The Hollies' Greatest Hits

Hollies

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 25, 1990)
• Original Release Date: 1973
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B000002507
• Also Available in: Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #113,335 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
It may have been a crass marketing assemblage of this U.K. group's successes up until their second-chance 1972 hit, "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother"; but this also contains some of the greatest pop songs to be found under one chronologically fudged roof. Singer Allan Clarke was one of the most versatile vocalists of the British Invasion, able to pull off cute pop vignettes ("Bus Stop"), whoop it up like the original rockabilly ("Long Cool Woman"), lament majestically ("King Midas in Reverse"), and add distinctive blues colorings to the band's R&B covers ("Just One Look"). All in all, the Hollies were pretty good album artists, but Greatest Hits is what you really need. Clarke's boyhood chum Graham Nash adds faultless harmonies, guitarist Tony Hicks contributes sparkling fills, and the unheralded Bobby Elliott is on the skins. Pure pop manna, bad sequencing be damned. --Don Harrison

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This Is a Skimpy Greatest Hits, March 25, 2000

By	Steve Vrana (Aurora, NE) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Even the neophyte Hollies fan deserves better than this Greatest Hits collection that hasn't changed since its first release in 1973.

Even upon its initial release, it overlooked their last Top 40 hit of the Sixties--"Jennifer Eccles." It does include three minor hits: "Dear Eloise" (No. 50), "Just One Look" (No. 44) and King Midas in Reverse" (No. 51). But where's "I Can't Let Go" (No. 42) or "Sorry Suzanne" (No. 56)or "I Can't Tell the Bottom from the Top" (No. 82)? The Hollies were always more popular in their native England than in the U.S. [The last three singles I mentioned all went Top 10 in the U.K. In fact, the Hollies had eight Top 40 hits in the U.K.--including the No. 1 "I'm Alive"--before charting their first Top 40 in the U.S. with "Look Through Any Window" in 1966.]

With the three-disc 30th Anniversary Collection out of print, it's too bad Epic hasn't compromised with a two-disc set containing all of the band's more than three dozen U.K. and U.S. singles. The Hollies, after all, were a great singles band. And they were responsible for some of the catchiest pop music of the era. But until Epic decides to put out a more generous greatest hits package, this is the one to own. RECOMMENDED

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars two bands, two bands, two bands in one..., January 1, 2004

By	running_man (Chesterfield Twp., MI) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

It took a while for The Hollies to evolve in the 1960's, but once they did the change was as dramatic as the metamorphosis of The Beatles from 'Beatles '65' to 'Rubber Soul', or Bob Dylan going electric. The most productive era for the band was 1966-1967 when they logged 8 of the 12 chartmakers chronicled here. 1968 and 1969 found the band without a Top-40 single, and their sound changed noticably with the departure of Graham Nash in 1969. Terry Sylvester, formerly of The Swinging Blue Jeans was added to the lineup and took over lead vocals from longtime crooner Allan Clarke. After Nash's departure, the band logged 4 more hits, but the sound is radically different. If the title on the CD didn't still say 'The Hollies Greatest Hits' , you might be convinced you were listening to two different bands.

The original lineup included Clarke and Nash, whose vocals form the centerpiece of every noteworthy Hollies song from the 1960's. Tony Hicks added an occasional decent guitar riff, but instrumentation is by and large not what attracts people to the work of The Hollies. This collection reaches back to 1964 to snatch their first big hit, a UK number two rendition of 'Just One Look'... yes, the same 'Just One Look' that Doris Day took to number 10 on the Billboard charts in 1963, and that was covered by Linda Ronstadt in 1979. All 3 versions are consumable in their own way, The Hollies' being by far the most up-tempo.

The Hollies took off for real on the US charts in 1966 with 'Look Through Any Window' (#32 in January), 'Bus Stop' (#5 in August), and 'Stop, Stop, Stop' (#7 in November). 1967 was their banner year, featuring 'On a Carousel' (#11 in April), 'Pay You Back With Interest' (#28 in June), 'Carrie Anne' (#9 in July), and 'King Midas In Reverse' (#18 on the UK charts in September). In most cases the charts adequately reveal the quality of each song, though in retrospect it is hard to imagine why 'Stop, Stop, Stop' was apparently so much more appealing to listeners than 'Look Through Any Window'. The latter has become a standard on Golden Oldies radio, while the former rarely receives airtime. 'Bus Stop' seems overplayed, while 'Carrie Anne' and 'On a Carousel' always prompt me to crank up the volume.

The revised incarnation of The Hollies produced their first hit (topping out at number 7) in February of 1970, the reknown 'He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother'. Unlike the Double Bubble of earlier chartmakers, 'He Ain't Heavy..." is rich in orchestration and is laden with social consciousness, a prerequisite for many compositions of the era. Another stunning transformation produced a Billboard number two hit in July of 1972, a song featuring the most memorable guitar hook the band ever produced, 'Long Cool Woman (In a Black Dress)'. The most recent hit included on this compilation was the follow up to 'Long Cool Woman...", 'Long Dark Road' which, despite reaching only number 26 in December of 1972, is a strong composition many listeners will harken back to.

The true hits are rounded out by one further composition, another release from 1967, 'Dear Eloise', which finished its rise on Billboard at number 50. Many 'Greatest Hits' compilations include one or two songs that makes you wonder "why, why is this here?", and 'Dear Eloise' fills this niche for 'The Hollies Greatest Hits'. While the running time would have been truncated, the consistency of the CD would have benefitted had 'Dear Eloise' and 'King Midas In Reverse' been edited.

This CD is strong on nostalgia. For anyone who indulged in Top-40 AM radio in the 1960's, songs such as 'Bus Stop' and 'Carrie Anne' are indelibly etched into your brain cells. Each and every listen released a cocktail of endorphins, because these songs were light, bouncy fare that lifted the weight of the day from your shoulders. Surely they did little to change the course of your life, yet they just as surely whitecapped your immediate disposition. The nice thing is that they haven't lost that magic.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Hollies' Greatest (radio edit) Hits, July 6, 2001

By	Paul D. Rasmussen Jr. (Pittsburgh PA, United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I was let down to hear "Long Dark Road" is the shorter radio edit. And what a bad edit it is! What could the people at Epic have been thinking? I've recently purchased the new Hollie's compilation CD, and it's much better, more complete AND includes the LP version of LDR.