Customer Reviews

The Hollies' Greatest Hits

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I owned this album when it came out originally. Okay, I know that dates this lass, but I trailed after my uncles and older brothers and developed a taste for the music they were listening to so was a wee bit ahead for my age. Gene Pitney, The Searches, the Moody Blues and the Hollies. Oh, dear, I would have run away with Allan Clarke! hehehe. Handsome black-haired men always touched my heart, and oh could Clarke win a girl's heart harmonizing with the great Graham Nash.

Well, this is an album I bought again when cassettes came out and bought yet again on CD. Will buy whatever the next format that comes along. I wore the record out! Bus Stop - is there a more romantic tune? Hollies were an upbeat rock group. You couldn't sit still, yet there was so much passion in their lyrics. Same for Air That I Breathe, over a decade later! Such a passionate song that is timeless. Less romantic, but still a classic, He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother. Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress proved the Hollies just kept going on and on when other British Invasion groups gave up the ghost and stuck their spoon in the wall. Stop, Stop, Stop is a funny song my father thought was entirely too racy for me. Ah, how times change.

I am surprised how well these song "aged". I enjoy them as much now as I did them.

A must for all Hollies fans. If you are looking to get into the group, there is not better entrance.

Unless you have nostalgia for this album when you bought it back in the 1970's, I recommend leaving this CD alone. For the same price there are many import Hollies hits CD's that will give you more songs. (btw Epic doesn't have the original first generation master tapes, EMI in England does.)

The only advantage this new remaster has over the original Epic CD is improved sound quality (they fixed the horrible drop-outs that plagued "Bus Stop" and "He' Ain't Heavy") and the compilers used the full length version of "Long Dark Road" instead of the edited 45 single version that was on the original album and CD.

I wish the compilers could have added more of the Hollies Imperial-Epic singles (and even the ones that didn't make it in the USA like "I'm Alive", "Listen To Me", "Sorry Suzanne", "The Baby" "Jesus was a Crossmaker", "Don't Let Me Down" "Sandy" and "Draggin' My Heels") and make this an more comprehensive compilation. But instead to keep it at a low price they only added "Air That I Breathe" to the original track listing.

If you only want the USA hits, this is fine - but if you want the classic UK-only hits like "I Can't Let Go" and some great obscurities check out the imports. The Hollies made lots of great music beyond these big hits.

I admit, this is bubblegum music for the most part, but who cares? I enjoy variety in my music, and occasionally The Hollies are an excellent change. Furthermore, while many of The Hollies songs were throwaway tunes with relatively simple lyrics, occasionally The Hollies threw themselves into their music and transcended themselves.

Perhaps the song that was furthest from The Hollies traditional music on this CD is "Long Cool Woman (In a Black Dress)". This song is styled exactly like Credence Clearwater Revival. The song begins with a heavy beat and moves into a fast-paced beat with reverb and solid guitar work that all sounds like the bayou music of CCR; one of The Hollies best works.

Two songs with similar styling that ache for a big hall with heavy echo are "The Air That I Breathe" and "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" are both slow, mellow songs. "The Air That I Breathe" begins with a wailing lead guitar leading immediately into a heavy vocal. But it's the harmony in the refrain that everyone who lived from the 70s will remember with its soaring vocals. Play it loud in a big room. While some called it a pop travesty or sickly-sweet, I admit to liking this song a lot. I've also seen where one reviewer stated that this song was a prelude to Abba's music, and perhaps in some ways there is some similarity in styling. Of course, I also like Abba too.

The other, somewhat similar, song is "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother". Somewhat maudlin, with a wailing harmonica interjected from time to time, and soaring vocals on the refrain, in some ways this song is like a reprise of "The Air That I Breathe". Perhaps I just have a thing for sickly-sweet songs from the 60s and 70s. In any case, I love to play this song really loud.

The Hollies were around for a long time, releasing albums from 1963 to 1983. However, most of their hits came in the 60s and early 70s. Most of their top 40 hits are on this CD; however, a word of caution. While this CD contains the core Hollies songs, there are collections with many more songs. If you are interested in The Hollies top 40 music, then this CD is likely perfect for you. If you think you might like more than just the top 40 music, you may want to go find one of the collections that is more of a "best of" than just their single hits.

One other word of caution; this CD has a paucity of liner notes. I think most people look for some history of a group or the songs, and liner notes have started to become mini-biographies and histories. Forget about that for this CD, there are some but not nearly enough. There may be another CD out there that has better liner notes, but I am unable to direct you to it.

Yes, The Hollies had bubblegum music. Yes, some of it may be considered sickly-sweet. But I still enjoy listening to it. Perhaps it reminds me of my 60s youth. Occasionally The Hollies were able to rise above their own throwaway music to create classics that are played and enjoyed again and again. 4 stars for the good songs on this CD, not reaching 5 because of the lack of good liner notes.

This is, of course, by far the biggest selling Hollies "best of" disc.

However, a much better-sounding alternative import single-disc compilation, On a Carousel, 1963-1974: The Ultimate Hollies, made available by Australia's Raven Records label.

The remastered audio on the Raven disc is far and away superior to this disc, even though it was re-vamped just a few years ago.

The Raven CD has every track on this disc, but has nearly double the music, 25 tracks vs. the paltry 13 here.

The import is a little extra money, but eminently more worth it.

