"The Four Tops Greatest Hits" by The Four Tops (Jan., 1968)

Dad's Take:

The Four Tops managed to stay together without a single personnel change from 1953 until 1997, when Lawrence Payton died of cancer. To get their signature sound, songs were written just a bit high for lead singer Levi Stubbs, a baritone. As a result, he often sounded like he was reaching for an emotional high note.

It's hard to review a greatest hits album. What do you say? "This album contains all their greatest hits," at least those recorded through 1967. "Reach Out I'll Be There," "I Can't Help Myself," "Baby I Need Your Loving," "Shake Me Wake Me (When It's Over)," It's The Same Old Song"--all there, as well as several others you might not know by title, but you'll know it when you hear it.

This is a rock-solid record, a great listen all the way through. But what else would you expect from a greatest hits album by one of the great soul vocal groups?

Brad's Take:


Every song that I already knew by The Four Tops I had no idea was actually The Four Tops. I've heard of their group's name, but never really associated any songs with it until now. Not really sure why I slept on that because I should have gotten their entire discography a long time ago.

I love this kind of music. It just feels so happy and fun, despite what the lyrics talk about sometimes. This music just puts me in a good mood.

"I Can't Help Myself" and "Reach Out I'll Be There" are a couple of the songs on this collection that are immediately familiar to me. But there's some tracks on here that I haven't heard before that I love now, like "Seven Rooms of Gloom," "Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever," and "You Keep Running Away," just to name a few.

After listening to this, I decided that I'm definitely going to have to dive into more of The Four Tops' discography. This is a great collection that really showcases their greatness. I really hope other songs off of their full albums are as good as their hits are. This is one of my favorite albums we've gotten to listen to, I think. So much fun!

"Greatest Hits" by Diana Ross & the Supremes (January 1968)

Dad's Take:

In the mid-sixties, the Supremes were up there with people like the Beatles and Beach Boys as a chart force, creating hit after hit and dominating the radio. This two-record set of twenty songs contains all the hits and several less-familiar B-sides from that period.

There's not much more to say. If you like the Supremes but aren't fanatical enough to want all of the original albums, everything you'd expect to hear is here. "Can't Hurry Love," "Stop in the Name of Love," "Where Did Our Love Go," "Baby Love," and even more songs with love in the title, "Come See About Me," "Back In My Arms Again," "I Hear A Symphony"--all bona fide classics and more familiar to many of us than the stuff at the back of the refrigerator. Throw in some lesser tunes like "Ask Any Girl" and "Whisper You Love Me Boy," that you might not know but that will sound familiar anyway, and you have a classic greatest hits comp.

There aren't any big surprises. It is, afterall, a greatest hits package. So kick back and enjoy some soulful Motown diva pop. It's a welcome antidote to the experimentation of 1967, straight up pop song, mostly about love. Nothing particularly groundbreaking about the songs, but the Motown productions are stellar and the performances by Diana Ross and her girls are, well, yeah, supreme.

Brad's Take:


Now this is more up my alley! Who could not love The Supremes. They are just a fun little Motown group that you can't help but dance along with. There isn't really much more to say about Diana Ross and The Supremes.

Some of my favorite tracks on here are "Baby Love," "Where Did Our Love Go?", "Stop! In The Name of Love," and "Come See About Me." There's a bunch more that I like just as much, but I don't want to copy and paste the entire track list. The only negative thing I'd have to say about this compilation though is that I enjoy the first disc more than the second.

Like my dad said, there's no real surprises here. The biggest surprises are the B-sides, and even those are just about as great as the hits.

"The Sound of Music" Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (March, 1965)

Dad's Take:

I remember when I was very small, going with my parents to see this movie at the drive-in, probably in Oakland. Even as a tyke, the movie held my interest. Long after mom and dad told us to go to sleep in the back seat, I still watched the movie. I'm sure I watched it at least to the point where little Nazi Rolf threatens the family in the convent and then chickens out. I remember feeling afraid. My mom had this record, and it became part of the soundtrack of my childhood.

