Bruce Springsteen - Greatest Hits

Yet I have to disagree with Madam Marie (review written 11/10/99) who questions why an existing fan would buy this CD. The reason is simple: sometimes it's fun to hear songs from throughout Springsteen's career in one sitting. It's a reminder of how his music has changed over time, of how his themes have evolved and of why he's in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. And, as all these songs are familiar, it's a great CD for listening to during an hour's drive or working in the office on a Saturday or while working out. True, it lacks the depth and cohesiveness of one of his albums. And while these aren't ALL his greatest hits, they are some of them.

So, for those new to Springsteen it's a fine introduction. For those already fans, it's a nice, easy-to-take package worth having.


One collection of the Boss' greatest hits   January 7, 2008
Steven A. Peterson (Hershey, PA (Born in Kewanee, IL))
16 out of 17 found this review helpful

Anytime a major artist releases a CD labeled "Greatest Hits," all bets are off! There will always be disagreements over what is (or should be) on the CD. Surely no difference here, as one can see from the variety of reviews already posted.

However, my own sense is that this is not a bad collection of Springsteen's hits. It opens with a song that helped propel him to greater fame and renown than previously--"Born to Run." One of the best rock songs around (and one nice aspect of this CD is that the lyrics show up, so that people can see the actual words of the songs). Other top notch songs appear on this CD: "Thunder Road," "Badlands," "Hungry Heart," "Dancing in the Dark," "Born in the U.S.A." and so on.

The collection captures the range of Springsteen's work, from the hard rockers to more introspective songs, from the sound of the E Street Band joining him to sparer instrumentation.

Questions? Sure. Nothing earlier than "Born to Run"? There were some very nice pieces before that iconic tune. Also, I could see other songs as candidates for inclusion--"10th Avenue Freezeout," "Jungleland," and so on. Nonetheless, this works well as a Greatest Hits compilation for Bruce Springsteen. Fans may have all his CDs, but it's sometimes nice to have a compilation available of some of the best works available. And if you don't have a lot of Springsteen's works, then this is "must hear music."



Incomplete Collection For The Boss, But It's Great Music   May 28, 2005
Anthony Nasti (Staten Island, New York United States)
14 out of 78 found this review helpful

Bruce Springsteen is one of the hardest artists to anthologize, since his music went through so many changes over the years. He started out as a Dylan - esque folk singer, then reemerged as a pop superstar, and finally a soft rock staple (thanks to the hit "Streets Of Philadelphia" from the move "Philadelphia"). "Bruce Springsteen - Greatest Hits" is an 18 track collection of his career up to 1995, and tries to give a brief overview of each stage of his career. It succeeds to a point, since it does leave a lot out, and makes a good starting point for beggining Springsteen fans.

Unfortunately, his early years (1975-80) are represented by only three tracks. "Born To Run" is an obvious opening track, and it still remains one of the greatest rock songs ever written. I can honestly admit that I never really enjoyed "Thunder Road" but I do think "Badlands" is an excellent song. However, I was extremely disappointed that thye did not include my favorite song from this era, "Rosalita". This omission is almost unforgivable and I almost deducted an entire star for this omission.

His pop years get the most representation. This is probably my favorite Springsteen era, since it includes all of my favorites: "Hungry Heart", "Dancing In The Dark" (the song with the video with Courtney Cox) and "Glory Days" rank as my all time favorite Springsteen songs. I also really like "Brilliant Disguise". There are some other big hits that should be here (namely the top ten hits from "Born In U.S.A." left off as well as "Tunnel Of Love"), but I'll get to those later.

His later years are covered well. "Streets Of Philadelphia" is a great song, and I like "Human Touch" as well. The three new songs with the E Street Band, however, I didn't really get into, with the exception of "Secret Garden", which became a top twenty hit two years after this album came out.

As I said, this collection is far from perfect. There are many hits left off, including "Rosalita", "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out", "Fade Away", "Cover Me", "I'm In Fire", "I'm Goin' Down", "War", "Tunnel Of Love", and "One Step Up". Here's my idea for "The Best Of Bruce Springsteen":

1.Born To Run
2.Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)
3.Badlands
4.The River
5.Hungry Heart
6.Atlantic City
7.Fade Away
8.Dancing In The Dark
9.Cover Me
10.Born In The U.S.A.
11.I'm On Fire
12.Glory Days
13.I'm Goin' Down
14.My Hometwon
15.War
16.Brilliant Disguise
17.Tunnel Of Love
18.One Step Up
19.Human Touch
20.Better Days
21.Streets Of Philadelphia
22.Secret Garden

I do understand that some of these tracks will have to be edited to fit onto one cd, but that's fine with me, since it will be the definitve Springsteen collection. Until then, however, this collection will do just fine.



Not Quite Perfect but Gets It Mostly Right   April 20, 2002
milleniumistic
13 out of 15 found this review helpful

"Greatest Hits" does a nice job of capturing the breadth of Springsteen's mythic career from "Born to Run" through his commercial apex ('Born in the USA'), through his double solo releases ("Brilliant Disguise" and "Human Touch") through his movie hits ("Secret Garden" from 'Jery Maguire' and the title track from "Streets of Philly"). Squeezing the Boss' best onto a single disk is a daunting task, but Bruce and John Landau did a good job.

The Good - the inclusion of 5 of my favorite Springsteen songs - the anthemic 'Born to Run', the gut-wrenching 'The River', the haunting 'Atlantic City', the transcendent 'Born in the USA' and the uplifting 'Better Days'. Though not every song hits me like these do, there is not alot of fat in-between either.

The Bad - I find the trend of tacking newly recorded tracks onto Greatest Hits CDs to be a bad idea. The 3 on this one ('Murder Incorporated', 'Blood Brothers', 'This Hard Land') are not bad, but sound out of place among the deserving "greatest" hits.I would have replaced them with 'Rosalita', 'She's the One' and a live version of 'Jersey Girl' to make this a 5-star CD (finding a way to pack 'JungleLand' would only elevate it to near perfection).

Highly recommended despite its flaws and omissions. Also recommeded: "Blood Brothers" (DVD) which documents the 1995 reunion of Bruce and the E Street Band to record the 3 new songs for the "Greatest Hits" CD.