White Hot Soul, As It Smashed Through The Jukebox
BluesDuke | Las Vegas, Nevada | 01/02/2004
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Playing a high-octane style of R and B that would have sunk continents if they'd had a songwriting ability equal to their playing energy, Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels (who could play the Rascals right under the table, and would probably have made the Rolling Stones resemble poseurs if they'd ever shared a bill) turned the top 40 and the jukebox into an incomparable power station for two years. Until producer Bob Crewe, for whatever God-fool reason, decided Ryder was just the man to put in front of a Spector-meets-Vegas presentation and fractured the Wheels' momentum irrevocably (if you've ever heard "What Now, My Love," you know what I mean), these guys were probably the most take-no-prisoners rock and soul outfit in the U.S. They really did (and do) deserve better, including enshrinement in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.The proof is right here. But why should you pick this set over Rhino's remastered and more extensive "Rev Up"? Two reasons: 1) The Rhino set includes cuts from Ryder's post-Wheels experiment, Detroit, which really belong on a retrospective of Detroit's own (they deserve one). And, 2) these are the original mono mixes of the classic Wheels singles and tracks, the thick singles which fired like a howitzer through the grille cloth with every drop of your dime and punch of the numbers - hot, tight, sweaty, and relentless. And if you remember how little you cared how many dimes you had to spend to get your second and third helpings of stuff like "Break Out," "Shakin' With Linda," "Jenny Take A Ride," "Devil With A Blue Dress" (even if it was blues bender extraordinaire Mike Bloomfield, and not the Wheels' Jim McCarty, playing that proto-psychedelic guitar break), or "Too Many Fish in the Sea," then this is the disc which resurrects that howitzer to the last tone and thump."
Just like a big stack o' 45's without the pops & scratches!
David Kenner | Fort Worth, Texas United States | 07/16/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Forget the other compilations. This is the original Greatest Hits collection from Mitch Ryder and it's been expanded for this CD edition. Why this one over the other ones? One word: MONO. This is how these songs are supposed to sound. Put "Breakout" in that really wide stereo from the 60s (like it is on the Rhino best of) and an all time classic loses its power. The classics are all here and these mono mixes are meant to be played LOUD!"
Misleadiing images and reviews
Michael Payne | McDonough, GA United States | 03/17/2010
(2 out of 5 stars)
"I found this on a search and with the reviews, the customer images and the price I thought, "Wow, the original Greatest Hits albumn." So I jumped on the order. Then I started listening to the clips. Something was not guite right. So I did a search and found the actual orgianl greatest hits ablum availabel for $9.99. And as memory served they sounded different. This is apparently a remakes of the original songs.
For the price it was worth getting this but had I taken the time to compare and not trusted the comments and images I would have likely passed this by for the real original greatest hits.
If you want a good representation of Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels I would recommend you do the same."
Track Listings (13) - Disc #1