Customer Reviews

Greatest Hits

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

I can't imagine what the purpose of this album is, unless the NFL pushed its release. All great songs, but chopping "Who Are You" in half is unforgivable. Then and Now was a nice, better, one disk collection, but buy the Ultimate Collection instead - you'll be glad you did.

Sorry, but the remastering on this CD is awful. All of the previous Who collection sound better, especially "Then and Now." Skip this.

Decent retrospective of the Who's 17 hits plus 2 non-hits. The first non-hit, "Real good looking boy" is a very good tune. I suspect they cut "Who are you" in half to make room for the dreadful last song, "It's not enough". I never really liked the song or album "Who are you", but you cannot chop three minutes off it and worse yet, not mention it anywhere that it'a an edit. Inexcusable!!!!!!

I agree completely with the reviewer who commented on the poor sound quality of this disc. I've been a Who fan since seeing them back in 1968, and have listed to quite a bit of their music over the last 40+ years, including the many "greatest hits" packages the group has put out. Compared to prior greatest hits offerings, the sound mix on this package is atrocious. The bass is cranked up so high on many of the songs, that the sound is muddy and borders on being distorted. Other songs contain noticeable hiss (i.e. "Happy Jack") that other versions of the song did not. As far as the Who's greatest hits packages are concerned, purchase "Then And Now" or the more complete (double disc) Ultimate Collection released back in 2002. Better yet, go with the Thirty Years Of Maximum R&B box set released back in 1994, which provides both stellar sound and a comprehensive musical history of the group. It's sad to think that a new "generation" of Who fans are being introduced to this iconic group by way of such poorly mastered releases as this.

Poorly remastered, some are too soft, some louder, it should all be the same. Also not all songs are the long versions.

This much-maligned album was initially released in December of 2009. It features nineteen hit tunes that were written by the incomparable Pete Townshend. The album was rushed out, not due to fan demand, but to capitalize on the band's performance as Super Bowl XLIV's halftime show on the following February.

Is it as bad as people say? I don't think so. The tunes are all very good, though admittedly they could have stood being remastered. If you have an even relatively extensive Who collection, then you will not really get anything new here, though it does contain some newer tracks than their 1983 Greatest Hits album.

As for me, I found this to be a very good album, one that I really enjoyed listening to. It has the best of the best, including I Can See For Miles, Behind Blue Eyes, You Better You Bet, and that stellar tune, Baba O'Riley.

I am shocked at how poor the re-mastering is on this CD, and want to provide another review to say this - just so the overall star rating is as low as it should be. The sound on several selections is noticeably muddy and dull. How a 2009 release of hits by important musicians, released on a supposedly reputable label, would be so poorly mastered seems cynical and somewhat inexplicable. I wasted my money on this, don't waste yours.

Who would buy this you ask?... Me.
Who shoud NOT buy this... YOU!
I was instore and did not have the benifit of fine Amazon customer reviews. You will have no excuse. Not only does the remastering stink, its hard to believe there was any done. The first song sounds like it's coming through a tin can. I only paid 4.99 and I'm complaining! Not knocking The Who, just this particular collection. The cover is the only thing that deserves a star.

The Who is my favorite band - I'll get that out of the way up front. This is a nice collection of excellent music, but it's all been done before. With the exception of the final track (It's Not Enough), all of these songs have appeared on various collections going back over four decades. Even Real Good Looking Boy was originally part of a greatest hits package and has already appeared on the soundtrack to "Amazing Journey" which, since it's a biography of the band, is just another greatest hits collection. And, with the possibility of another Who album in the near future, I'm sure we'll see all these songs together again one (or ten) more times.

That being said, if you're not necessarily a Who fan, but want some of their music in your library, then this collection isn't a bad choice; there are better collections, but "Greatest Hits" does contain all the songs a casual fan would want. On the other hand, if you are looking for a more comprehensive collection, you won't be satisfied with this cd.

As for the cd itself, the sound, as others have noted, isn't particularly good on some tracks, and I can't figure out why they chopped Who Are You. Not only that, they did a little editing - "Who the f*** are you?" has become "Who t h*** are you?". The only thing that differentiates this collection from earlier packages is the inclusion of the two post-Entwistle songs. Unlike most other reviewers, I think It's Not Enough is a solid song (one of Daltrey's finest vocals), but it's inclusion here is somewhat odd as it's not even the best song from "Endless Wire."

All in all, "Greatest Hits" is a decent collection, but when several other better collections are still in print, this cd doesn't offer enough to make it worthwhile.

Can this be real??? The Who's first greatest hits was Magic Bus-The Who, in 1968, then there was Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy in 1971. Between then and now there have been probably a dozen Who greatest hits albums. I think there are now more greatest hits albums than there are Who studio albums, and that is no joke. There are already 6 too many greatest hits albums, and they're all redundant. They all have Pinball Wizard, Baba O'Reily, Who Are You, etc. If you are interested in The Who, and would like to know their music a bit better, get yourself Who's Next. If you still want to know more, try Tommy or Quadrophenia. If it's their live sound you're after, Live At Leeds is the one for you. If you want their more recent 'live' sound, go for Live At The Royal Albert Hall. The point is, their albums are good, some better than others, and some rock masterpieces, but they're all good. But do yourself and your wallet a big favor - RUN from these Greatest Hits cash-grabs.
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