The Very Best of the Smiths

The Smiths | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 13, 2001)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Wea International
• ASIN: B0000DEO7I
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #803,500 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Panic

2. The Boy With the Thorn in His Side

3. Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now

4. Ask

5. Bigmouth Strikes Again

6. How Soon Is Now?

7. This Charming Man

8. What Difference Does It Make?

9. William, It Was Really Nothing

10. Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others

11. Girlfriend in a Coma

12. Hand in Glove

13. There Is a Light That Never Goes Out

14. Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want

15. That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore

16. I Know It's Over

17. Sheila Take a Bow

18. I Started Something I Couldn't Finish

19. Still Ill

20. Shakespeare's Sister

See all 23 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

Japanese pressing. Warner. 2006. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars remastering is not a positive, December 24, 2005

By 

John Frame "There Is No Substitute For Equality" (Brisbane, Queensland Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Very Best of (Audio CD)

This is a great collection of songs by The Smiths - but the remastering has ruined the best aspects of the original recordings. For example "Hand In Glove", which for me had just about the snappiest and most memorable snare sound (courtesy of producer John Porter), but the remastered version reduces the snare to a soul-less dull thud. All the highs from the cymbals and guitar have gone too.

Perhaps the "Very Best Of.." producers were only interested in forming a unified sound to this whole album, but they've shown no regard for the integrity of the original recordings - and as good as the Smiths were, to me it was their original producers who made their music sound so appealing.

This compilation still gets 4 stars for the songs themselves, which are all winners, but I would recommend all of the original recordings as being far superior in both fidelity and style.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars pay no attention..., August 10, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Very Best of (Audio CD)

....to the rants by the hardcore, judgemental ,lockstep internet fans who have planted some of the above negative reviews. First off, This CD sounds about a million percent better than any of the previous issues of these tracks. How could someone not hear this? I guess that's what happens when you listen to music only on your PC! A big plus is the correct versions of some singles are finally used on CD! Second ,it is a pretty perfect selection and it is sequenced great. Thirdly,the mediocre cover and careless packaging are inexcusable but not fatal. It just makes a 5-star rating a 4-star... Buy it.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One star lost to the vampires, February 4, 2005

By 

Mason Williams (Mars) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Very Best of (Audio CD)

There are a lot of fans doing a lot of bellyaching over this comp and I don't get it. There are 3 post band break-up "hits" comps out there, none of them have been "OK'd" by Morrissey or Marr, this one has better sound and more songs. Every A side is here, as are 5 extra "shoulda been A-sides". Comparing the sound on this with the sound on "Singles" is like night and day. You can program this to play in the order the songs were released if you're really that cranky over the random order of the tunes. Until RHINO does a proper anthology this is the best single disc comp. out there. I knocked off one star because this is an unauthorized overview, but I have a pretty good hunch that this is pretty much the same CD that Marr n' Mozz would have thrown together themselves. Keep in mind that there are no "official" Smiths T-shirts out there either but everyone seems to have one. Fans, product, supply, demand, oldest story in the book.