GREATEST HITS

You've got to be crazy to buy this. Seeing as there are at least seventeen other Who compilations out there, you owe it to yourself to get one that consists of at least TWO discs. Or better still, get yourself some nice remastered copies (with bonus tracks, hurray!) of THE WHO SELL OUT, LIVE AT LEEDS, WHO'S NEXT or QUADROPHENIA. Then you will hear the Who at their best.

The Who may have tried hard but they never were an incredibly succesful singles band. "My Generation" was one of the defining hit singles of the 1960s, and that was about it. I don't even think the track did a lot outside the U.K. "Pinball Wizard", one of the band's best-known tunes, probably sold more copies in the emasculated cover version by the New Seekers. Some of the songs included in this album (e.g. "Baba O'Riley" and "Love Reign O'er Me") are among the most exhilerating rock ever recorded, but it's far better to hear them in their proper context, i.e. the albums I mentioned above. Others are strictly second-rate (e.g. "Magic Bus", "Squeeze Box", "Eminence Front"); they were obviously included because they sound easy and commercial, and people might recognise them from the radio. The final two pieces I'm not familiar with; they might be from the Who's most recent studio album, which I've never bothered checking out. And they were definitely not "hits". In fact, you'd do well to consider this entire album a huge lie. I wonder who's hoping to make money from it. Just don't let it be YOUR money!

'Greatest Hits' - The Who (Compilation)

Another best-of compilation for this band?! Although not necessarily any weaker of a representation for this band than the ones that came earlier, it does start feeling a little silly that companies keep trying to cash in on the band's past success by dishing out compilation after compilation, hoping that unwitting newcomers or diehard completionists will give their cash for it. If only for the time that it came out, 'Greatest Hits' does feel a little pathetic, but for its sake, it does work nicely as a compilation for this band. Cycling through the band's career from their earlier days as a 60's British Invasion group to the mid period as a progressively-inclined rock group to the later pop days and final comeback, The Who are represented here, and for someone who is new to the band, this may be a nice introduction to the band. Otherwise, it does feel as if the industry should lay off making compilations for this band.