Eddie Money Hold Back

Eddie Money was always reliable for turning out a hit single or radio anthem on each of his records. Often, it felt like all of his energy went into a couple of songs per album, since the remainder of each record, while frequently enjoyable, was cluttered with filler. Which is a roundabout way of saying what a welcome addition Greatest Hits: The Sound of Money is to Money's catalog: not only is it a fine collection of his hits, it's the most consistent record he's assembled. Not that it's perfect. Some of his smaller hits are missing and there's a bit of filler even on this hits disc, but the truly essential items – "Baby Hold On," "Two Tickets to Paradise," "I Wanna Go Back," "Walk on Water," "Shakin'," "Take Me Home Tonight," "Think I'm in Love," even "Peace in Our Time" – are here, and the best of them really do define what album rock was all about at the turn of the '70s and early '80s.

Columbia/Legacy's 2001 release The Best of Eddie Money supplants the earlier 1989 collection Greatest Hits: The Sound of Money as the best overview of Money's career. Again, it's not sequenced chronologically, nor is it as tight as it should have been (Money is somebody who would really sound terrific on an eight- or ten-song collection), but it's very good all the same, containing all of his big hits, plus live versions of "Rock and Roll the Place" and "No Control" previously only available on a promo EP. So, even if it's not perfect, it will still satisfy the needs of most Money fans.