Customer Reviews

Greatest Hits

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I typed a review on Burton Cummings as a solo artist on April 26th 2004 to pay tribute to him and on this review I am paying tribute to a younger Burton Cummings and his legendary band (The Guess Who).
Burton and Randy Bachman were a brilliant songwriting team. Just think folks: these guys wrote such classics as "These Eyes" "Laughing" "No Time" "No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature" and Randy wrote the classic song "Undun". "American Woman" was another highly popular song for this band and Burton and Randy were involved in writing that song also.
Randy left The Guess Who around 1971 and would soon define the sound of mid-seventies rock with the band (Bachman Turner Overdrive) but The Guess Who's hits kept coming with "Hand Me Down World" "Share The Land" "Albert Flasher" "Rain Dance" and in early 1974 The Guess Who would have their final Top Ten Hit with the song "Clap For The Wolf Man" and that tune was one fine swan song for this fabulous band because it was as good as any of their earlier hits and you can have all of these songs that i have listed above plus other fine songs by this band because they are all on this CD.This CD is a very nice compilation of hits by this band.Around the middle of November 1975 Burton announced the breakup of The Guess Who but to this day we still hear their songs on the radio and with good reason.
This CD is a Top-Notch CD with plenty of high quality tunes on it from another unforgettable legendary band: The Guess Who.

Perhaps Canada's greatest claim to rock and roll fame, and one of my very favorite rock bands. The first dozen songs would make for a truly spectacular five-star collection, with all-time classics like "These Eyes," "Laughing," "American Woman," "Undun" and all the rest, and the ballad "Sour Suite" is a beautiful song. Minor hits "Rain Dance" and "Albert Flasher" are great rockers, too.

The last half-dozen songs don't quite hold the standard, although "Clap For The Wolfman" was a huge hit and is a fun tribute to Wolfman Jack, the legendary host of "Midnight Special." Less effective is the silly reggae attempt, "Follow Your Daughter Home," and "Heartbroken Bopper" is an ordinary rocker. All in all, though, this collection boasts excellent remastered sound, a very nice booklet with great pictures and fascinating liner notes, and some of the finest pop and rock hits ever recorded. The first dozen songs are indispensable. Strongly recommended.

This is the ultimate <single disc> GUESS WHO Hit Singles Collection ever compiled and even better - the REMASTERING is the finest to date! One slight problem though - and it's been overlooked way too many times throughout the years whenever a GUESS WHO Compilation has been isued: "NO SUGAR TONIGHT" was originally a chart single WITHOUT the "New Mother Nature Blues Suite" extended version, and rightfully so, "NO SUGAR TONIGHT"(Single Version)should appear at some point on a Guess Who Greatest Hits as it originally was issued. Dittos for "AMERICAN WOMAN"(Single Version)which did NOT include the "intro" here. I have the original RCA "45's" to prove that point. Yes, that makes for a very short version - but, that's the way it truly was! The remastering on this collection sounds far superior to the previous on their 3 disc mini-box set - and by the way - many of GUESS WHO's original albums have been reissued in "remastered" versions with "bonus tracks" editions during the late 1990's and are still available. Man, oh man - BURTON CUMMINGS had THE VOICE!

Usually I find quite a lot to say about particular CDs without any real difficulty. However, as I prepared to write this review, I wondered just what I could say about The Guess Who and this CD. The difficulty in writing a review for this album is that The Guess Who created very good, serviceable pop, but broke little new ground. Of course, the last thing I want to say in a review is that The Guess Who was a middle-of-the-road pop group that did little to distinguish themselves from all the other now faceless middle-of-the-road pop groups of the late 60s and early 70s, particularly because I once enjoyed their music very much.

Some of The Guess Who's pop combined the mellow vocals of Bread with the more frenetic music of artists like Gary Puckett and the Union Gap. "These Eyes," "Laughing," and "Undun" all have these similar characteristics. However, this group had a range of musical styles well beyond these mellow songs. The faster pace of "No Time," "American Woman," and "No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature" suggested the later, much faster paced music of Bachman Turner Overdrive, aka B.T.O, which would be formed but a few years down the road led by the efforts of Randy Bachman.

After Randy left the group, The Guess Who's music changed. The slower pace and peace and love feel of "Hand Me Down World" and "Share the Land" were quite a contrast to the Bachman years. These two songs in particular were late entries into a class of music that was passé by 1970. To prove that The Guess Who could create faster music, "Hang on to Your Life" had a harder driving sound that showed its influences, and yet was original.

As The Guess Who lost their popular status they experimented with their music even more, with uneven results over the next few years. 1971s "Albert Flasher" is another rocker with a strong piano track that anticipates 10cc's music a few years down the road. "Rain Dance," another 1971 song, has some styling that is a bit of a throwback to early Guess Who, but with a bit of a Paul Revere and the Raiders styling adopted to flavor a song with a touch of Native American. "Sour Suite" is another change in styling that seems to suggest the then-contemporary music of Chicago. "Heartbroken Bopper" has a very bizarre intro that sounds as though it may have been influenced by King Crimson. The body of the song tries for a harder sound as The Guess Who attempted to break into FM radio. "Guns, Guns, Guns" again tries to be edgier, FM-style music. Both these last songs also were at about five minutes in length, the longer length being a characteristic of FM music at that time.

