The Band - Greatest Hits
List Price:
Our Price: $5.06
You Save: $6.92 (58%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $2.63 (click here)
Category: Music CD
See more new music releases
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
Music CD Cover
Artist: The BandEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Format: Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 2003-11-10
Music Label: Capitol
Soundtracks:
- The Weight
- Tears Of Rage
- Chest Fever
- I Shall Be Released
- Up On Cripple Creek
- The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down
- Rag Mama Rag
- King Harvest (Has Surely Come)
- The Shape I'm In
- Stage Fright
- Time To Kill
- Life Is A Carnival
- When I Paint My Masterpiece
- Ain't Got No Home
- It Makes No Difference
- Ophelia
- Acadian Driftwood
- The Saga Of Pepote Rouge
Free Music Notes for Greatest Hits
Free Music Review: Tough to pack it into one disk
Hit: 5 Stars
The Band is one of pop music's most glorious accidents. This was a group of road musicians that lived from nightclub to nightclub, and had little likelihood of rising much above that scene, until Bob Dylan rather whimsically decided to make them his onstage backup band to perform his newfangled "rock" songs in the mid-60s. Then, because they were neighbors in upstate NY, they played on the demos that became "The Basement Tapes." Anyone who spent that much time with Bob Dylan might well decide, "hey, I should be a songwriter," and that's what some members, chiefly Robbie Robertson, did. When it came time to record their first album, what blossomed was their road-hardened musicianship, combined with the Dylan-bred desire to make of each recording a new thing unlike anything else that has existed before. Thus, amazing tracks like "Tears of Rage" and "The Weight" came into being. Along with covers of yet-unreleased Dylan songs like "This Wheel's On Fire" and "I Shall Be Released," the "Music from Big Pink" album essentially changed the course of American pop for a few years. If Jimi Hendrix was the most influential US musician in 1967, by 1969 it was the Band, and that's a radical shift.
It turned out they didn't have a bottomless well of great songs in them, but the quality at the beginning is astonishing. Robertson (with some help from Richard Manuel) was able to fill the Band's first two albums and most of the third with nonstop classic songs. They stumbled badly with their fourth album, made a great album of covers and a great live album, both taking advantage of their superb musical skills, had a partial creative comeback with their seventh album, and then ran aground for good--Robertson essentially admitting he was out of ideas by planning the grandiose "Last Waltz."
If the question is, "are these the Band's 18 best songs," the answer is not quite. "Time to Kill" doesn't belong here, nor does "The Saga of Pepote Rouge"--the weirdest choice of the bunch. I might argue with the inclusion of "Rag Mama Rag" over "Whispering Pines," "Unfaithful Servant" or "Across the Great Divide" from the second album; and you could argue for "In a Station" or "Lonesome Suzie" instead of "Chest Fever" from the first album. "Stage Fright" seems underrepresented--where's "W.S. Walcott's Medicine Show," or "Sleeping"? I could lose "Ophelia" to make room for those. Also, why no selections from the live "Rock of Ages" album? Not only do you miss "Baby Don't Do It," but the live version of "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" is a tour de force, and belonged on this instead of the studio version.
All this really means is, you should get this (as I write, it's $7.99. They're practically giving it away!), but then go out and buy the first three albums, plus Rock of Ages, Moondog Matinee and Northern Lights, Southern Cross, and appreciate the unlikely little miracle that was The Band.
