SMOKE ON THE WATER - THE BEST OF

A French compilation album which includes songs from their 1968-1975 period, including every line-up of the band during that period. Of the 18 songs included in this album, 8 are single edits, 2 are special single versions to be released in some countries (the alternate "Piano Version" of "Speed King" for the Dutch singles market, and the US edit of "Smoke of the Water") and one single version ("The Bird Has Flown"). There also are full versions of other seven songs taken from their studio albums from that period. I can say that while it still is a good compilation, maybe some Fans could prefer the full versions of the songs which were presented as single edits in this album. Most of these single edits sound well, with the exception of "Smoke of the Water", which has a bit of the lead guitar part and other parts of the song edited out, a thing that I don`t like very much. Anyway, as a one CD compilation it maybe offers a good track selection for the listeners of the band who only listened to the single edits of these songs being played in the radio. Maybe this compilation also could be interesting for the most dedicated collectors of the band who want to have these edits in their record collection being included in one album.