Customer Reviews

Southern Pacific - Greatest Hits

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This eighties group brought together various session musicians, some of whom had previously been members of famous rock groups. The members who recorded their first album (Southern Pacific) in 1985 were Tim Goodman (lead and background vocals, acoustic guitar, synthesizer), John McFee, former member of the Doobie Brothers (lead and background vocals, electric guitar, steel guitar, mandolin, banjo, violin, dobro), Keith Knudsen, also a former member of the Doobie Brothers (background vocals, drums & percussion), Jerry Scheff (background vocals, bass), and Glenn D. Hardin (background vocals, piano and synthesizer).

Jerry Scheff and Glenn D Hardin left after the first album. New members for the second album (Killbilly hill) in 1986 were Stu Cook, formerly of Creedence Clearwater Revival (bass and vocals) and Kurt Howell (keyboards and some lead vocals).

Tim Goodman left after the second album. His replacement, David Jenkins, was with the group to record the third album (Zuma) in 1988 but quit before the final original album (County line) was recorded in 1990. He was not replaced. On the Zuma album, John McFee was lead singer on some songs, a role he continued in on County line.

This collection, released at about the time that the group disbanded, rounds up most of their country hits but there is at least one notable omission - Don't let go of my heart. Most of the songs here are originals, though there is a cover of Thing about you (Tom Petty) featuring Emmylou as duet singer, I go to pieces (Del Shannon) and a live version of Pink Cadillac (Bruce Springsteen). All the other songs were written by members of the group except Time's up, a duet with Carlene Carter recorded at a time when she was making the best music of her career. Other great songs include Any way the wind blows, Reno bound, New shade of blue and Perfect stranger - but I love all the songs here.

If you enjoy the rocking country music produced by such groups as Alabama, Exile and Sawyer Brown, you might enjoy this, especially if you also enjoy rock music by such acts as Tom Petty, the Doobie Brothers and Creedence Clearwater Revival.

This too, is one of my all-time favorite bands. I have seen them perform with Asleep at the Wheel and others. From such deep roots as the Doobie Bros and CCR, spawned Southern Pacific in the mid 80's. Unfortunately this is the only SO-PAC album still in circulation. Other favorites were County Line and Killbilly Hill. After Keith Knudsen and Stu Cook are done with their respective projects, the world would love to hear such harmonies and rythmns again.

Yeah, you have heard this bands songs before.

I wouldn't say this is earthshaking stuff, but most of it is quite suprising. I'd say they were a step or two below the Desert Rost Band.

They went through a lot of changes, and it shows as you go through the songs and there are several different lead vocalists and styles.

You won't really be disapointed with this cd, loyal fans should go for the original albums.

But if you are serious about your collections, you do need something from this band in it, and this cd will do nicely.

Although only 3 of their top 40 hits are missing in favor of 2 album tracks and a live version of their cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Pink Cadillac," this CD does give you nearly all of the biggest hits including all of the essentials of this band for most people including "Any Way The Wind Blows" (from the movie "Pink Cadillac"), "Reno Bound," "Midnight Highway," "Honey I Dare You," their cover of Tom Petty's "Thing About You" with Emmylou Harris (Tom's original can be found on "Hard Promises"), their acapella cover of the Peter & Gordon hit "I Go To Pieces," "Time's Up" with Carlene Carter, and their biggest hit, the Eagle-esque "New Shade of Blue" which went to #2 in 1988. Although they recorded only 4 albums from 1985-1989 (twofers of all 4 of their albums are available here at Amazon and are worthwhile for diehard fans), this CD will definitely suffice for most people.

SOUTHERN PACIFIC-GREATEST HITS: Rockers going country is hardly a new idea; ELVIS and JERRY LEE LEWIS straddled the line as far back as their early SUN sides, while a handful of later pop stars like DOUG SAHM and BILLY JOE ROYAL made successful forays into the twang ring. SOUTHERN PACIFIC was an 80s ensemble of former CREEDENCE and DOOBIES members, no strangers themselves to an occasional steel lick. Breakthrough hit THING ABOUT YOU was an amiable TOM PETTY remake bolstered by sweet siren EMMYLOU HARRIS, while the BOSS road trip classic PINK CADILLAC and the DEL SHANNON-penned I GO TO PIECES proved to be other canny cover choices. Spring-steppin' group originals RENO BOUND, ANY WAY THE WIND BLOWS, and HONEY I DARE YOU (the latter two sung by PABLO CRUISE frontman DAVID JENKINS) held up to similar streamlined twangers peddled by SAWYER BROWN and HIGHWAY 101 during the same era. While SOUTHERN PACIFIC proved to be a short-lived supergroup, GREATEST HITS packages a baker's dozen of bouncy ear-catchers just beggin' to be sung along to.

RATING: THREE RAILS

An excellent compilation of the western rock hits put out by Southern Pacific during the late 80's and early 90's.

I bought this cd for my dad and he loves it.He was surprised it was on cd...LOL

I originally had this as a cassette and it became unplayable, so I ordered this to replace it. Southern Pacific was a great group. Too bad they didn't last.

Any fan of the group Southern Pacific will love this album. Hits such as "New Shade of Blue," "Any way the wind Blows," "Reno Bound," and "Perfect stranger" are good choices for it. It will not disappoint you if you get it. I recommend this to any fan.

My husband love's southern pacific's music along with me to. We used to have the cd but could not find it. I've been trying to find the cd for month's. My daughter told me to try amazon.com and sure enough I found Southern Pacific's CD's. I ordered two of the cd's and loved them. The music is great!!! Not only did we get the music that we already knew but got there newer song's that we had not heard and they are great. I would definitely recommend anyone to buy the cd's because they are great.