Great collection of hits and non-hits with great sound but m
James Zinn | Kansas City, MO | 05/12/2010
(4 out of 5 stars)
"This compilation is a great first-purchase or "best of" The Hollies. It has great remastering and sound, lots of songs, and for those who have to have the stereo mixes of the big songs, this compilation gives the nod to stereo over mono mixes, where they exist. Bear in mind that stereo mixes of the mid-1960s were often recorded in mono then mixed down to another multi-track tape to separate channels, then adding overdubs. Some may prefer mono mixes over the stereo; they do sound pretty different to these ears.
Note "King Midas In Reverse", "Pay You Back With Interest" and "He Ain't Heavy" do not appear on this set, along with a few other key tracks, but does include surprising choices like "Schoolgirl" that do not appear on many compilations. Depending on your tastes, this one does bookend heavily with more British Invasion-era and easy-listening 1970s-style tracks than other comps but if you like the Hollies, you will like most of it. It does weaken a bit on disk 2.
So for those who want mono mixes of these songs, and get the ones this one doesn't have at all? You can supplement it with the Australian Raven label's "On A Carousel 1963-1974" which gives you several songs not on this one including the 3 songs I mentioned above, including mono mixes of a number of the songs that appear on "Finest". Another good supplemental compilation to fill the holes in the Graham Nash period is the "At Abbey Road 1966 to 1970" U.K. import from EMI but it doesn't have "Pay You Back With Interest".
Furthering the dilemma of collecting The Hollies is the British CD versions of their LPs have better remastering, sound, and song selections over the U.S. counterparts but their hit singles were often not on their British LPs. So having these compilations I've mentioned, and adding a few key British import versions of the key albums (CDs) which include both mono AND stereo versions from EMI, you can have a pretty thorough Hollies collection. So I bought "Finest", "At Abbey Road 1966-1970", "On A Carousel: 1963-74", then picked up the U.K. import versions of the albums "For Certain Because", "Evolution" (or the Sundazed version), and "Butterfly" then added "Distant Light" and a great Hollies collection is complete. Unfortunately, even with all of that I still only have mono versions of "Stop Stop Stop" and "Just One Look", argh! I'm done."
A Very Good Collection
popmusicfan | northeastern Ohio | 03/05/2008
(4 out of 5 stars)
"I own another Hollies collection that's billed as a "greatest hits" set. The problem with the Hollies--well, probably really any band--is that the big radio hits and most commercially successful singles do not necessarily represent the "finest" work of the group. For Americans, the Hollies present the additional challenge that they were making lots of records, appearing on Shindig! and other television shows well before they really started to hit the U.S. charts in earnest in 1966. This album gives you the big radio hits, but it also fills in the gaps with early material and with some of the post-disco Hollies material that tends to slip through the cracks. The one disappointment is that the liner notes by drummer Bobby Elliott are so short -- there's so much more that could have been done in terms of his recollections of the band and the sessions. Booklet information on original release dates, etc., though, are a nice touch."
Track Listings (44) - Disc #1