The Who Album: “Hooligans”

Hooligans is a two-CD "best of" or compilation set of The Who's best music. Unlike some of the "best of" or "greatest hits" type of packages this band has put out over the decades, Hooligans features the full versions of songs - they are not abbreviated versions where the last 30 seconds or 1 minute of a song is cut off and just fades out and they're not radio edits, either. They're the full versions. This set was released in 1981 and includes all of their good stuff from their beginning up until the late '70s.

Here are the songs:

Disc One:

I Can't Explain

I Can See For Miles

Pinball Wizard

(Nothing Is Everything) Let's See Action

Summertime Blues

The Relay

Baba O'Riley

Behind Blue Eyes

Bargain

The Song Is Over

Disc Two:

Join Together

Squeeze Box

Slip Kid

The Real Me

5:15

Drowned

Had Enough

Sister Disco

Who Are You

All in all, a good set. It's out of print, but is worth getting if you can find it.

This wouldn't be my first choice but it has some pretty rare songs on it like "The Relay". It could be better if they added some real golden hits like "My Generation" or "Won't Get Fooled Again". There are some hits they you wouldn't really find on greatest hits albums. If I could, I'd disclude "Song is Over", "Drowned", and "Had Enough". Don't get me wrong, all those songs are great but they aren't needed on this one to make it good

I bought this collection years ago on vinyl and I still have it. I always loved the title "Hooligans". It was the first time I really became aware of the word. I recently bought this set through three sellers. The first two sellers were from here at Amazon.com. Both sellers sold me single 2nd disc versions. The sellers seemed to be unaware that the set is actually two cds, even though two cds are indicated and lyrics for disc one as well. I bought disc one on Ebay. I found an double cd case and finally I have the set together. To me this is a fine set of Who songs. The set avoids a lot of the oldest stuff and focuses more on I guess the 70's. I'm really ignorant as to just when most of the songs were written because I am only a marginal Who fan. Still, this set has a lot of famous songs and some nice but lesser known Who songs. Slip Kid got a lot of play from me and it was very nice to hear 5:15 again after so long. As an adult it's nice to hear the Who playing around with sexual innuendo as with the song Squeeze Box. I used to think the song was about sex. I didn't know a squeeze box was also called an acordian. Join together is a nice rocker that starts out kinda slow and then there's the classic Who Are You. I listed disc two first here because that was the disc I bought "twice" first from two sellers.

Disc one has the great The Song is Over classic. Who doesn't love that song? It's nice to have a copy of the song Bargain as well. I could do without the song I Can See For Miles which I find a bit annoying. I like I Can't Explain though. I like Behind Blue Eyes but I guess I have grown tired of the song. It's a classic for sure but I have grown weary of hearing it. Barbara O'Reilly is on this set also, on disc one. That's another song which has gotten old to me. It's a good song though. Pinball Wizard is on disc one but I never was a fan of that song. So I guess I like disc two the best. Also on disc two is the great song "The Real Me". That's a fun song.

All in all I don't really see why this set has fallen out of print. I guess keeping the set in print was all up to MCA Records. Also, this set sounds pretty good even though it isn't remastered. I looked at many collections by The Who and I'm glad I was able to get this one. In the end I guess I wasted some money to get this set but one seller refunded my money so in the end I simply paid each sole seller for one disc. So I guess I paid about $25 for this set. Most of the reason I bought this set was simple nostalgia. I had it on vinyl and now I also have it on cd. : )

It's just like every other Who greatest hits compilation, except it's missing older songs from their first three records. There are absolutely no songs from the amazing "A Quick One" and NO John Entwistle songs at all. It should at least have "My Wife". Back in the 80s this was THE Best Of to have. But now there is recently released "Ultimate Collection" and even the 96 one is better than this. This is only for a person trying to achieve the task of owning everything the Who has done.

I received the first of the cd's fairly quickly and it looked to be in great shape. no scratches. The second is coming in soon and I would guess it is in great shape as well. The seller is recommended for other items as well.