Blood, Sweat & Tears - 1972 [1999] "Greatest Hits"

Greatest Hits is a compilation album by the band Blood, Sweat & Tears, initially released in February 1972.

The best selling title in the Blood, Sweat & Tears catalog (SoundScans 1,000 units per week) is now available digitally remastered - the way it was meant to sound! This release restores the album to it's original form - all the hits (4 cuts have been restored to the single versions that appeared on the original Greatest Hits LP), plus 2 bonus tracks: "So Long Dixie" and "More And More." Highlights include "You've Made Me So Very Happy," "Spinning Wheel," "And When I Die" and more.

Although Blood, Sweat & Tears continued to record and tour for several more years, the band's lineup changed dramatically after Blood, Sweat & Tears 4. This compilation album includes all of the group's best-known material up to that time. This was the group's last album to earn a Gold Record award.

Columbia initially chose to incorporate the edited single versions of many of the songs, a decision which was poorly received by some fans. Some later Compact Disc releases replaced the single versions with the full length album versions.

In 1999 the album was remastered and re-released on CD with two bonus tracks - "So Long Dixie" and "More And More". In 2016, Audio Fidelity released a Super Audio CD version with the single versions as in the original release. This was a numbered limited edition mastered by Steve Hoffman and Stephen Marsh.

Sometimes, a greatest-hits set is timed perfectly to gather together a group's most successful and familiar performances just at the point when that group has passed the point of their maximum exposure to the public, but before the public memory has had a chance to fade. That was the case when Columbia Records assembled this compilation for release in early 1972. At that point, Blood, Sweat & Tears had released four albums and scored six Top 40 hits, each of which is heard here. But lead singer David Clayton-Thomas had just quit the group, so that the unit that recorded songs like "You've Made Me So Very Happy" was not working together anymore. And even when Clayton-Thomas returned, the band would continue to decline commercially.

As such, BS&T's Greatest Hits captures the band's peak in 11 selections--seven singles chart entries, plus two album tracks from the celebrated debut album when Al Kooper helmed the group, and two more from the Grammy-winning multi-platinum second album.
Using the short singles edits of songs like "And When I Die" emphasizes their radio-ready punch over the more extended suitelike arrangements on the albums, but this selection gains in focus what it lacks in ambition. For the millions who learned to love BS&T in 1969 when they were all over AM radio, this is the ideal selection of their most accessible material. (A later CD reissue of Blood, Sweat & Tears' Greatest Hits replaced each singles edit with the original full-length version.)

Track Listing:

01     You've Made Me So Very Happy
02     I Can't Quit Her
03     Go Down Gamblin'
04     Hi-De-Ho That Old Sweet Roll
05     Sometimes In Winter
06     And When I Die
07     Spinning Wheel
08     Lisa, Listen to Me
09     I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know
10     Lucretia Mac Evil
11     God Bless the Child
12     So Long Dixie
13     More and More

Personnel:

    David Clayton-Thomas - lead vocals except as noted, guitar on "Go Down Gamblin'"
    Steve Katz - electric guitar, acoustic guitar, harmonica, mandolin, vocals, lead vocals on "Sometimes In Winter"
    Jim Fielder - bass guitar
    Al Kooper - Piano, Organ, lead vocals on "I Can't Quit Her" and " I Love You More Than You'll Ever Know"
    Dick Halligan - organ, piano, electric piano, harpsichord, celeste, trombone, flute, alto flute, baritone horn, vocals
    Fred Lipsius - piano, organ, alto saxophone, clarinet, vocals
    Lew Soloff - trumpet, flugelhorn, piccolo trumpet
    Jerry Weiss - trumpet, flugelhorn, vocals
    Chuck Winfield - trumpet, flugelhorn
    Randy Brecker - trumpet, flugelhorn
    Dave Bargeron - trombone, tuba, bass trombone, baritone horn, acoustic bass
    Jerry Hyman - trombone, bass trombone, recorder
    Bobby Colomby - drums, percussion, vocals