Bob Seger - Greatest Hits
As note prior here, I was a Bob Seger fan before this release came out in 1994. I had a few of his vinyl albums (1978's Stranger In Town and 1981's live album "Nine Tonight"), but having all of his material, especially once I transitioned over to CDs, wasn't ever "essential" for me (unlike Zep, Bruce, Yes, Rush, and others).
When this album came out in 1994, it was welcome to many of his fans who had thought Bob was well overdue for a Greatest Hits. Having these songs on one CD was great, but as noted prior, there were many other songs that were missed, a good number corrected 9 years later with his official Greatest Hits 2. I wasn't willing to wait that long (see my own "GH2" playlist on p 1251).
The first 12 of 14 tracks are legit GH candidates. They come off of these 7 original albums:
'Live' Bullet - 1
Night Moves - 2
Stranger in Town - 4
Against The Wind - 2
The Distance - 1
Like A Rock - 1
The Fire Inside - 1
The albums with 1 track are mostly where the Greatest Hits release hits the mark in finding later albums with fewer hits. The albums with multiple tracks would have other songs added to his Greatest Hits 2 as well.
The 2 previously unreleased tracks "C'est la Vie" (Chuck Berry) and "In Your Time" found at the end of the GH album I'm sure were record company asks to get some new content on this to get the die hard fans to buy it. To me (and from other prior reviews I've read here), those are the weakest tracks on this album, especially CLV.
My favorite tracks (still) are "Night Moves", "You'll Accomp'ny Me", "Hollywood Nights", "Still the Same", "We've Got Tonite", "Against the Wind", and "Mainstreet".
Overplayed on FM radio and usually my skips for that reason include "Turn the Page (Live)" and "Old Time Rock and Roll". "Turn the Page" wasn't so bad in the early '80's, but with the advent of "Classic Rock" FM stations, those two have taken on unusually curious heavy airplay beatings.
Chevy truck ads in the US later ruined "Like A Rock" for me too in more recent years.
All in all, in listening to this, especially as
@denislawsbackheel has noted, these songs for the most part are quite enjoyable. I could certainly see this making one of my hopefully future retired road trips, but I'd have my other unofficial "GH2" with it too. ;-)
These tracks have some of Seger's best lines too:
"The trick, you said, was never play the game too long"
"I know your plans, don't include me"
"I was livin' to run and runnin' to live"
"I'll take my chance babe, I'll risk it all"
Overall, this is a solid Greatest Hits album. It is a
7/10 for me on this for the songs not included, the 2 new ones that were, and this being a Greatest Hits. I'd probably rate "Stranger In Town" a 9/10 on its own as a standalone album.