Later, when I lived in Austria, not far from the area where the movie was made, I remember American tourists wanting to find the sights and sounds from the movie. They were less interested in tracking down anything having to do with the real Von Trapp family (and a good thing too, because learning the actual history of the family spoils the illusions of this highly inaccurate story). They wanted to find places they saw in the movie. They wanted to hear Austrians singing that old-time Austrian folksong, "Edelweiss," which is not an Austrian folksong at all but rather a song written for the musical by a couple of New Yorkers.

This is one of the most beloved musicals of all time, and was a huge sensation when it hit the screen. Its popularity continues to this day. Many of the songs have become classics, like "Maria," "Sixteen Going on Seventeen," "My Favorite Things," "So Long, Farewell," "Climb Ev'ry Mountain," "Do-Re-Mi," and, yes, "Edelweiss." The soundtrack is like a greatest hits album. No matter whether you know the musical very well or not (and who doesn't?), you know the songs.

The album is not without it's clunky moments. Like the movie, the songs often slip into sappy sentimentality. And I cringe every time I hear the party goers sing "Goodbye" in unison at the end of "So Long, Farewell." I'm also not a big fan of the Reverend Mother's voice on "Climb Ev'ry Mountain."

But overall, this is a solid soundtrack. I've already mentioned many of the popular songs. I've always been a bit of a sucker for "The Lonely Goatherd," even if it really makes very little sense in the context of the story. And, sure, I'll admit it, I've never quite lost my boyhood crush on Liesl, the oldest daughter.

There was a time in my life when I loved this soundtrack more than I do now. It has suffered from over-exposure. But it's a classic, and it's fun to dig out every once in a while.

Brad's Take:


I don't think I have seen this movie more than twice in my whole life so I'm not very familiar with these songs, aside from the total classics like the title track, "Sixteen Going On Seventeen," "My Favorite Things," "Do-Re-Mi," So Long, Farewell"...Wait... I am naming almost half the soundtrack! I forgot that this soundtrack contained so many classics. Although I can't remember the last time I watched the movie, I hear a lot of these songs quite a bit from time to time.

There are so many great songs on here. I was anxious to get to "The Lonely Goatherd" because my dad said it was his favorite, and the title didn't sound familiar to me. Right when the song started though, I instantly recognized it. It's such a fun little song. I even caught myself yodelay'ing along with Maria and the children. Speaking of Maria, whether she's telling us her favorite things or just yodeling, Julie Andrews rules. She has a great voice and an even greater personality. She lets both qualities shine equally throughout the entire soundtrack. I like her.

My dad said it best. This album is like a soundtrack of greatest hits.  All of the songs on this album are just straight up fun to listen to. Soundtracks aren't typically my favorite kind of albums to listen to, but listening to this was a good time!

Some of "my favorite things" about this soundtrack are a couple punk rock covers that I've listened to far more often than the originals. "My Favorite Things" by Me First and the Gimme Gimmes is probably my favorite, but The Vandals did a fun version of "So Long, Farewell" off of an album that my dad and I mutually enjoy, Hitler Bad, Vandals Good.

Elvis' Golden Records, by Elvis Presley (April, 1958)

Brad's Take:


This is thought to be the first rock 'n roll greatest hits album. It includes eight Elvis #1 hits and five B-sides from 1956 to 1957. It includes "Heartbreak Hotel," "Hound Dog," "All Shook Up," and many more recognizable Elvis jukebox tunes. As of 1999, the album has gone 6x Platinum, which means 6,000,000 units have been sold from its original release date.

One thing that bugged me about this release is something that also bothered me with Elvis' second album Elvis; they kick both of these albums off with an upbeat song and then follow it up with a super slow song. I wish they did these albums like this... A side: Upbeat songs. B side: Slow songs. That way, depending on the mood of the listener, they could choose which version they wanted at that time, rather than having to flip the record over and over and over to get to certain songs. But that's the sequencer's problem, not Elvis' necessarily. Aside from the roller coaster sequencing, this is a great compilation of Elvis songs. It's got everything that any fan of The King would want; the fast upbeat songs and the slow-dancing ballads.

