Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27423 in Digital Music Album
• Released on: 1999-03-23
• Running time: 4296 seconds

Customer Reviews

4 1/2 stars here. Not a stand-alone set, but a terrific companion volume to "The Real Deal" vol. 1
The original 11-track "Greatest Hits" CD from 1995 didn't do justice to the late, great Stevie Ray Vaughan at all, but since it was replaced by "The Real Deal - Greatest Hits vol. 1", all that has changed.

Vol. 1 includes sixteen of Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble's best and best-known songs, including "Pride & Joy", "Cold Shot", the sizzling high-octane blues "Texas Flood", and the rollicking "The House Is Rocking", and here you get sixteen more.
The quality is every bit as high as on volume one, and if the songs are slightly less well known, they're certainly no less excellent. We get stellar career highlights like the swaggering, piano-driven boogie "Look At Little Sister" and the riff-driven "Willie The Wimp", driving, up-tempo rockers like "Love Struck Baby" and the tough but supremely groovy "Empty Arms", and the intense survivor's tale "Life By The Drop".

This is an exceptionally strong and varied collection of songs, a terrific showcase for the never-overestimated talents of Stevie Ray Vaughan. Its only flaw, if you will, is that it doesn't really work as a proper career overview, so you'll have to get volume one as well! :-)

well balanced variety of an incredibly gifted musician
If Stevie is new to you, this is likely the best disc with which to start your collection. you say you like over the top guitar pyrotechnics? we've got it(Voodoo Chile, slight return). Dig the blues? We have them, too (Aint gone 'n give up on love). Want to kick back & relax with some of the most soulful guitar ever played? "Lenny" is the song for you. There is little wonder why the record executive had tears in her eyes when Stevie played it for her after a four hour show in a small Texas club. Would you like to go "unplugged?," we've got what you need (Life by the drop.) Like angry blues? Then you better crank the volume knob up all the way when you get to "Leave my little girl alone." The solo 1:10 into the song will blow your mind! It is absolutely incendiary! As a fifteen year fan of this guitarist, I still get chills listening to this new live version. Play this cd LOUD and OFTEN and thank GOD for giving us Stevie, even if it wasn't for long enough.

Some of the essential best of SRV
Ignore the Amazon "review editor." He sounds like a know-it-all purist who apparently either hasn't got the ear for SRV or is...well, at least a teensy bit clueless. This album contains some of the absolute best of SRV and Double Trouble. I thought "Lenny" was amazingly beautiful - and THEN I heard Riviera Paradise." It was astounding, and got better each of the 20-or-so times I listened to it on the headphones the first night I got the CD. When I first heard "Voodoo Chile, Slight Return" I literally stopped in my tracks and said "Holy S&%$T!" for it was the first time I'd heard ANYONE outdo Hendrix at his own game, with his own song. "Pipeline" absolutely smokes. About the only song missing on this CD to make it rate a 6 out of 5 is "Little Wing" off of the "Sky is Crying" CD. The list of songs on this CD is WELL worthy of a second Greatest Hits compilation, in contradiction to "Mr." Ted Drozdowski, la review editor. In fact, all the archivists need do is pull in several of the flaming hot, smokin' bluesy numbers SRV did live at El Mocombo, Austin City Limits, and off of soundtracks or as backing guitarist for other bands/singers and there's EASILY enough for a third Greatest/Best CD!

As with the movies, when the reviewers dis the stuff, it's time to perk up and pay attention. Unless you've already got all this stuff in your collection, GET IT!