Customer Reviews

Molly Hatchet - Greatest Hits [Expanded]

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Yes, they are not as smooth as the Allman's or talented as Skynyrd, but Molly Hatchet deserves a place in the Southern Rock Hall Of Fame. They always had a little bit more of a "hard rock/metal" edge" to their music; moreso than any other "southern rock" band. The fact this album has been remastered and extra tracks added makes purchasing it a no brainer. If you enjoy fired up, electrified, Southern blues-based, boogie rock, add this to cart, NOW!

Of all the Southern rock bands who followed in the footsteps of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Molly Hatchet was probably closest to the original, at least in term of their sound. Hatchet's songwriting, however, could never hope to compete with Ronnie Van Zandt and company. Not to say they didn't try, and thier expanded greatest hits CD places them a notch above, say, a lightweight act like .38 Special.

The best tracks on the album are "Flirtin' With Disaster," Hatchet's best known song, the Skynyrd-referenced "Gator Country" an ace Allman Brothers cover "Dreams I'll Never See" and the burning rockers "Whiskey Man" and "Bounty Hunter." Of the extra tracks included on the CD, the cover of "It's All Over Now" stands out. On the downside, the live material is fairly flat and the two new songs recorded for the collection (1990) are relatively forgettable.

Overall, a decent collection of second generation southern boogie for those who can't get enough Skynyrd.

You're in for a big surprise when you listen to Molly Hatchet's "Greatest Hits." Tired of waiting on the local classic rock station to play more than just "Flirtin' With Disaster," I broke down and bought this disc to see what Molly Hatchet was all about. Having grown up in the South my entire life, I've always been exposed to great Southern Rock bands like Skynyrd, the polished .38 Special, the Allman Brothers, and later acts like the Black Crowes, but Hatchet always seemed to fall between the cracks with me. This album has made me a Hatchet fan for life with blistering rockers like "Beatin' The Odds" and "Bloody Reunion." It also has what is quite possibly my new favorite Southern Rock tune, "Gator Country." You'll hear other greats like "Whiskey Man," "Satisfied Man" and "Dreams I'll Never See."

Molly Hatchet is definitely one of the heaviest Southern Rock bands out there. Unfortunately they don't seem to garner the respect nor the attention that they deserve. If you love Southern Rock, definitely buy this album. It's made me hungry for more Hatchet, and I'll be buying the rest of their albums very soon.

THE BAND: Original members - Danny Joe Brown (vocals, R.I.P.), Dave Hlubek (guitar), Steve Holland (guitar), Duane Roland (guitar), Banner Thomas (bass), Bruce Crump (drums & percussion).

THE DISC: (1985) 12 tracks originally clocking in at approximately 59 minutes. Included with the disc is a minimal 2-page foldout with song titles/credits/times, and what songs came from which albums. Re-addressed in 2001 with unreleased tracks being shuffled to the end of the disc, plus 3 additional songs from the Danny Joe Brown era included. Digitally remastered sound. Label - Epic / CBS Records.

ALBUM REPRESENTATION: 1985 version - Molly Hatchet (3 songs), Flirtin' With Disaster (3), Double Trouble - Live (3), No Guts, No Glory (1), Unreleased (2). The 2001 version adds 3 tracks - 1 each from their debut, Flirtin' With Disaster and The Deed Is Done.

COMMENTS: If you grew up on the east coast in the 1970's and 80's, you probably experienced the southern rock movement first hand. Molly Hatchet fit nicely between the main players - Lynyrd Skynyrd, Allman Brothers, 38 Special, Charlie Daniels Band, The Outlaws, Blackfoot, Marshall Tucker Band, etc. I won't dare compare them because I always felt as long as Danny Joe Brown was singing, Molly Hatchet could stand on their own. THE GOOD: As for the music, most of the early staples are here - "Bounty Hunter", "Gator Country", one of my favorite remakes in Gregg Allman's "Dreams I'll Never See", "Flirtin' With Disaster", "Whiskey Man", "Beatin' The Odds", "Fall Of The Peacemakers", etc. The digitally remastered sound is clean and sounds far superior to the original albums. THE NOT SO GOOD: Nothing wrong with only featuring the songs of Danny Joe Brown, but it's only 1/3 of the total picture. Even if they can't match Brown's presence on stage or in the recording studio, the 2 other singers deserve some credit (and they did have some good songs). Perhaps a 2-disc release is needed for the full effect... because Jimmy Farrar ("Beatin' The Odds") and Phil McCormack (1996-present) deserve some kind of mention. Even the live songs from Farrar's tenure are sung by Brown (this stunt reminds me of several of Iron Maiden's compilations - with Paul Di'Anno's songs being sung live by Bruce Dickinson). Even Sony's "Essential" release (a mere 14 tracks on a single disc) is lacking in the same respect. This "Greatest Hits" package takes songs from 4 studio albums... meaning there is no song representation from "Silent Reign Of Heroes", "Take No Prisoners", "Kingdom Of XII", "Lightning Strikes Twice", "Locked & Loaded", "Warrior's Of The Rainbow Bridge", and "Devil's Canyon". There's room on the disc for more songs... so with the unused space I would've liked to have seen a few semi classics that were missed - "Jukin' City", "Big Apple", "On The Prowl", "Sweet Dixie", and "Dead & Gone". Hatchet's early album artwork was always cool - thanks to Frank Frazetta lending some of his gorgeous old artwork. The album cover illustration on this "Greatest Hits" by Richard Kriegler is average at best. In my opinion, something from Frazetta was surely needed here. OVERALL: Decent collection of songs but it ultimately left me wanting more. "Greatest Hits" is nothing close to a career spanning package. This should be considered a "Volume I" compilation only. The songs from their 1st two albums are well represented, but there's too many songs from too many albums missing to make this a complete collection. (3.5 stars).

