The Band - Greatest Hits [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED]

The Band

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 10, 2003)
• Original Release Date: September 26, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: Capitol
• ASIN: B00004YL5D
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,954 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

It seems odd that the Band emerged in 1968, defying the counterculture's extravagant rejections of U.S. culture with literary, often Southern-tinged musical and lyrical vehicles. Hearing this 18-song anthology, with its heavy weighting toward the Canadian quintet's first three albums--Music from Big Pink (four tunes), The Band (five tunes), and Stage Fright (three tunes)--what still stands out is the Band's command of yearning vocal harmonies, their sense of plainly laid melodies that reveal acoustic depth, and a nostalgia for an imagined American culture. With all their quirkiness and the advance of Robbie Robertson as their centerpiece, the Band lost their celebrated place in the rock pantheon within a decade. This set, which opens so magnificently with "The Weight," "Tears of Rage" (cowritten with Dylan), and the big organ-vamping "Chest Fever," declines rather steeply on the final tracks, "Acadian Driftwood" and "The Saga of Pepote Rouge." Up till then, however, this set is fantastic. --Andrew Bartlett

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Justice to the Year 2000 Remastered Series, November 29, 2003

By	Bud (Seminole, Texas, USA) - See all my reviews

The Band's "Greatest Hits" is one of the very few compilation albums that those interested in the group would be fortunate to buy before actually buying the original albums themselves. The reason for that is solely because this Greatest Hits package is from the Band Remaster series of 2000; each track here represents the amazingly sharp and high quality job the sound engineers did in restoring The Band's original catalog of work. Each track here will prove to new fans that, if they're interested in dipping into the career of this remarkable group, they should definitely choose the CD's from the 2000 editions. This is most notable on the tracks from "Stage Fright"--'The Shape I'm In' and that album's title track far outweigh the relatively flat sound heard on earlier remastering attempts. To be specific, Garth Hudson's wildly immaculate keyboards, the effects on Rick Danko's vocals, and Robbie Robertson's unusual guitar work are finally heard the way they were meant to be.
But other than that, it has to be said that the track selection is classic--but predictable. The sequencing is a bit uneven as well...in other words, Richard Manuel's glorious, hymn-like vocal and piano on 'I Shall Be Released' somehow doesn't fit placed between the wonderfully bizarre 'Chest Fever' and the "drunkard's dream" 'Up On Cripple Creek' (which was ironically The Band's only Top 30 hit in the US). Also, the relatively mediocre 'Time To Kill' was obviously only included because it was a minor hit for "Stage Fright." Perhaps it could have been better replaced by 'The Rumor.' The classic duet between Manuel and Van Morrison on '4% Pantomime' (from "Cahoots") is missing, and the albums "Moondog Matinee" and even the swan song "Islands" could have been represented much better.
But in the end, despite the standard compilation album bringdowns, "Greatest Hits" serves best as a clue to new fans that the 2000 Remastered Editions are the best way to go.

81 of 104 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Greatest Hits?! Please...., April 24, 2002

By	T. Schmidt "strangebird" (Mansfield TX USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

First of all, The Band only had two bonafide hits. One of those (their magnificant live cover of Marvin Gaye's "Don't Do It") isn't even included in this collection! With that out of the way, let's get down to bidness...

As far as single-disc collections go, this is not bad. Yes, everybody out there could probably think of a song that should have been included, but, with five strong studio albums, one has to pick and choose when making selections. My personal gripes are the afore-mentioned absence of "Don't Do It" and the presence of the weak cover of "Ain't Go No Home" in the place of the great "Mystery Train" from Moondog Matinee.

This collection works for two groups of people. It's ideal for those who own nothing by The Band and have no idea where to begin. There have been many comments about the heavy leaning of the set towards the first three albums. This is justified in that The Band recorded their strongest material on those three albums. After all, who would want a Dylan compilation with equal numbers of tracks from Blonde on Blonde and Under the Red Sky? All of their "hits" are here in one handy little package.

The second group (I'm included in this category) consists of those people who want a quick road trip CD. This really is a great, concise CD to play when you're on a trip with people who have (gasp!) never really heard The Band.

It's almost guaranteed that most who hear this collection will want to delve deeper into The Band's catalog. After all, every one of their studio albums has something to offer. So, instead of overly criticizing this collection, we should be encouraging people to give this a spin. Who knows where it could lead from there...

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars It's All About the Music, September 27, 2000

By A Customer

The Band has been rather mercilessly packaged and re-packaged since its breakup in the late 1970s. This greatest hits collection faces a rather daunting task -- collect the best moments of one of the greatest of all American rock groups.

Capitol's re-packaging of the Band's monumental first two albums and their less stellar followups deserves some praise; this one seems much more like a moneymaking ploy. Four tunes each from "Big Pink" and "The Band" anchor this compilation, with the remaining 10 tunes scattered from "Stage Fright" to "Islands."

Still -- it's all about the music, and you can't go wrong with selections like "The Weight," "Tears of Rage," "Up On Cripple Creek," etc. "King Harvest (Has Surely Come)" doesn't usually make it to these compilations so it's nice to see it here. Likewise with "Acadian Driftwood."

The re-mastering job sounds much better on the later tracks, particularly "Life Is A Carnival." To my ears, the tracks from the first three albums had a bit of a pronounced tape hiss. Too bad "The Last Waltz" is on another label -- it would have been good to hear some of those selections (particularly "Evangeline") here.

A greatest hits package could probably serve most bands (KISS and Foreigner come to mind) but not The Band. If any of these songs interest you, skip this and head for the original albums. This is just for the first-timers.