Comments for America, History - America's Greatest Hits

Happily, this is a staple in most rock album collections. And deservedly so - you'd be hard pressed to find a better collection of classic songs. And I wish there was a poster of the album cover by Phil Hartmann - it'd be framed and in my living room!

A great CD and one of the biggest selling albums of the 70s. I especially like George Martin's remix of "Don't Cross The River." A must for any 70s music library.

This is definately a great album for any America Fan. I first liked them when A Horse with No Name came out when I bought it as a 45 when I was 11 years Old. Its nice to have it on CD along with their other great songs!

I've loved the song Horse With No Name ever since I first heard it on the radio as a kid, when it first came out (I know, many of you are saying that makes me a Woman With No Taste...) and America's first album is one I've worn out multiple copies of, and still love to this day, so that probably makes me a snob as to what I think the song "should" sound like. If you have only one America album, History-America's Greatest Hits is probably it. For many years, it was the most widely available. All the versions of Horse With No Name that you hear on the radio, in the store, the dentist's office, etc., unfortunately,come off this album (the original version was out of print for a long time) Why do I say that? Tell you in a minute... If you don't have the album, something you need to know before you buy it is that none of the songs on the album are in their original versions, they were all remixed by the legendary Sir George Martin of Beatles fame. For many people, this probably makes them the superior versions. Some of the differences between the original and remixed versions are subtle, and some are very large and very noticeable. The remixed version of Horse With No Name drives me to the brink of insanity because of something most people probably don't even hear (or think nothing of if they do, this being the version the biggest majority of people have known all their lives...there's a clunker note in the chorus where one of the guys drops off key! I can be in a crowded restaurant, with that version of the song playing on the radio, and for me it's like dropping a glass bottle in a garbage can...I can hear that clunker note above everything else! It is in the original version, too, you can hear it in the original version if you listen to it on headphones, it occurs near the end of the song but it is not so jarring because it is pretty well covered over with echo and reverb. It seems as though George Martin took that particular chorus out, stripped away the echo and reverb, boosted the gain, and simply replayed it at every point where the chorus comes up. I've often wondered what possessed him to do this...maybe one of the guys annoyed him in some way and that was him getting even. "I'll fix you! From now until the end of time, the only version of your most famous song most people will ever know will have that muffed note front and center. Your grandchildren will hear it in the supermarket and cringe..." Oh, No! There goes Grandpa off in left field again..." If you want HWNN, your money is better spent with the first album, which is now available on CD, though you may have to order it. If you just want an overview/ greatest hits package, the more recent Highway-30 Years of America compilation is a better choice. One definite plus that History has is the cover art, which was done by Phil Hartman, or Philip Hartmann as he was known then. This is the very same Phil Hartman who later became much better known for: A. being a Saturday Night Live cast member, and B. being murdered by his wife. Sad that he did not gain greater recognition as an artist.

I like the way the songs flow from one to the next and that they brought Dan Peeks fiddle playing up in the mix on Don't Cross the River