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26 of 28 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best SAMMY Collection Available, August 15, 2004
Finally, forgotten hits ("Your Love Is Driving Me Crazy") and several soundtrack gems (i.e. "The Girl Gets Around" from Footloose) included on a Best of Sammy CD. This 20-track single disc takes you chronilogically thru Sammy's career from Montrose ("Bad Motor Scooter") to the present day ("Mas Tequila.") As others have pointed out, there is no Van Halen here. That's OK, I think the emphasis here is clearly on Sammy's solo work. There is a new 2-disc, remastered, best of VH package in stores now. Go get that: I did. For his solo work, this is your ticket. Remastering is great. Sound quality excellent. My only complaint is I wish it would have featured one HSAS track. (Don't know what HSAS is? Search "Through The Fire" for the best band you've never heard of.)
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Good Collection Of Hagar's Songs Worth Owning!, September 20, 2004
Sammy Hagar got his big break in the early seventies as lead singer for "Montrose", a hard hitting no holds barred rock band founded by guitar wiz Ronnie Montrose. After several albums (the self titled "Montrose" & "Paper Money") Hagar left Montrose to pursue a solo career. He was extremely successful releasing numerous hits "Turn Up The Music", "Cruisin' And Boozin'", "Trans Am (Highway Wonderland)", "You Make Me Crazy", and "Red" to name a few. This latest collection focuses mostly on Hagar's eighties material with "Red", "I've Done Everything For You", "Thinking Of You" (previously unreleased), "Call My Name" (previously unreleased) and "Bad Motor Scooter" (from Montrose) representing his seventies output. Hagar continued his success in the eighties with such hits as "There's Only One Way To Rock", "I'd Fall In Love Again", "Your Love Is Driving Me Crazy", and "I Can't Drive 55" as well as "Heavy Metal" (from the film of the same name) and "Fast Times At Ridgemont High" (from the film of the same name) to name a few. There are four songs on this collection from Hagar's nineties output with "High Hopes", "Little White Lie", "Marching To Mars" and "Mas Tequila". Granted there are some deletions from this collection ("Three Lock Box" and "I Don't Need Love" for starters) but this collections surpasses his 1994 "Unboxed" hits cd. The remastering is excellent with crisp highs, increased bass and midrange. Hagar is still going strong, back as vocalist of Van Halen (even though that band went thru a period of vocalist changes). He hasn't aged much in some thirty years or so and is still considered one of the world's "oldest teenagers". Highly Recommended!
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Red Rocker's best compilation on one disc, September 23, 2005
THE BAND: Sammy Hagar (vocals, guitars), and a list of others appearing on assorted albums here including Ronnie Montrose (guitar), Bill Church (bass), Denny Carmassi (drums), David Lauser (drums), Jesse Harms (keyboards), Vic Johnson (guitar), Eddie Van Halen (guitar, bass), Mona Gnader (bass).
THE DISC: (2004) 20 tracks clocking in at just under 79 minutes. Included with the disc is a 14-page booklet containing song titles/credits, which songs came from what albums, pictures, and brief intros from fellow rocker Ted Negent and Rolling Stone Magazine's Scott Schinder. This collection follows his solo career from 1974-1999 (including one song from Montrose in '73). Digitally remastered sound. Label: Hip-O Records / Universal.
ALBUM REPRESENTATION: Montrose (1 song), Sammy Hagar (1), Standing Hampton (2), Three Lock Box (1), VOA (2), I Never Said Goodbye (2), Unboxed (1), Marching To Mars (2), Red Voodoo (1), Unreleased (2), B-Side (1), Movie Soundtracks - (4) from Heavy Metal, Footloose, Over The Top and Fast Times At Ridgemont High.
COMMENTS: Sammy Hagar is a success story whether you want to admit it or not. Debuting with the now classic Montrose in 1973; a solid solo career; several movie soundtrack songs; a decade stint with one of the best rock bands ever in Van Halen; followed by more creative solo work; countless guest appearances on other rock albums; sitting in with the Emeril "Live" TV show house band on the Food Network in 2005; a rocking party club in Cabo San Lucas; topped off with his own brand of blue tequila. Sammy loves the color RED and fast cars to go with it. This album, "The Essential Red Collection", is the single finest testiment to the man. This is the best one disc greatest hits package out there from Hagar. "Essential Red" covers his most popular hits ("I Can't Drive 55", "Heavy Metal", "I'll Fall In Love Again", "Give To Live", "Bad Motor Scooter", "There's Only One Way To Rock", etc) along with some hidden gems from movies (the best being the title track from "Fast Times At Ridgemont High"). There are several albums (now hard to find and some are now imports only) that have no songs represented here (i.e. "Danger Zone", "Not 4 Sale", "Street Machine", Nine On A Ten Scale", "Ten 13", "Musical Chairs", etc)... most of these were in the mid-to-late 1970's and early 80's. As classic as this collection is, I'd have to admit a few songs are missing (making me believe a 2 disc collection was absolutley necessary)... most noteably "Three Lock Box", "When The Hammer Falls", "Rock Candy" (Montrose), "Top Of The Rock" (HSAS with Neil Schon, 1983), and anything from his Van Halen days (I'm sure there were many legal issues here). The remastered sound is crisp and it makes all the songs here sound like they were recorded last month. The only bad thing here is that it's not long enough. Sammy has stood the test of time - and this "Red" collection rocks (5 stars).
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