Search - Little River Band :: Little River Band - Greatest Hits

+ 1/2 Stars...Let's Hope Capitol Records Starts a Trend

Steve Vrana | Aurora, NE | 05/30/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Finally, a record label understands what it means to update their old vinyl/cassette catalog onto CD. When "Greatest Hits" first came out in 1982, it contained 12 tracks and nearly fifty minutes of music (fairly generous for the time). This 2000 update "Greatest Hits" has been expanded to 18 tracks and nearly eighty minutes of music. [Are you paying attention, MCA, with your pared down Millennium series?]This new release adds the hits since the 1982 edition: "We Two" (#22), "You're Driving Me Out of My Mind" (#35) and "Playing To Win" (#60), which featured John Farnham, who replaced original vocalist Glenn Shorrock in 1983 when he left to go solo. [Shorrock would return in 1988 when Farnham left to pursue a solo career.] You also get another Farnham vocal "Face In the Crowd" from the album No Reins. In addition you get their second U.S. single "I'll Always Call Your Name" (#62) from 1977 and "It's Not a Wonder" (#51) from 1980. This is infectious MOR pop. The Little River Band specialized in catchy hooks, lush vocals, and understated guitar leads to create a unique and wonderful sound on such lovely ballads as "Lady," "Reminiscing," "Cool Change," as well as mid-tempo rockers as "Help Is On the Way" and "Man On Your Mind." Sure, You could spring for the 2-disc anthology Reminiscing, but this has all the hits at less than half the price. RECOMMENDED"

What happened to the original cut?

David | Baton Rouge, LA | 08/09/2002

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I started listening to the Little River Band in the 70's when I was a kid. My oldest brother loved them and he had several 8 tracks. Then my oldest brother moved out and my middle brother started listening to them in the early 80's and I liked them even more. I bought this greatest hits back in 1994 and I really loved it, but then I lost that version and I bought this new version of the greatest hits. I AM VERY DISSAPOINTED IN IT!!!!! THEY HAVE CHANGED THE SOUND OF THE BAND ON SONGS LIKE "MAN ON YOUR MIND", "LADY" JUST TO NAME A FEW. Well this is not okay with me, and I don't even want this cd anymore. Can anyone tell me how to get a copy of the old greatest hits. You know, the ones that haven't been touched. Please tell me there is such a version out there........In the meantime, don't waste your money on this album if you like how the band sounded years ago.David"

What a Shameful Destruction of a Perfectly Good Album!

Frederick Baptist | Singapore | 12/26/2005

(1 out of 5 stars)

"This is what should have been done: the original 12 track Greatest Hits version should have been re-released remastered 24-bit or better digitally. No track order changes but just as it is. After all, the title says "Greatest Hits"; if they wanted to add the truly pissed poor later efforts, they could have released a "Greatest Hits vol. 2".



Instead, they took what I consider to be one of the top 5 best ever best of compilations ever made and totally destroyed it by firstly changing what was a truly perfect track order and then adding very, very poor tracks that are even much much worse than the fillers on their first few albums. "Face in the Crowd" is so bad, it almost makes me want to cry tears of pain whenever I hear it. The only track that they added that perhaps I could bear after a few beers was "You're Driving Me Out of My Mind"



Before they raped this album, the original greatest hits album was that rare breed of perfect best of compilations. For a start, it truly represented the best that these guys have ever done. Secondly, it didn't sound like a compilation because the track order was perfectly chosen (who cares if it was by pure luck or design the effect was fabulous)and the whole album had a cohesiveness and flow that made it sound like a very good classic album.



They couldn't have chosen a better track to begin the album in "It's a Long Way There" (inexplicably the last track on the new version) and to end the album with "Cool Change". Every track in between seemed to be destined to be in that order and like a classic album should, the complete package sounded a lot better than the sum of the individual tracks.



Although you hardly ever see lists of best albums of all time populated with compilations, I would not have hesitated to put the original version of this together with Queen's first Greatest Hits album (UK version) on that list. Now they have gone and totally screwed up a perfectly good album. Sacrilege if you ask me.



Thanks for nothing Capitol Records. If you want to make amends, discontinue this crap version and release a proper remastered version of the original version and next time think before you "improve" aka destroy classic albums. For those of you that are interested, the proper original classic can still be found in used cd shops and on some import sites. I just got one from www.cdjapan.co.jp which by the way is an excellent place to get very good, reasonably priced imports."