Greatest Hits Herndon VA

Greatest Hits

Bruce Springsteen

Columbia Records, 1995

http://www.brucespringsteen.net

REVIEW BY: Jason Warburg

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 04/22/2005

Greatest Hits. Just the title is enough to make most BruceSpringsteen fans -- not to mention music writers -- groan.

Because, while he has scored some chart hits in a career now inits fourth decade, Bruce Springsteen has never been a singlesartist. His albums are, with rare exceptions, carefully themed andsequenced wholes that almost defy dissection. Hits are often flukesfor artists like Springsteen; you release singles because you haveto, not because it makes any artistic sense in the context of whatyou're doing.

Of course, there's always the alternate approach utilized bysome other non-singles artists, of trying to assemble some sort of"very best of" Springsteen -- but this ain't it. Not without"Jungleland," "Racing In The Streets," "Tougher Than The Rest," andthe list goes on.

You can see the dilemma right away in the choices that are madehere. "Brilliant Disguise" is surely the best track on Tunnel of Love -- hell, it's one of the best songs he's everwritten. But the title track charted higher, and isn't here at all.Huh?