide if they wanted to be rock or pop, and sometimes tried to hard to be both.

There are many great 80s bands out there and Night Ranger ranks among the best of the best. Jack Blades has one of the top perm fros of the 80s and backs the top level hairdo up with top of the line vocal bliss. I think every track on this thing is a platinum single in itself, but if you are going to keep bugging me about my favorites I'll go ahead and tell you. "Sister Christian" is one of the 20 greatest moments in the history of rock n' roll. It's the story of a girl who is motorin, which is a subject most hair bands refuse to tackle. The video for the song could've won an oscar if they would have extended it to the hour and a half it deserved. So the song is 5 minutes long you say? If you played it 30 straight times as a backdrop to the heartwarming story of a girls journey into manhood people would lap it up like a bowl of Sunny D. So as good as Sister Christian is, "Don't tell me you love me" might even be better. Blades takes you on a mystery tour on this song telling the chicks not to say they love him because he doesn't want to know. How genius is that? If a girl tells you they love you, you are kind of stuck in it for the long haul unless you're a love 'em leave 'em type like Kites. But if the girl doesn't tell you she loves you, you can go on assuming you're just there to hook with one another with no strings attached. Speaking of strings, this cd is missing the cover of "Billie Jean" done with Millard South string section that blew the doors off the Steinhauer music festival in 87. Overall, this is top of the line rock that you should be proud of owning.

To represent one of the greatest 80s rock bands. You Can Still Rock In America still rings in my ear. Excellent anthem for great American rock. Sing Me Away is my personal #1 favorite. When You Close Your Eyes ties with Rock In America at my #2 favorite. Sister Christian ,their biggest hit so far ,went to #5 in Billboard single chart in 1984. Eddie's Coming Out Tonight and Rumors In The Air were for Japanese bonus tracks but glad to find newer edition added those because I love them!! 12 tracks were not enough to get to know them. Besides you must not forget that they produced two more great albums, not included in this compilation, Neverland and Seven which are essential rock releases of 90s.

Great songs like this aren't found anymore. Sister Christian, Goodbye, When You Close Your Eyes are all winners that sound as good today as they did 10-15 years ago. I wish todays music sounded so good!

There are no new songs on this album, so if you are a die hard fan, you can probably skip this album, since you'll have all the songs anyway on the other albums. However, it's a good collection of songs, and if you're not sure if you want to buy all 5 of the 80s Night Ranger albums, than this one is a good place to start.