Track Listing

1. Down By The River
2. Cowgirl in the Sand
3. Cinnamon Girl
4. Helpless
5. After the Gold Rush
6. Only Love Can Break Your Heart
7. Southern Man
8. Ohio
9. The Needle And The Damage Done
10. Old Man
11. Heart of Gold
12. Like A Hurricane
13. Comes A Time
14. Hey Hey
15. My My
16. Rockin' in The Free World

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #175 in Music
• Released on: 2004-11-16
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered

Album Description
His first ever CD greatest-hits collection, Neil Young's Greatest Hits is a long-awaited retrospective from one of rock's most influential and enduring singer-songwriters. With 16 selections spanning his entire career since 1969, Greatest Hits features some of the greatest hits of rock'n'roll, period.

Amazon.com
One question would be: What took him so long? After all, a contemporary like Van Morrison has sold boatloads of his single-disc best-of set to buyers wary of diving into that deep catalog without a primer to get them started. So three and a half decades into his solo career, Neil Young finally delivers his version of that most modest of albums--the pre-holiday "hits" overview. What's surprising, coming from such a proud maverick, is its conventionality. Granted, the original master mixes are a boon for fans, but otherwise, there's not much here for loyalists who quite likely already possess the original "Like a Hurricane" on a couple of albums, as well as a handful of live interpretations scanning the years. Since Young cracked the Top 10 only once (1972's "Heart of Gold"), this set is built around concert staples as "Cinnamon Girl," "Rockin' in the Free World," and "Hey, Hey, My My" rather than chart favorites. Despite Young's honorable standing as a still-vital graybeard, the disc is skewed heavily toward his early work, shortchanging some mighty productive recent years. Peripheral fans may find this set of interest, but faithful followers are better advised to investigate the DVD version, which, at least, includes videos, photos, lyrics, and Web links. --Steven Stolder

Customer Reviews

Terrific Introduction for the Neophyte Fan
It's hard to argue with the tracks included on this single disc collection, and it's really pointless to kvetch about which of your favorite Neil Young tracks got left off. Odds are you have them all anyway. I know I do. My only question is who was this CD compiled for? Obvioulsy his fans already have these songs. And with the most recent song on this disc dating from 1992 ("Harvest Moon"), it's unlikely that the casual fan was waiting twelve years for this to get released.

Longtime fans who bought 1977's DECADE already have all but five of these songs. You know what I'm waiting for? Where's DECADE II and III? [In fact, Young is only three years away from being able to release DECADE IV.]

And shouldn't this have been titled BEST OF instead of GREATEST HITS? Sure, it includes all three of his early-seventies top 40 hits, but it omits other singles that charted in the hot 100 like "When You Dance I Can Really Love," "Walk On" and "Four Strong Winds," among others.

Bottom line, this is a terrific collection of songs with some of Young's most powerful anthems. Five stars for the music, but I would think this is going to have limited appeal for anyone but the neophyte fan.

A Rare "Greatest Hits" Worthy of the Title
It is amazing to me how many times record companies and/or the artists themselves manage to screw up a "greatest hits" compilation. Too often are such compilations done to represent the entire career of the artist, regardless whether the artist's biggest hits stem from throughout that career. The "Elton John Greatest Hits 1970-2002" is a good example of that: too many latter day non-greatest hits take up space instead of overlooked real greatest hits.

Neil Young's "Greatest Hits" (16 tracks, 77 min.) thankfully is just that: his truly greatest hits, regardless of how recent or not so recent they are. This results then in a compilation on which only the last 2 songs are are post-1979 (1989's "Rockin' in the Free Workd" and 1992's "Harvest Moon"). In other words, 14 of the 16 songs on here are from 1969-1979. Although one can always argue whether this or that song should've been on here (I'd say that "Comes a Time" belongs on here), the truth is that, for the CASUAL Neil Young fan (if there is such a thing), this "Greatest Hits" CD truly represents his best known songs.

For the not-so-casual Neil Young fan, beware: there is significant overlap between this "Greatest Hits" and the 1977 "Decade" compilation: 10 of the 16 songs on "Greatest Hits" are also found on "Decade". That said, kudos for the audio quality of this CD, which sounds remarkedly better than the "Decade" compilation. "Neil Young Greatest Hits" is an essential CD for any music fan.

Excellent Restrospective of a Great Career
Actually, I'd give this CD four and a half stars. The only thing that prevents a five-star review is that any greatest hits of someone as important as Neil Young needs to have 2 CDs to cover all the material the man has produced over the years. Sound quality excellent, and the versions are full-length, as much as ten minutes in the case of 'Cowgirl in the Sand'. Neil Young was one of the seminal singer/songwriters of the sixties and early seventies, and his works capture the era of protest and baby-boomers coming of age. The song selection is good for a single CD. As someone who has most of Young's work on vinyl, I realize that this retrospective is only about half what deserves to be included, but it is a good start, and highly recommended.