Mountain Best of

Three prior Mountain collections, 1973's THE BEST OF, 1974's ON TOP, and 1995's box set OVER THE TOP, left few stones unturned in their overviews of these short-lived yet successful power rockers. If you're looking for a succinct collection of their best-known tracks, then 1998's budget priced SUPER HITS is recommended. Containing 10 tracks, SUPER HITS features such classic rock radio standards as "Mississippi Queen," "Never in My Life," "Theme for an Imaginary Western," and "Flowers of Evil." Although THE BEST OF may have a longer track listing, SUPER HITS contains several tracks not included on the former, which rank among some of the band's best–"Flowers of Evil," "Blood of the Sun," "You Better Believe It," and "The Great Train Robbery."

While Universal's budget-priced best-of series, 20th Century Masters/The Millennium Collection, is welcome for introducing inexpensive compilations of a wide range of recording artists, it also complicates things for consumers when an act already has one or more collections currently in the marketplace. A good example is Joe Walsh. Walsh originally gained renown in 1969 as a member of the James Gang, which recorded for ABC Records, the catalog for which is now controlled by Universal and released through MCA Records.

This really is the ultimate Beach Boys "best of". It's got all the obvious classics (California Girls, Fun Fun Fun, Good Vibrations, Little Deuce Coupe, Help Me Rhonda, God Only Knows, Darlin', I Get Around, Wouldn't It Be Nice) plus the well-known songs by other writers that they covered in their own unique way (Do You Wanna Dance, Then I Kissed Her, Sloop John B, Cottonfields). But what's best about this compilation is that there's no significant song left out. Whereas other best of's omit the truly beautiful classics such as In My Room, Bluebirds Over the Mountain and Caroline No, they are all here.