Disco de Cheap Trick: “The Greatest Hits”

Featuring only 13 songs, "Their Greatest Hits" is a relatively skimpy anthology album for a band that at the time of its release had been rcording for more than a decade and a half. The album also, unfortunately, draws evenly from across the band's career, shorting their classic early days and overrepresenting their less graceful later output (for example: only one selection from "Heaven Tonight," their best studio album).

Things start off on the wrong foot with an awful previously unreleased version of The Beatles' "Magical Mystery Tour." The highlights among the remaining dozen tracks include excellent early singles "Surrender" and "I Want You to Want Me," the latter from their breakthrough "Live at Budokan" album. "Budokan" provides another smokin' cover, "Ain't that a Shame." Other strong singles included are "She's Tight," "If You Want My Love," "I Can't Take It" and "Tonight it's You." On the downside are the vapid power ballad "The Flame" and a by-the-numbers cover of "Don't Be Cruel," both from the band's late 80s "comeback" album "The Flame."

Overall, a strangely programmed anthology album that doesn't really give these veteran rockers their just due.

This greatest hits doesn't really work because it jumps from live cuts to 70's era power pop to latter-day AOR. Also, there are so many great songs missing (Elo Kiddies, Southern Girls, On Top of The World, Way of the World, Stop this Game). For the casual fan, it's a decent overview of the band's hits but if you want to dig deeper, as a whole it's really no more impressive than any of the band's first five albums or their 1997 underrated masterpiece.

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Cheap Trick's greatest hits are just that. I always liked some of their music, but didn't know that there was this much of it. Their cover of "Ain't That a Shame" would make Fats Domino proud.

My only critism of this cd is the omission of a few songs. There's room for some more here.

I like the version of Magical Mystery Tour. Southern Girls is lacking as is It's Only Love (I know it wasn't a hit) and something from All Shook Up and Cheap Trick would have comepleted the collection nicely. I guess it's a Greatest Hits so their Greatest Hits are on here.

If you're in the market, go for Essential Cheap Trick or Authorised Greatest Hits.