This version of the Hollies Greatest Hits is superior to the one that was available for many years. The original covered only the period until Grahm Nash left to join Crosby, Stills and Nash. As a result, it was missing "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother" and "The Air that I Breathe," two of the band's best known songs. This package corrects that deficiency. The rest of the material is pure 60s bubblegum pop, with the exception of "Long, Cool Woman," an obvious homage to Creedence Clearwater Revival. If you dig the band's hits, this is the collection for you.

Yeah, they could've done a LOT better...

Legacy Records, I mean. NOT the Hollies themselves.

I bought this hoping to expect a major improvement over the horrible sounding original CD release back in the late '80's. True enough, the sound quality is a major improvement, as you can't go wrong with Vic Anesini as mastering engineer. In fact, I think some of this may have even been remixed... "King Midas in Reverse" sounds like a completely different mix. Of course, that could just be the improvement in sound quality.

And of course, the music is awesome, too. I wouldn't have bought it if it wasn't, after all. This really is pop at its finest, along with the Beatles, of course.

My complaint is with the packaging...

Legacy Records is well respected and well known for releasing CD's with improved packaging, new liner notes, original photos, etc. etc. etc. This CD is a different story altogether, though, which I'll list accordingly.

1. The packaging is horrible. Yes, there ARE new liner notes, but they occupy only the back side of the booklet. Compare that to the liner notes which were in the original CD release. They occupied about three pages front and back in the booklet, and were much more complete. Not to mention they at least had two photos. In the reissue, the only information in the booklet is the track listing with the songwriters, year released, and all that other technical info. Not to mention that the CD inlay isn't much better. It looks like it came right out of one of those Sony releases in the late '80's: ugly brown with nothing more than the track listing inside of a beige box. No colorful photos, information blurbs, NOTHING! ... isn't it? Come on, Legacy! There's nothing more sad than an original release outshines the reissue. This is the kind of treatment I would expect from Atlantic Records, but NOT Legacy.

2. They altered the running order, which doesn't bother me, but the thing is, the pictures on the front cover collage are numbered according to the song which they "represent," so to speak. The original CD release had the correct songs matched up with the pictures on the front. They could've *easily* fixed the numbers on the pictures to correspond to the altered sequencing, but of course, they didn't. And yes, I know, it's pretty stupid to complain about such a small thing, but it annoys me nonetheless.

3. Only ONE bonus track?!?!?! The total CD length only runs 41 minutes WITH the addition of "The Air That I Breathe." They could've just as easily added in another two tracks or so, as they do with most of their other reissues. One track that springs to mind is "Jennifer Eccles." If this CD had that song, it would be perfect. But they didn't add it, though they should've.

So there you go: This CD is a ..., to say the least. The only thing it gets right is that the sound quality is leaps and bounds better than the previous release. If you're looking for better packaging, you're in for a disappointment.

This was the epitome of cheerful Britpop in the 1960s. The teenage love songs like Carrie-Anne, Looking Through Any Window and Bus Stop still shine with their shimmering harmonies and exuberant playing on catchy tunes and romantic lyrics. This bright vocal pop is often disdained by rock snobs, but none can deny that these songs were well crafted and expertly performed. Just consider The Hollies a UK male version of Phil Spector's famous girl groups. Later, in the 1970s, they became more serious with songs like He Aint Heavy and The Air That I Breathe, two slow ballads with much gravitas. The frenzied rock of Long Cool Woman is atypical of their style but gave them a huge hit. This Very Best album is by no means comprehensive but does contain their most familiar songs, being the perfect collection for the casual fan. For completists, there are more extensive compilations available.

The Hollies always reminded me of The Beatles - interesting, inventive melodies; folky, jangly guitars; multi-layered harmonies - and that's probably why they caught my attention in the first place. This collection has the obvious hits you would expect: the excellent folk-rockish "Bus Stop", "He Ain't Heavy", "Long Cool Woman" and the gorgeous "Air That I Breathe". But it also includes songs that I remember as rather big hits that aren't heard frequently on radio these days, namely "Stop, Stop, Stop" and "Look Through Any Window". And lesser hits that I remember fondly, like "Just One Look" and "Pay You Back With Interest". Even a couple that I don't remember at all are pretty good: "Dear Eloise" and "King Midas in Reverse". The sound is mostly sharp and clear. "Bus Stop" sounds especially good. However, be forewarned that "Bus Stop" and some other tracks, like some Beatles tracks, have the vocals on one side of the stereo and the instruments on the other. That might bother some people, but I'm used to it. All in all, I'm satisfied and very happy that I bought this CD. I can't think of any significant song that was omitted from it.

Despite the remastering, the first three songs on this CD are apparently still reproduced in mono. When heard through headphones, the vocal and some of the music comes out though the right speaker and the rest of the music comes out through the left speaker. No vocal is heard through the left speaker. I owned this collection before it was remastered and I don't recall this happening. I also own the two disc Hollies Greatest Hits collection and this does not occur on either of those discs. On the two disc set, the vocal comes out through both speakers. Somebody messed up!

Boy could this band do a perfect pop song! Their music still sounds fresh, the harmonies could melt the polar caps, and the hooks are perfect. I love this cd and I like "He Ain't Heavy, He's My brother" but that song is so out of place from the other tunes.

Hey all you power poppers, salute one of the founding fathers of the genre!