The next song, "Follow Your Daughter Home," is very uncharacteristic even of all the other musical variations of The Guess Who. This song shows reggae influences, and stands out as a speed bump in The Guess Who's style.

The last three songs seem to be attempts to move The Guess Who back into the direction from whence they originally came. "Clap for the Wolfman" is the best of these three. An excellent tribute to disc jockey Wolfman Jack, this song uses the technique of speaking and singing. The suggestion of late 50s and early 60s music updated to 1974 made this song a winner and very popular for the time; one of The Guess Who's last successful efforts before their 1975 breakup.

The Guess Who ultimately became a victim of time. Their music was very mainstream and popular when it first came out. Their attempts to keep up with trends in the early 70s became less and less effective, and eventually the group must have realized that it was over. However, when The Guess Who was at their peak, and did the songs for which they were known, they were among the best groups of the day. Ultimately, they were followers, and not leaders, and when the leaders moved faster than they could follow, the Guess Who got left behind. While most greatest hits CDs are celebrations of the best contributions of a group, some of the last songs on this CD detract from the best songs of The Guess Who by suggesting the group should have quit while they were still ahead.

If you are only going to own one Guess Who album, this collection is the one to get. All their greatest are here on one disc. I also own the 2 cd "Track Record: The Guess Who Collection" which is twice the price. I have only listened to disc 2 once; "Star Baby" is the only decent song on the entire disc. I would also recommend the recent live album, "Running Back Thru Canada". The band is in fine form and Randy rips off some killer BTO tunes too!

With a flurry of best-selling rock hits over a short spate of several years, the Canadian group "Guess Who" topped the charts and were on the "A" list for concerts and gigs. Then, seemingly as quickly as they had burst on the popular music scene at the close of the 1960s, they were gone, evaporated from the scene as the group disintegrated and went in several separate directions at the same time. Yet there is no denying the sheer hit-producing power they possessed, or the magically rock music they left behind as a memory of their brief flirtation with super stardom. Many of their best hits are here, from "These Eyes" to "Laughing", from "Undun" to "No Time", from "No Sugar Tonight" to "Hand Me Down World".

Yet, there are many more worthwhile cuts on this collection. Also included here are some provocative lyrics and social commentary, as with both the songs listed above and some of their most memorable work, as in "Hang Onto Your Life", Share the Land", and their most phenomenal and most enduring song, "American Woman", which was a thinly disguised broadside at the blatant hypocrisy of American values in the face of the Vietnam War and the widespread social injustice so controversially debated in the late 1960s, about the time of the urban riots across the country. Incidentally, they used the euphemism of the "American Woman" to illustrate how Lady Liberty, the Statue of Liberty standing in New York City's harbor, was a hypocritical symbol of an arrogant America gone crazy. It is song that is consistently played, and one many of us hear almost daily. Nice collection of the hits of one of the best groups to have come out of the turbulent sixties. Enjoy

Without question thiis was one of the greatest talents that I had ever heard as a teenager.This group had some of the most talented hits of my time. These hits are played on this album. You hear such songs as "Laughing","American Woman", and "Share
The Land" on this album. This talented group sang the all time love song "Heaven Knows".The Guess Who are top of the line in
music. They never recieved the recognition that was justly deserved. Buy this album and you will become a fan.The Guess
Who.one of the greatest bands ever. Buy this recording and you will know why. I love the Guess Who.

Finally, Finally, a solid collection available for this fine band! After years and years of so-so releases of best of or greatest packages released by RCA or BMG comes this 18 track greatest hits collection. This greatest hits package is a must for any music fan. This collection takes off from the first
track, "These Eyes" and then rolls on free and easy from there.
NO COLLECTION IS COMPLETE WITHOUT THIS CD![.] A MUST BUY![.]

Here's a tip if you're planning to buy one of the many Guess Who greatest hits albums: make sure "Guns, Guns, Guns" (1972), "Rain Dance" (1971), and "Albert Flasher" (1971) are on it, because those are some of their best songs, they don't always make it to such compilations, and the original albums with those songs are not available on CD. This album had all those songs and more, so I was very pleased with it. Even their charted songs from 1973-1974 that nobody really cares about are on it: "Follow Your Daughter Home," "Star Baby," "Clap For The Wolfman," and "Dancin' Fool." Like so many other groups of that era, their songwriting rapidly declined after about 1972, but it was nice to have those later hits for the sake of completeness. I see there is another Guess Who greatest hits CD with even more songs than this one, but this one had all their hits I wanted. The Guess Who had many other great non-hit songs that are possibly better than these hits, especially "8:15," "Money Bag," and "When Friends Fall Out," so don't forget to check out their original albums, too. This band was unusually versatile, Burton Cummings was rated one of the top 10 rock vocalists of all time, and they were writing some very good songs in their prime. I never get tired of listening to their better songs, like the ones on this CD. "Hang On To Your Life" might have even saved my life during a particularly depressing period of my adolescence, by discouraging thoughts of suicide. Thanks, Burt!

Aaah! This album brings back fond memories. I was too young back then to know who these guys are, but I sure enjoyed listening to their music on my dad's car radio. I find it brings you back to a time when things were simpler, more peaceful and frankly sunnier. Remember when songs had meaning, when the word "baby" was not on every line?

I did not give it 5 stars. Other then for the song "Clap for the Wolfman", I would have been happy with just their first 10 titles.