Greatest Hits (Bruce Springsteen album)

Greatest Hits received mixed review upon release, with critics pointing out the challenge of summarising a lengthy career with only one album, including both notable omissions and the inclusion of four new tracks that had been cut from earlier albums. William Ruhlmann pointed out that the timing of the release (the day before the Grammy Awards) was notable as "Streets of Philadelphia" was up for five awards. David Browne of Entertainment Weekly referred to the liner notes when pointing out that some songs appeared to be "chosen for their chart success rather than for artistic merit" which means that several important songs were overlooked. He described the album as invigorating, but also felt that "Murder Incorporated" (a song about the 1930s organized crime group of the same name) was the only good new song on the album and that overall the album felt as if Springsteen did not believe in himself any more. The Rolling Stone review of the album by Parke Puterbaugh is rather unfavorable. Parke felt that the songs on the collection belonged on their original LP releases, that songs from before Born to Run should have been included, and that the new songs weren't very good. == Commercial performance ==

The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 the week of March 18, 1995, with more than 250,000 copies sold, it remained on the chart for 43 weeks. As of March 2009 it has sold over 4,092,000 copies in the United States according to Nielsen SoundScan. It was present on the chart for 134 weeks. == Track listing ==

Credits are adapted from the liner notes of Greatest Hits. • Roy Bittan – piano, synthesizer • Clarence Clemons – saxophone, percussion • Danny Federici – organ, synthesizer, accordion • Bruce Springsteen – guitar, vocals (harmonica on "Thunder Road," "This Hard Land," and "Blood Brothers") • Garry Tallent – bass guitar • Max Weinberg – drums • Steven Van Zandt – Electric guitar on "Badlands," acoustic guitar on "Murder Incorporated", "Born in the U.S.A." mandolin on "This Hard Land" and "Glory Days" • Nils Lofgren – guitar on "Secret Garden", "Blood Brothers" & "This Hard Land" • Patti Scialfa – Harmony vocals on "Human Touch", background vocals on "Better Days" • Backing vocals ("Murder Incorporated") – all of the above except Nils Lofgren and Patti Scialfa • Frank Pagano – percussion on "Blood Brothers" and "This Hard Land" • Produced by: Bruce Springsteen, Jon Landau and Chuck Plotkin (and by Steven Van Zandt on "Murder Incorporated") • Recorded by: Toby Scott • Mixed by: Bob Clearmountain • Mastered by: Bob Ludwig • Assistant engineers: Carl Glanville, Pete Keppler, Ryan Freeland, Jay Militscher and Tony Duino-Black • Sequence editing: Brian Lee • Recorded at The Hit Factory == Charts ==

Weekly charts Year-end charts == Certifications and sales ==