Track Listing

1. Panic
2. Boy With the Thorn in His Side
3. Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now
4. Ask
5. Bigmouth Strikes Again
6. How Soon Is Now?
7. This Charming Man
8. What Difference Does It Make?
9. William, It Was Really Nothing
10. Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others
11. Girlfriend in a Coma
12. Hand in Glove
13. There Is a Light That Never Goes Out
14. Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want
15. That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore
16. I Know It's Over
17. Sheila Take a Bow
18. I Started Something I Couldn't Finish
19. Still Ill
20. Shakespeare's Sister
21. Shoplifters of the World Unite
22. Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me
23. Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #38733 in Music
• Released on: 2001-06-11
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Import, Original recording remastered

Album Description
Import only 23 track collection. All tracks have been digitally remastered. Tracks, 'Panic', 'The Boy With The Thorn In His Side', 'Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now', 'Ask', 'Bigmouth Strikes Again', 'How Soon Is Now?', 'This Charming Man', 'What Difference Does It Make?', 'William, It Was Really Nothing', 'Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others', 'Girlfriend In A Coma', 'Hand In Glove', 'There Is A Light That Never Goes Out', 'Please Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want', 'That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore', 'I Know It's Over', 'Sheila Take A Bow', 'I Started Something I Couldn't Finish', 'Still Ill', 'Shakespeare's Sister', 'Shoplifters Of The World Unite', 'Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me' & 'Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before'.2001 release.

Customer Reviews

remastering is not a positive
This is a great collection of songs by The Smiths - but the remastering has ruined the best aspects of the original recordings. For example "Hand In Glove", which for me had just about the snappiest and most memorable snare sound (courtesy of producer John Porter), but the remastered version reduces the snare to a soul-less dull thud. All the highs from the cymbals and guitar have gone too.

Perhaps the "Very Best Of.." producers were only interested in forming a unified sound to this whole album, but they've shown no regard for the integrity of the original recordings - and as good as the Smiths were, to me it was their original producers who made their music sound so appealing.

This compilation still gets 4 stars for the songs themselves, which are all winners, but I would recommend all of the original recordings as being far superior in both fidelity and style.

pay no attention...
....to the rants by the hardcore, judgemental ,lockstep internet fans who have planted some of the above negative reviews. First off, This CD sounds about a million percent better than any of the previous issues of these tracks. How could someone not hear this? I guess that's what happens when you listen to music only on your PC! A big plus is the correct versions of some singles are finally used on CD! Second ,it is a pretty perfect selection and it is sequenced great. Thirdly,the mediocre cover and careless packaging are inexcusable but not fatal. It just makes a 5-star rating a 4-star... Buy it.

One star lost to the vampires
There are a lot of fans doing a lot of bellyaching over this comp and I don't get it. There are 3 post band break-up "hits" comps out there, none of them have been "OK'd" by Morrissey or Marr, this one has better sound and more songs. Every A side is here, as are 5 extra "shoulda been A-sides". Comparing the sound on this with the sound on "Singles" is like night and day. You can program this to play in the order the songs were released if you're really that cranky over the random order of the tunes. Until RHINO does a proper anthology this is the best single disc comp. out there. I knocked off one star because this is an unauthorized overview, but I have a pretty good hunch that this is pretty much the same CD that Marr n' Mozz would have thrown together themselves. Keep in mind that there are no "official" Smiths T-shirts out there either but everyone seems to have one. Fans, product, supply, demand, oldest story in the book.