The Complete Greatest Hits

Performer: America
Engineer: Gerry Beckley
Distributor: WEA (Distributor)

Notes: America: Gerry Beckley, Dan Peek (vocals, guitar, harmonica, keyboards, bass); Dewey Bunnell (vocals, guitar). Additional personnel includes: Larry Klimas (saxophone); Jeffery Foskett (background vocals). Producers includes: Ian Samwell, America, George Martin, Russ Ballard, Bobby Colomby. Compilation producers: America, David McLees. Principally recorded between 1972 and 1983. Includes liner notes by Barry Alfonso. Digitally remastered by Dan Hersch and Bill Inglot (DigiPrep). Personnel: Dan Peek, Gerry Beckley (vocals, guitar, harmonica, keyboards, background vocals); Dewey Bunnell (vocals, guitar, background vocals); Jeffrey Foskett (vocals); Larry Klimas (saxophone). Audio Remasterers: Dan Hersch; Bill Inglot. Liner Note Author: Barry Alfonso. Recording information: Human Nature Studios, Sherman Oaks, CA. Photographers: Greg Allen; Henry Diltz; Hugh Brown. America defined the soft-rock sound of the '70s. They wanted to be Crosby, Stills and Nash so badly that they figured out a way to not only pull it off, but beat CSN at their own game, logging even more hit singles than their chief inspiration. THE COMPLETE GREATEST HITS, true to its title, contains all those chart-toppers, as well as some songs that may be unfamiliar to the casual listener (if you weren't paying attention at the time, it's doubtful you'd recall the band's early-'80s comeback hit "You Can do Magic," for example). While nobody's making a case for these easygoing popsters as bold innovators, even a cursory listen to this studiously compiled collection reveals a level of unassailable popcraft that places them on a par with posthumously lauded bands like Bread and the Carpenters. It's not for nothing that Beatles mentor George Martin took the boys' production reigns for a while. Though things get dicey towards the end of this chronologically arranged package, the bulk of America's '70s material is as good as commercial folk-pop gets.

The first half of the 1970s was the heyday of introspective songwriting and close-harmony singing. The band America was at the forefront of the commercial end of this movement, releasing a string of singles that dominated the radio for years. Following their debut smash, "Horse With No Name," a Neil Young-derived, hallucinatory song-story, America scored again and again with singles and a series of records whose titles for some reason all began with the letter "H." Despite the group's indelible association with soft rock, America's understated pop found an unlikely new legion of fans in the '00s indie world.

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