Greatest Hits Poster
(5249412)It seems odd that the Band emerged in 1968, defying the counterculture's extravagant rejections of U.S. culture with literary, often Southern-tinged musical and lyrical vehicles. Hearing this 18-song anthology, with its heavy weighting toward the Canadian quintet's first three albums--Music from Big Pink (four tunes), The Band (five tunes), and Stage Fright (three tunes)--what still stands out is the Band's command of yearning vocal harmonies, their sense of plainly laid melodies that reveal acoustic depth, and a nostalgia for an imagined American culture. With all their quirkiness and the advance of Robbie Robertson as their centerpiece, the Band lost their celebrated place in the rock pantheon within a decade. This set, which opens so magnificently with "The Weight," "Tears of Rage" (cowritten with Dylan), and the big organ-vamping "Chest Fever," declines rather steeply on the final tracks, "Acadian Driftwood" and "The Saga of Pepote Rouge." Up till then, however, this set is fantastic. --Andrew Bartlett
Classic Rock Music CDs
Music Genres
Top music charts in Classic Rock Music CDs
Paul Mccartney, Wings - Wings at the Speed of SoundRelease date: 1996-09-24; Music CD
Best price: $149.99
Small Faces - BoxedRelease date: 1997-11-01; Music CD
Best price: $39.95
Dr John - Gris GrisRelease date: 1994-07-15; Music CD
Price in other shops:
![Eric Clapton: Live in Hyde Park [VHS] Image](/images/Eric-Clapton-Live-in-Hyde-Park-VHS-6304817037-X.jpg){kind=small}
Eric Clapton: Live in Hyde Park [VHS]Warner Bros / Wea; Release date: 1998-02-17; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $13.50
Price in other shops:
![Human Highway [VHS] Image](/images/Human-Highway-VHS-6303589219-X.jpg){kind=small}
Human Highway [VHS]Warner Bros / Wea; Release date: 1995-08-08; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $153.94
![The Monkees - Head [VHS] Image](/images/The-Monkees-Head-VHS-6303337023-X.jpg){kind=small}
The Monkees - Head [VHS]Rhino / Wea; Release date: 1995-01-25; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $14.40
Price in other shops:
![Live & Loud [VHS] Image](/images/Live-Loud-VHS-630276193X-X.jpg){kind=small}
Ozzy Osbourne - Live & Loud [VHS]Sony; Release date: 1993-05-25; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $3.96
Price in other shops:
![Unplugged [VHS] Image](/images/Unplugged-VHS-6302639859-X.jpg){kind=small}
Bruce Springsteen - Unplugged [VHS]Sony; Release date: 1992-12-15; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $2.75
Price in other shops:
![Peter Gabriel - P.O.V. [VHS] Image](/images/noimg.gif)
Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel - P.O.V. [VHS]Virgin Records Us; Release date: 1992-06-29; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
![Past to Present [VHS] Image](/images/Past-to-Present-VHS-6301817664-X.jpg){kind=small}
Toto - Past to Present [VHS]Sony; Release date: 1991-07-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $77.99
Top Rated Albums
Blind Faith - Blind FaithPBS; Release date: 2001-02-27; Music CD
Best price: $4.74
Price in other shops:
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Lynyrd Skynyrd - All Time Greatest HitsLYNYRD SKYNYRD; Release date: 2000-03-14; Music CD
Best price: $6.98
Price in other shops:
The Band - Music From Big PinkRelease date: 2000-08-29; Published: 1997-06-26; Music CD
Best price: $4.99
Price in other shops:
Van Morrison - Still on Top: The Greatest HitsRelease date: 2008-03-04; Music CD
Best price: $20.56
Price in other shops:
The Band - Rock of AgesRelease date: 2001-05-08; Music CD
Best price: $8.88
Price in other shops:
Grateful Dead - Very Best of Grateful DeadGRATEFUL DEAD; Release date: 2003-09-16; Music CD
Best price: $8.18
Price in other shops:
Neil Young - Greatest HitsYOUNG,NEIL; Release date: 2004-11-16; Music CD
Best price: $6.53
Price in other shops:
Band - The Last WaltzRelease date: 2003-09-23; Music CD
Best price: $12.67
Price in other shops:
The Band - The BandRelease date: 2000-08-29; Music CD
Best price: $3.75
Price in other shops:
The Last Waltz (Special Edition)Sony; Release date: 2002-05-07; DVD
Best price: $6.77
Price in other shops: