PAUL SIMON : GREATEST HITS, ETC.

 

  1. Slip Slidin' Away
  2. Stranded In A Limousine
  3. Still Crazy After All These Years
  4. Have A Good Time
  5. Duncan
  6. Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard
  7. Something So Right
  8. Kodachrome
  9. I Do It For Your Love
  10. 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover
  11. American Tune
  12. Mother And Child Reunion
  13. Loves Me Like A Rock
  14. Take Me To The Mardi Gras

Label : Columbia

Release Date : November 1977

Length : 51:38

Review (Wikipedia) : Greatest Hits, Etc. is the first greatest hits album by American singer-songwriter Paul Simon, released in November 1977 by Columbia Records. It was his first compilation, spanning the first six years of his solo career. Its release was prompted by the fact that two years after his last studio album, Simon didn't yet have enough material to release a new full-length album, and his contract with Columbia was finished but a new album was needed to fulfill it. Simon later signed with Warner Bros. Records. The album was initially supposed to be called Blatant Greatest Hits. The album included two new songs: the smooth ballad "Slip Slidin' Away", a US top 5 hit previously considered for Still Crazy After All These Years, and the upbeat "Stranded in a Limousine", which failed to chart in the US. "Slip Slidin' Away" was not available in any other album until 1988's Negotiations and Love Songs, and "Stranded in a Limousine" was added as a bonus track on the CD reissue of One Trick Pony. Record World said that "Stranded in a Limousine" "has a bit of rhythm and blues added to it, in the form of a good horn arrangement and some strong piano work." Half of the songs on the album were hit singles (including all of the five top 5 singles Simon achieved in his entire solo career in the US). The rest was filled with the two aforementioned new tracks, some album tracks (particularly the radio favorite "Something So Right"), and live versions of "Duncan" (from the Live Rhymin' recording) and "American Tune". From this diversity came the Etc. on the album title. This collection omits two hits during the period covered by this compilation – the duet with Phoebe Snow, "Gone at Last" and his reunion single with Art Garfunkel, "My Little Town". The album reached No. 18 in the US and No. 3 in the UK. Originally issued as an LP in 1977 with a gatefold sleeve, it was re-released in 1986 as an LP in a non-gatefold sleeve following the success of the Graceland album. After Paul Simon won Best International Solo Artist at the 1987 Brits Awards, the re-released LP appeared with a 'Brits Award Winner' sticker. The album was also pressed for a short time in CD format by CBS/Columbia Records. The pressing of the CDs was stopped upon the release of Simon's compilation album Negotiations and Love Songs, which was issued on Warner Bros. Records and designed to supersede this album. However, a few cuts, including "Stranded in a Limousine" and "American Tune", were not included on Negotiations. The re-released album re-entered the UK charts for two weeks during January 1987.

Review (AllMusic) : Six of Paul Simon's ten chart singles between 1972 and 1976 are found on this 14-track compilation, which is filled out by a handful of album tracks, live performances and two new songs, the Top Ten hit "Slip Slidin' Away" and "Stranded in a Limousine." That makes for a well-stuffed LP, and several of the tracks have had a few seconds shaved off to cut down the running time. All of which is to say that Greatest Hits, Etc. is not a by-the-book best-of. But then, the three albums from which most of the tracks here come are essential documents of 1970s American pop music as well as big sellers, so maybe it was necessary to do some creative meddling to keep from assembling a collection that would be redundant to fans. Over the longer term, however, the album proved to be a less-than-ideal career sampler (not to mention obselete), and when Simon's catalog moved over to Warner Brothers Records in 1988, he put together a new compilation, Negotiations And Love Songs 1971-1986.