Very Best of Deep Purple [Original recording remastered]

Deep Purple | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 9, 2000)
• Original Release Date: May 9, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Rhino
• ASIN: B00004SWDU
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (88 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #956 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #13 in Music > Hard Rock & Metal > British Metal
  • #34 in Music > Hard Rock & Metal > Pop Metal
  • #35 in Music > Classic Rock > Arena Rock

Track Listings

1. Hush

2. Kentucky Woman (Single Version)

3. Black Night

4. Speed King (U.S. Album Version)

5. Child In Time

6. Strange Kind Of Woman

7. Fireball

8. Demon's Eye

9. Highway Star

10. Smoke On The Water

11. Space Truckin'

12. Woman From Tokyo

13. Burn

14. Stormbringer

15. Knocking At Your Back Door

Editorial Reviews

15 hits, crushing live cuts and album classics for under 12 bucks! Includes Hush; Smoke on the Water; Kentucky Woman (single version); Woman from Tokyo; Speed King (U.S. album version); Child in Time; Space Truckin'; Black Night; Knocking at Your Back Door; Highway Star , and more.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

119 of 141 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Hits the High Points March 19, 2003

By Brian D. Rubendall HALL OF FAME

Format:Audio CD

Deep Purple is the heavy metal equivalent of Yes. Both bands sprung up in the late 1960's, flirted for awhile with the idea of combining classical music with rock, had a relatively brief early 1970s heydays in which they recorded their best albums, had some latter success upon reuniting in the mid-1980s, and have since faded into a long and uninspired twilight that has added little to their legacies. Like Yes, most of Deep Purple's best music resides on a handful of albums ("Machine Head," "Made in Japan," "Perfect Strangers") and any anthology album simply sweeps the other bits and pieces together into one package.

As single disc anthologies go, "The Very Best of Deep Purple," is as tightly packed as it could be (just a tad over 75 minutes of music). And while you can always quibble about track selection around the margains on a disc lke this (I'd have chosen the title track of the band's 1984 comeback album "Perfect Strangers," for example) all of the band's best known tunes are here, including "Smoke on the Water," "Space Truckin'," "Hush," "Woman from Tokyo," "Knocking at Your Back Door." It's also no accident that about 12 of the 15 tunes included were recorded by Purple's "classic" lineup with BOTH vocalist Ian Gillan and guitarist Ritchie Blackmore. Without either one or both of them, the Purples are little better than just another arena rock band. The CD booklet contains lengthy liner notes and photographs from various periods in the band's history.

Overall, a decent single disc anthology album that will be of most interest to the casual fan.

29 of 32 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars NOT THE GREATEST, BUT CLOSE TO IT FOR A PURPLE HITS CD January 4, 2001

By Jay Siekierski

Format:Audio CD

Deep Purple The Very Best Of Deep Purple (Warner Archives/Rhino)

The Very Best Of Deep Purple (Warner Archives/Rhino) collects 15 of Purples' hardest hitting tunes from the various incarnations of the band from the very first LP Shades Of Deep Purple in 1968 to Perfect Strangers in 1984. These songs are culled from the huge Purple box set Shades 1968-1998 (Warner Archives/Rhino) and all are digitally remastered and are FIREBALLS! All songs are the original long album versions except "Kentucky Woman" that is the single version & "Speed King" which is the U.S. Deep Purple In Rock album version and is a shorter version than the release on the U.K. album. All the hits are here "Smoke On The Water," "Hush," "Woman From Tokyo" & "Demon's Eye" to name a few. The booklet has some nice pictures, U.S. album discography and song by song info by 2 DP archivists. Play this LOUD & BURN! A+.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars The very, very, very best? February 2, 2007

By Erick Bertin

Format:Audio CD

Well, yes and no! There're a couple of things that you should know about this release: first, the liner notes claim that this is the first collection of the CD era, which is not entirely true, since the previous "Deepest Purple" compilation was already available (However, the remastering is most welcome!). And that's probably my only complaint (I would actually rate this item with 4 and a half stars, but since the format won't allow me to do that...) about this compilation: it offers very little additional material, only 3 songs that were not included in "Deepest...".

Its title notwithstanding, this CD is a "greatest hits" compilation and not (necessarily) "The Very best", but semantics aside, there are a couple of exceptions of songs that were not issued as singles (Space Trucking and Child in Time, for instance...). I originally didn't care much for the covers of "Kentucky Woman" and "Hush", but I understood their inclusion here since those were the first hits the band scored with in the U.S (the territory this CD is meant for). But the tunes eventually grew on me, leading me to get their first 3 records.

It's a shame that no additional material from the band's second coming in the 80's could be included though, but that is simply a record company issue: the latter part of Purple's catalog was released with a different record label. In the end, this is a great compilation, and if you want to have a taste of some of Purple's best material, this is a good place to start. However, if you, like me, were looking for a more comprehensive package, including music from all the lineups (including the criminally underrated Mk IV, completely ignored here...), you might be a bit disappointed...You can always get the boxset "Shades", but... that's a different tale... But casual fans looking for nothing but the hits rejoice: here they are!!! And for roughly 8 bucks, you can't really ask for more...