The Byrds' Greatest Hits (1967)

The Byrds' Greatest Hits is the first greatest hits album by the American rock band the Byrds and was released in August 1967 on Columbia Records. It is the top-selling album in the Byrds' catalogue and reached number 6 on the Billboard Top LPs chart, but failed to chart in the UK.

Content

The album provides a summary of the Byrds' history during Gene Clark and David Crosby's original tenure with the band and also functions as a survey of the group's hit singles from 1965 to 1967, a period when the band had its greatest amount of success on the singles chart. Most of the band's U.S. A-sides from this period are included on the album, along with three of their more important album tracks: "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better", "The Bells of Rhymney", and "Chimes of Freedom". The three U.S. singles from this period that are not included on the album are "Set You Free This Time", "Have You Seen Her Face" and "Lady Friend" (although these songs have been included as bonus tracks on various CD reissues of the album). All of the songs included on the original Greatest Hits album can also be found on the band's first four albums, Mr. Tambourine Man, Turn! Turn! Turn!, Fifth Dimension and Younger Than Yesterday.

The eight tracks on The Byrds' Greatest Hits that had been singles peaked at the following positions on the Billboard Hot 100: "5D (Fifth Dimension)" number 44; "All I Really Want to Do" number 40; "Mr. Spaceman" number 36; "My Back Pages" number 30; "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n' Roll Star" number 29; "Eight Miles High" number 14; "Turn! Turn! Turn!" number 1; and "Mr. Tambourine Man" number 1. In addition, four of the singles included on the album had charted in the United Kingdom, peaking at the following positions on the UK Singles Chart: "Turn! Turn! Turn!" number 26; "Eight Miles High" number 24; "All I Really Want to Do" number 4; and "Mr. Tambourine Man" number 1.

Author Johnny Rogan has stated that, in particular, "Eight Miles High", "Turn! Turn! Turn!", and "Mr. Tambourine Man" were widely influential during the 1960s, a time when singles, at least in pop music, were as important in their own right as albums, and generally more so. Rogan further opined that "Turn! Turn! Turn!" summed up the decade's counter-cultural values as much as "Blowin' in the Wind", "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction" or "All You Need Is Love", while "Mr. Tambourine Man" and "Eight Miles High" helped to introduce the subgenres of folk rock and psychedelic rock respectively into the popular music of the day.

Release

The Byrds' Greatest Hits was released on August 7, 1967 in the United States (catalogue item CL 2716 in mono, CS 9516 in stereo) and October 20, 1967 in the United Kingdom (catalogue item BPG 63107 in mono, SBPG 63107 in stereo). The album was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America within a year of its release, eventually being certified platinum on November 21, 1986.

The album was first issued on CD by Columbia Records in 1985 and was later re-released in a remastered form in 1991 with alternative cover artwork. In the UK and Europe, this 1991 edition of the album was titled Greatest Hits: 18 Classics Remastered and included an additional seven bonus tracks taken from the Byrds' post Younger Than Yesterday career (a period not covered by the original album). The album was remastered again at 20-bit resolution as part of the Columbia/Legacy Byrds series and reissued in an expanded and remixed form on March 30, 1999. The three bonus tracks on the 1999 reissue included two of the remaining singles from the Byrds' 1965–1967 career, plus the number 63 charting B-side, "It Won't Be Wrong". The album was reissued again in the SACD format on January 30, 2001, with the same expanded track listing as on the 20-bit remaster.

On March 16, 2009 Sony Music released a new Byrds compilation titled Greatest Hits as part of their Steel Box Collection series. This compilation album is not the same as the original The Byrds' Greatest Hits album, although it does have four of the same tracks in common.