''Greatest Hits'' is the first

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one or several Performing arts#Performers, performers. If by one artist, then generally the tr ...

by American singer-songwriter

Bruce Springsteen Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American singer and songwriter. He has released 21 studio albums, most of which feature his backing band, the E Street Band. Originally from the Jersey Shore, he is an originat ...

, released February 27, 1995, on

Columbia Records Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...

. It is a collection of some of Springsteen's hit singles and popular album tracks through the years along with four new songs at the end, mostly recorded with the E Street Band in 1995. The latter constituted Springsteen's first (albeit very partial) release with his backing band since the late 1980s. Some of the songs are shorter versions of the original album releases. The incorporation of the "new" tracks was portrayed in the 1996 documentary '' Blood Brothers''. "Murder Incorporated" and "This Hard Land" were, in fact, unused 1982 songs from the '' Born in the U.S.A.'' sessions, with the latter being re-recorded here more than a decade later, and both subsequently became Springsteen concert staples. "Blood Brothers", on the other hand, was played only as the final closing song of both the 1999–2000

Reunion Tour A concert tour (or simply tour) is a series of concerts by an artist or group of artists in different cities, countries or locations. Often concert tours are named to differentiate different tours by the same artist and to associate a specific to ...

and 2002–2003 Rising Tour, both times with an extra verse added. " Secret Garden" achieved notoriety via the soundtrack of the 1996 film '' Jerry Maguire''. Alternate versions of several of these new tracks were released on the 1996 '' Blood Brothers'' EP. The compilation was commercially successful, hitting the peaks of the U.S. album chart and UK Album Chart and selling six million copies in the U.S.

Critical reception

The reception by music critics of ''Greatest Hits'' was rather negative upon the album's release, as are more contemporary reviews. David Browne of '' Entertainment Weekly'' felt that the album was released when it was because the Grammy Awards were coming up and " Streets of Philadelphia" was up for five awards and that the songs on the album were selected because of charting success, which means that several important songs were overlooked. He also felt that "Murder Incorporated" (in reference to the 1930s Murder, Inc.) was the only good new song on the album and that overall the album felt as if Bruce did not believe in himself any more. The '' Rolling Stone'' review of the album by Parke Puterbaugh is rather unfavorable. Parke felt that the songs on the collection belonged on their original LP releases, that songs from before '' Born to Run'' should have been included and that the new songs weren't that good.

Commercial performance

The album debuted at number one on the ''Billboard'' 200 the week of March 18, 1995 with more than 250,000 copies sold, it remained on the chart for 43 weeks. As of March, 2009 it has sold over 4,092,000 copies in the United States according to

Nielsen SoundScan Luminate (formerly Nielsen SoundScan, Nielsen Music Products, and MRC Data) is a provider of music sales data. Established by Mike Fine and Mike Shalett in 1991, data is collected weekly and made available every Sunday (for albums sales) and eve ...

. It was certified four times platinum by the

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

on July 23, 1999, for shipments of 4,000,000. In the United Kingdom the album entered at number one on March 11, 1995, and topped the chart for two non consecutive weeks. It was present on the chart for 134 weeks. It was certified four times platinum by the BPI on March 21, 2014, denoting shipments of 1,200,000 units.

Track listing

Personnel (tracks 15-18)

Credits are adapted from the liner notes of ''Greatest Hits''. * Roy Bittan – piano,

synthesizer A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and ...

* Clarence Clemons – saxophone (15–17), percussion * Danny Federici –

organ Organ may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a part of an organism Musical instruments * Organ (music), a family of keyboard musical instruments characterized by sustained tone ** Electronic organ, an electronic keyboard instrument ** Hammond ...

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

– guitar, vocals (

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica inclu ...

on "Thunder Road," "This Hard Land," and "Blood Brothers") * Garry Tallent – bass guitar *

Max Weinberg Max Weinberg (born April 13, 1951) is an American drummer and television personality, most widely known as the longtime drummer for Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band and as the bandleader for Conan O'Brien on ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' a ...

–

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

* Steven Van Zandt – guitar on "Murder Incorporated,"

mandolin A mandolin ( it, mandolino ; literally "small mandola") is a stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally plucked with a pick. It most commonly has four courses of doubled strings tuned in unison, thus giving a total of 8 ...

on "This Hard Land" * Nils Lofgren – guitar (15, 17, 18) * Patti Scialfa – vocals on "Secret Garden" * backing vocals ("Murder Incorporated") – all of the above except Nils Lofgren and Patti Scialfa *Frank Pagano – percussion on "Blood Brothers" and "This Hard Land" *Produced by: Bruce Springsteen, Jon Landau & Chuck Plotkin (and by Steven Van Zandt on "Murder Incorporated") *Recorded by: Toby Scott *Mixed by: Bob Clearmountain *Mastered by:

Bob Ludwig Robert C. Ludwig (born c. 1945) is an American mastering engineer. He has mastered recordings on all the major recording formats for all the major record labels, and on projects by more than 1,300 artists including Led Zeppelin, Lou Reed, Qu ...

*Assistant Engineers: Carl Glanville, Pete Keppler, Ryan Freeland, Jay Militscher & Tony Duino-Black *Sequence Editing: Brian Lee *Recorded at The Hit Factory

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications and sales

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Greatest Hits (Bruce Springsteen Album) 1995 greatest hits albums Bruce Springsteen compilation albums Albums produced by Steven Van Zandt Albums produced by Jon Landau Albums produced by Chuck Plotkin Columbia Records compilation albums