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* Compilation *

Recorded: 1970-1974

Charted: March 22, 1975

Rating: 4.877 (average of 9 ratings)

Genre: R&B > soul

Quotable: “One of the must-own soul albums.” – Rickey Wright, Amazon.com

Album Tracks:

  1. Tired of Being Alone
  2. Call Me (Come Back Home)
  3. I’m Still in Love with You
  4. Here I Am (Come and Take Me)
  5. Love and Happiness *
  6. Let’s Stay Together
  7. I Can’t Get Next to You
  8. You Ought to Be with Me
  9. Look What You Done for Me
  10. Let’s Get Married
  11. Livin’ for You *
  12. Sha La La (Make Me Happy) *
  13. L-O-V-E *
  14. Full of Love *
  15. Belle *
* See Notes.

Sales:

sales in U.S. only 2 million
sales in U.K. only - estimated --
sales in all of Europe as determined by IFPI – click here to go to their site. --
sales worldwide - estimated 2 million

Peak:

peak on U.S. Billboard album chart 17
peak on U.K. album chart 18

Singles/Hit Songs:

  • I Can’t Get Next to You (11/7/70) #11 RB, #60 US
  • Tired of Being Alone (7/10/71) #7 RB, #11 US, #4 UK, sales: 0.5 m
  • Let’s Stay Together (12/4/71) #1 RB, #1 US, #7 UK, sales: 0.5 m
  • Look What You’ve Done for Me (4/1/72) #2 RB, #4 US, sales: 0.5 m
  • I’m Still in Love with You (7/8/72) #1 RB, #3 US, #35 UK, sales: 0.5 m
  • You Oughta Be with Me (10/21/72) #1 RB, #3 US, sales: 0.5 m
  • Call Me (Come Back Home) (2/17/73) #2 RB, #10 US, sales: 0.5 m
  • Here I Am (Come and Take Me) (7/7/73) #2 RB, #10 US, sales: 0.5 m
  • Livin’ for You * (11/24/73) #1 RB, #19 US
  • Let’s Get Married (3/23/74) #3 RB, #32 US.
  • Sha La La (Make Me Happy) * (9/28/74) #2 RB, #7 US, #20 UK, sales: 0.5 m
  • L-O-V-E * (3/1/75) #1 RB, #13 US, #24 UK
  • Full of Love * (11/1/75) #1 RB, #28 US
  • Love and Happiness * (7/30/77) #92 RB
  • Belle * (10/29/77) #9 RB, #83 US
* Songs added to reissue; not on original.

Notes: Bonus tracks were added to reissues (see track listing). “How Can You Mend a Broken Heart” was also on the original, but omitted in reissues. “By adding the likes of Belle, a 1977 single that's a near-goodbye to the pop life, to the original lineup of Let's Stay Together, Look What You Done for Me, Call Me, and the others, [the expanded] edition of Greatest Hits also intriguingly fills out the story.” RW

Awards:

Rated one of the top 1000 albums of all time by Dave’s Music Database. Click to learn more.

Greatest Hits
Al Green
Review:
“Although many great male soul singers came and went in the years following Cooke's death, none came close to the smooth and creamy style that translated to consistent cross-over success. While Otis Redding was gritty and James Brown relentless, in Green's hands, R&B was sophisticated and suave.” CDU “Al Green brought the Memphis Sound into the '70s by slightly softening it, melding smooth funkiness with his miraculous voice and innate sensitivity: his love songs, while perfect for the bedroom, are as conversational as they are blatantly seductive.” RW

“Greatest Hits basks in a style of sultry soul that Green inherited from Cooke. Yet, Green's style owed as much to producer Willie Mitchell's delicate production as it did to the singer's pure falsetto. While not inclined to use the vast numbers of musicians that Phil Spector did, Mitchell's use of James Mitchell (no relation) and Charles Chalmer's string arrangements, the Memphis Horns and the background vocals of Rhodes, Chalmers and Rhodes gave Green's songs a full sound that wrapped itself around Green's aching emotivity. Here I Am (Come and Take Me) features all these elements at play, along with the crack cadence of former MG drummer Al Jackson and brothers Teenie and Charles Hodges, whose respective guitar and organ juice up the rhythm.” CDU

“Thematically, listening to Greatest Hits is like thumbing through a primer on the evolution of a relationship, and the ups and downs that come with it. The despair of Tired of Being Alone gives way to a fleeting affair in Call Me (Come Back Home). The joy Green finds in Love and Happiness is temporary before the pleading begins anew with Let's Stay Together, then gets tied up with a declaration (L-O-V-E) and a proposal (Let's Get Married).” CDU

“One of the must-own soul albums.” RW

Review Source(s):

Last updated February 19, 2010.