This is an excellent cross section of their work. It has almost all their hits except for Stone in your heart. The other selections are very good too..i.e. Whiskey Man, Boogie no more, Fall of the peacemakers, bloody reunion. Can't quite put everything on a one disc cd but this does a very good job of it

This is a decent hits collection of Hatchet's studio output up to 1990. All of the band's most popular songs are here, but it is far from complete. The album only represents tracks from 4 of Hatchet's albums and I think they have at least 10 or more releases. If you are just looking for a strict greatest hits disc this is a decent collection, but if you are looking for an overview of the band I would recommend the live Double Trouble Live as a better representation. Most of the tracks here are also on the live album, plus some additional material from later in their career. There are also two new (at the time) songs on this collection, Shake The House Down, and Ragtop Deluxe, neither of which are anything spectacular.

EXCELLENT!!! THIS CD CONTAINS 15 MOLLY HATCHET/SOUTHERN ROCK ANTHEMS!!!
THE SOUND AND RECORDING OF THIS CD IS EXCELLENT. YOU GET ALL THEIR CLASSICS AND THE ORIGINAL STUDIO VERSIONS OF THOSE CLASSICS.

MOLLY HATCHET IS A JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA SOUTHERN ROCK BAND!!!

SOME HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE: BOUNTY HUNTER, GATOR COUTRY, FLIRTIN WITH DISASTER, DREAMS I'LL NEVER SEE (EXCELLENT!!! - THIS STUDIO VERSION IS ONE OF THE GREATEST SONGS EVER RECORDED!!!), BEATIN THE ODDS, "FALL OF THE PEACEMAKERS", THE CREEPER, SATISFIED MAN, AND SHAKE THE HOUSE DOWN.

THIS CD IS SOUTHERN ROCK AT ITS BEST, AND IS "ESSENTIAL" TO ANY COMPREHENSIVE SOUTHERN ROCK MUSIC COLLECTION!!! I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS ONE!!!!

If you're hankerin' for a little old school southern rock, this one's for you! I ordered this for my husband for christmas along with some Outlaws, both of which he is wearing out! Really brings back some good memories! You need to add this to your collection!

MOLLY HATCHET-GREATEST HITS: With its trademark triple threat axe attack, MOLLY HATCHET always came off as a harder rockin' but ultimately poor man's cousin to fellow Floridians LYNYRD SKYNYRD. GREATEST HITS conveniently ignores the fact that bloozey growler JIMMY FARRAR replaced original good ol' boy belter DANNY JOE BROWN for two albums, substituting mediocre DJB-sung live versions of two FARRAR chestnuts, BEATIN' THE ODDS and BLOODY REUNION. Early radio staples FLIRTIN' WITH DISASTER, GATOR COUNTRY, and DREAMS I'LL NEVER SEE (a cleverly reconstituted ALLMAN BROTHERS oldie) appear here, but FARRAR-era ballad THE RAMBLER and the band's catty cover of MOUNTAIN's peak MISSISSIPPI QUEEN would have been smarter choices than most of the other tracks. Even with three extra ditties (including a feisty remake of IT'S ALL OVER NOW) tacked onto the expanded version, this so-so collection is hardly the bawdy boogie bash it could have been.

RATING: THREE BLADES

First off allow me to say that I am not one who calls Molly Hatchet a "second tier" southern rock group or one believes they'll always be in "Skynyrd's shadow" or anyone elses shadow for that matter. I don't believe Molly Hatchet ever wanted to be in competiion with Lynyrd Skynyrd nor did they want to sound like them, and they obviously didn't, for anyone who's ears are not adjusted properly.

It's my personal opinion that Molly Hatchet is indeed the greatest southern rockers of all time, your opinion may differ--that's OK. But for people to say that they weren't talented or that they copied some other band or other such nonsense is just that, nonsense.

Now onto the review. I've read several other reviews for this Expanded Greatest hits CD, many of them seem to think that it doesn't have enough songs or the wrong songs, one even thought it should include the Phil McCormack/Bobby Ingram years! Phil didn't even join the group until 1996, this Cd was firt issued in 1990! Besides this is a collection of the Epic years.

Although I agree a Greatest Hits Cd from one of your favorite groups never seems to have ALL the songs you want to hear, remember this is not an anthology, just a single disc greatest hits marketed with the sole purpose of luring both newcomers and old fans in for the kill. The new fans want to hear what Molly Hatchet is all about and still be left wanting more. The old fans who already have all their albums are lured in with the new bonus tracks. So take it for what it is, a handful of tracks meant to leave you wanting more.

The selection is fair enough, very heavy on their first 2 records which were by most accounts, their best. The only real beef I have with the selection is the blatant disregard for the Jimmy Farrar years, only 2 tracks from those years and those 2 are the live versions sung by Danny Joe Brown from the DOUBLE TROUBLE LIVE album. They should've used the original studio versions with Jimmy or even a live track with Jimmy, but not just leave him out all together.

And as far as the new tracks, Ragtop deluxe and Shake the House Down? Spare me, those songs pale in comparison to the classics of the early years. Those are only on there as a gimmick to get fans to buy a collection of songs they already have, again.

So if you're a new fan curious as to what Hatchet is all about, go ahead buy this one, or either of their first 2 albums, the Self-titled or Flirtin' with Disaster--you can't go wrong with either one. Heck, while you're at it get Beatin' the Odds too.