Procol Harum - Greatest Hits [Original recording remastered]

Procol Harum | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 7, 1996)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: A&M
• ASIN: B000002G5E
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,072 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #40 in Music > World Music > Europe > British Isles > Britain
  • #85 in Music > Classic Rock > Psychedelic Rock

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Lame collection from a great band., July 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Procol Harum - Greatest Hits (Audio CD)

Typical of A&M's shabby treatment of it's domestic rock catalog (ie. Strawbs), this lame greatest hits collection is a huge disappointment. The remastering is weak, the song selection limited to a mere 12 cuts, and the liner notes should have been much more extensive. Procol Harum fans are running to their import retailers in massive numbers to buy the superior, recently remastered individual albums, complete with numerous bonus cuts. Guess A&M would rather not have our money these days...

29 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars needs more than a dash of Trower, July 20, 2005

By 

Don Schmittdiel "running_man" (Clinton Twp., MI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Procol Harum - Greatest Hits (Audio CD)

One purpose to releasing a 'Greatest Hits' collection is to generate the listeners interest in purchasing other productions by the artist. That was my goal in purchasing this collection by Procol Harum. Nevermind that the album would have been better titled 'The Best Of', since Procol Harum only scored three charting songs in the US ('A Whiter Shade of Pale', which reached number 5 in July of 1967, 'Homburg' at number 34 four months later, and 'Conquistador' at number 16 in 1972), and five in their UK homeland ('A Whiter Shade...' not once, but twice, in '67 [when it reached #1] and in a 1972 stereo version [#13], 'Homburg', 'Conquistador', and 'Pandora's Box', which ironically is not included in this 'Greatest Hits' compilation). Like most progressive rock bands, the magic of Procol Harum supposedly lies in their long-form pieces, not in pandering to Top 40 success.

It is instructive to note that the arrangement of the songs offered on 'Greatest Hits' is not chronological. In fact, the final three songs on the disc are some of the earliest tracks the band produced. I would speculate that the producer, Bob Garcia, arranged these tracks according to their perceived quality and popularity, since the opening six tracks are clearly where the meat of the album resides. 'Greatest Hits' is squarely focused on the first 5 years of the band's output, offering 4 tracks from 1967's 'Procol Harum', and two each from 1968's 'Shine On Brightly', 1969's 'A Salty Dog', 1970's 'Home', and 1971's 'Broken Barricades'. Pretty democratic for a bunch of English socialists!

I was inspired to track down an affordable copy of a compilation of Procol's best after seeing a Musikladen performance of 'Simple Sister' in which the band really cooked, especially lead guitarist Robin Trower. The studio version of that track is offered here, and while it's certainly enjoyable, the band never seems to catch fire on this track the way they did for German TV. The studio version is too formulaic. Nevertheless, the live 1972 version of 'Conquistador' does cook, as does 'Whiskey Train', with a great lead guitar foundation laid down by Trower. The title tracks from the band's 1968 and 1969 albums, 'Shine On Brightly' and 'A Salty Dog' follow, both airing the band's trademark 'classical, epic' mode. I'm much more fond of this band when they're laying down merciless rock and roll, and while the second track, 'A Whiter Shade of Pale', is an undeniable masterpiece, I can only take so much of that dirge-like tempo. The longest track, 'Whaling Stories' at 7:07 takes that tempo to the extreme. Unfortunately, none of the remaining tracks on the disc ever get back to the ragged edge of 'Simple Sister' and 'Whiskey Train'.

The liner notes for 'Greatest Hits' state that Patricia Sullivan remastered these tracks at A&M studios, and while most of the disc sounds fine, it is listed as an AAD recording, two of the tracks are in mono ('Homburg' and 'In the Wee Small Hours of Sixpence', which is so 'British' it may strain your sensibilities anyway), and 'A Whiter Shade Of Pale' is the 1972 "reprocessed stereo" version, which means fake stereo. So the remastering leaves something to be desired as well.

While this album hasn't completely darkened my interest in Procol Harum, I am convinced I need to find a collection more centered on Robin Trower's metallic contributions to their legacy. Any suggestions?

21 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Q. How many times can you release the same collection?, March 14, 2001

By 

Scott T Mc Nally (ORLANDO, Fl USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Procol Harum - Greatest Hits (Audio CD)

A. AS MANY TIMES AS THEY DAMN WELL FEEL LIKE

Shame on you, A&M. All you've done here is is rehash a best of collection origianlly put out in the early 70's, and while I'm on my soapbox, why are "Broken Barricades" and "Live With The Edmonton Symphony" not available? A&M was once the most adventurous label out there, but when it comes to all the great talent they championed in the late 60's through the 70's, it's downright sad that they put out these half baked "best of" collections.

There's some great stuff here, but Procol Harum along with The Strawbs and Joan Armatrading, deserve to have their entire A&M catalogs available. The Strawbs at least got a great 2 disc anthology a couple of years back (Most of their other catalog is only available as pricey imports) and they were not as well known stateside as Procol Harum. I certainly hope that A&M gets off it's duff or that a small label comes along and re-masters all that is currently unavailable from this ground breaking band.