This is just another reminder that I need to make my own Elvis mix CD to listen to in my car

Dad's Take:

Brad has discovered one of the problems vinyl had compared to CDs, if you want to see it that way. We were at the mercy of the people who sequenced the songs. There was no programming the songs in the order you like, and skipping songs was only worth the effort if you really disliked a song. That said, the order of the songs on this record isn't that unusual. A fast song, followed by a ballad, then two or three fast songs, another ballad, and a fast song to end the side. The fast-to-slow-song ratio on this record wouldn't support the breakdown Brad suggests. If he wants a fast side and a slow side, he should check out the excellent Beach Boys Today! album which, somehow, did not make our list.

While I still think it's a little unfair to include a greatest hits package in a list of classic albums, unless the record became a phenomenon on its own (like, say, The Eagles Greatest Hits album that stayed on the charts for, like, forever), there's no denying the greatness of this record. And 40 weeks on the charts in its initial run, plus another 23 weeks after Elvis died in 1977, would qualify it as phenomenal record, I suppose.

Golden Records has most of the songs most people know, and a surprise or two for the casual listener. It's hard to listen to this record without breaking out the old Elvis imitation Mrs. Barbara Williams used to have me do in her Music As Media class back in my old Newark High School days, especially when I hear "I Want You, I Need You, I Love You," which was one of my favorites to do. Only now I'd be the fat old Elvis and I'd have to rest my knees for a few days afterward.

That all of these songs were hits in a two-year period demonstrates Elvis's reign better than anything we can write about the songs. And he had enough hits in the next year and a half for another greatest hits album, which comes later on our list. But if you only wanted one Elvis record, this was the one to get before Elv1s 30 #1 Hits came out in 2002.

Johnny's Greatest Hits, by Johnny Mathis (March, 1958)

Dad's Take:

It's kind of cheating to include greatest hits records in a list of classic albums, but there are several on our list, so there you go. But I suppose when the greatest hits album not only topped the charts but stayed on the charts for two and half months short of 500 weeks, a Billboard record until it was bested by Pink Floyd's 1973 Dark Side Of The Moon, the album definitely qualifies as a classic.

The performances on this album are as sweet as honey. Whether the classic Mathis anthem, "Chances Are," or standards like "When Sunny Gets Blue" or the gorgeous "Wonderful! Wonderful!," Mathis is as close to perfect as you're going to get. He was perhaps the best old-school balladeer of the rock and roll age. Not bad for a Texas kid who grew up in San Francisco and very nearly made the Olympic track team.

Song after song, this album is full of slow dancing favorites. If 1958 was anything like 1978 (and I suspect it wasn't all that different), then this album was put on late at night, instantly turning teen dance parties into teen make-out parties.

Nearly every song that came on made me think, "Oh yeah! I know that one." I don't always recognize the titles, but I know most of the songs. I'd forgotten about great tunes like "It's Not For Me To Say." So, I might ding this one a bit for being a Greatest Hits record instead of showcasing what Mathis could do on a complete album, but that doesn't change the fact that this is a great record of mellow love songs, sung by one of the classic voices of popular music. Mathis occasionally tips over the line into sappiness, but most of the time he's just plain romantic.

One can only wonder how much this record contributed to the last few years of the baby boom.

Brad's Take:


Before listening to this, I'd heart the name Johnny Mathis here and there, but I don't know if I ever knowingly listened to any of his music.

After listening to the whole album, I re-discovered a couple songs that I have heard once or twice before, such as "Wonderful! Wonderful!"

If Frank Sinatra's In The Wee Small Hours was a post-break up album, Johnny Mathis' Johnny's Greatest Hits could have been the pre-break up album. All the songs are corny, but every song is sung with all of Johnny's full love stricken heart. (That was pretty corny too.) The lyrics aren't that corny though. They are love songs, but they're not overly cheesy. It's a grilled cheese sandwich, but the cheese doesn't melt over the edges. You know what I mean...

I'm excited to finally start a Johnny Mathis collection. I really like this greatest hits record and I'm very interested in hearing more from Johnny Mathis' ginormous back catalog.