Search - Survivor :: Ultimate Survivor

All the big Survivor hits - and more!

jeffrey343 | Plano, TX United States | 02/02/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"There are multiple Survivor GH collections available, some easier to find than others. Here's some info to compare / contrast what is on them:



1990 - Survivor Greatest Hits 1 - 10 songs, all previously released material, all hits

1993 - Survivor Greatest Hits 2 - 13 songs, including two new songs (I didn't really like them)

2001 - Fire In Your Eyes (Import) - 18 songs, really good collection of hits

2001 - Prime Cuts (Import) - 18 songs, not all the hits, but many excellent album cuts

2004 - Ultimate Survivor - 18 songs, all major and most minor hits, two previously unreleased tunes



I've reviewed all but the 1990 GH CDs, and the first four have varying availability on amazon.com.



For the casual fan who just wants the big radio hits, this CD has them. I personally like all the songs, but if you're mainly interested in the hits, this might be more than you really want. But who knows, you may love the ones you haven't heard yet. Their sound evolved, but remained consistent - there's not as much contrast here as there is with many bands' GH collections.



If you like just about everything you've heard from Survivor but you're not ready to get all their CDs, this is definitely a good place to start. It has songs from all seven studio albums, plus their huge hit "Burning Heart" from the "Rocky IV" soundtrack.



For those of you who are like me and own all the other Survivor CDs, getting this one comes down to three songs:

- Rebel Girl - the elusive tune which was left off the debut album (but can apparently be found on some Japanese versions of that CD). It's been hyped quite a bit. It's a catchy guitar-driven tune.

- Summer Nights - from "Premonition" - the vinyl album has a shorter version of this, but the "Premonition" CD I got from amazon.com three years ago has this longer version. So if you have "Premonition" on CD, you have this version (just over four minutes long).

- Rockin' Into The Night - also could have made it to the debut CD, but was given to 38 Special and became their breakout hit. Survivor's version is definitely good, but my ears have been trained to consider the 38 Special version to be the "real" version.



Some other notes:

- The only four songs on all five GH CDs are "Eye Of The Tiger", "High On You", "I Can't Hold Back", and "The Search Is Over" (their four biggest hits).

- This CD has extensive liner notes, with lots of good info.

- Some reviewers have mentioned poor sound quality. I think this CD has the best quality of these particular songs available (I've done the comparisons myself).

- The main omission from this CD is "The Moment Of Truth" from the "Karate Kid" soundtrack. It is available on the GH2 and FIYE collections. It's a decent song, but not essential.



Even though I already have the 1993 GH2 CD, I got this one, mainly for "Rebel Girl".



All in all, this is a very good collection of Survivor tunes. For the majority of people, I recommend this over any of the other greatest hits collections.

"

Good... But

Ziad R. Hakim | Beirut Lebanon | 06/29/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Well I love Survivor ever since they came up with "Eye Of The Tiger", I was only 10! I owned in the past few years several compilations, including the 1990 "Greatest Hits" that had 13 tracks, then I bought "Greatest Hits 2" to complete some of their best hits. In 1999 I bought the Japanese import "The search is over: Best Selection" that was the only compilation that included two greatest songs "I never stopped loving you" and "Ever since the world began". In 2001, I purchased the German import "Fire in your eyes" and I got to tell you the recording was superior to the so called "Original Recording Remastered" from Volcano "Ultimate Survivor" that I own presently. However, it is the best compilation so far but few essential tracks are missing such "Moment of truth", "I never stopped loving you" and "Ever since the world began".

Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that Survivor is a great band and they deserve a DOUBLE DISC compilation.

Buy this one it is still the best in the market."

Beware of the Mastering!

Bleu Allen | Tennessee | 07/15/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Good song selection. Good liner notes. But it sounds as if this cd was burned directly from the first generation cd copies of all the releases. The first song "Eye of the Tiger" is mastered at the correct level. By the time you get to "I Can't Hold Back", you need to really turn up the volume to get the same loudness. Then when you get to "High On You", it is suddenly apparent that all the songs from "Vital Signs" are the same (LOW) Volume and all of the songs from "Too Hot To Sleep are at a different volume and the same for "Caught in the Game" and "When Seconds Count". If you have audio equipment that shows the playback levels this is a very obvious blunder. It has nothing to do with the album to album sound. This is really a pain if you burn compilation cd's and are used to remastered recordings being mastered at a certain loudness. The sound is fine, but was it really 'remastered'? There is no excuse for this up then down volume problem. This is worse than some budget compilations.One other thing. There are a few essential songs missing. Where is "She's A Star" and "The One That Really Matters". Survivor had some great 'Rock' songs too.Survivor fan's deserved a little better quality from this retrospective."