Greatest Hits

1972
Track Listing
You've Made Me So Very Happy
I Can't Quit Her
Go Down Gamblin'
Hi De Ho
Sometimes In WInter
And When I Die
Spinning Wheel
Lisa, Listen To Me
I'll Love You More Than You'll Ever Know
Lucretia MacEvil
God Bless The Child
Lineup:  Various
Producers:  John Simon, Bobby Colomby, James William Guercio, and Roy Halee

Chart History:
     BS&T's first compilation album was released February of 1972, during the period where the band was reorganizing.  It peaked at #19 two months later, and became a gold record by May of 1972.  The album recently went Platinum.  As far as I know it's still in print, despite the newer package What Goes Up! that Columbia recently barfed up. Odd bit of trivia:  On the cassette version, the "guitar solo" from Spinning Wheel can be heard, and the cover features the New Blood lineup.

Billboard Magazine wrote in their March 11, 1972 Review:
     When it comes to consistency in hitmaking records, Blood, Sweat, and Tears are the winners hands down.  This package spans their success from "I Can't Quit Her," when Al Kooper was a member to the more recent hits like David Clayton-Thomas' "Spinning Wheel," "Lucretia MacEvil," and "Lisa, Listen To Me."  Another Winner.

William Ruhlmann of the All Music Guide Writes:
     Sometimes, a greatest hits set is timed perfectly to gather together a recording artists's most successful and familiar performances just at the point when that artist has passed the point of his 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, BS&T 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 which 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 suit-like 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.
(c) 1996 All Music Guide


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