Greatest Hits 2 Journey
Arnold Gilgen
Greatest Hits is a compilation album by the American rock band Journey, originally released in 1988 by Columbia Records.[3] It is the band's best-selling career disc, spending 814 weeks on the Billboard 200 albums chart (more than any other compilation album, except for Bob Marley and the Wailers' Legend, in history).[4] Additionally, as of July 2024, it has logged 1,450 weeks on Billboard's Catalog Albums chart.[4]
On 26 January 2024, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified Greatest Hits 18 Platinum for sales of 18 million copies in the United States.[5] As of January 2024, it was reported to have been the third highest certified 'greatest hits' package in the United States according to the RIAA, behind only similar collections by the Eagles and Billy Joel compilations.[6]
It continues to be one of the most popular 'best of' packages, at times selling close to 500,000 copies globally per year. The album has been reissued several times and was digitally remastered for compact disc by Legacy Recordings, issued on August 1, 2006, with "When You Love a Woman" featured as a bonus track. In Japan, the album has been reissued as Open Arms: Greatest Hits with the song "Open Arms" appearing as the first song on the album. A second Journey compilation album, Greatest Hits 2, was released in 2011.
I was walking back to my dorm when the snow started coming down. Snows in Columbia, Missouri, seldom amounted to any real accumulation. It was pretty without being bothersome, always the best kind of snow.
I got to my dorm and considered the ways I could enjoy the night. My roommate already was gone, so the room was mine. Pizza and music sounded good. But what to listen to? I picked up a stack of CDs loaned to me by a friend and took the one off the top.
I liked a lot of Dylan's music, and I owned a few of his albums, but I mostly owned compilations of his work. I had "Blonde on Blonde" and "John Wesley Harding," but that was about it for my studio albums collection (I've since bought almost all of his works).
Dylan's way with words has been celebrated, from his earlier "folk" songs to his vivid, surreal poetry on albums like "Highway 61 Revisited" and "Blonde on Blonde." With "Blood on the Tracks," the style switches from first-person narratives to character reflections, the content sometimes intimate, with flashes of introspection, anger and reluctant acceptance.
At the time, Dylan's first marriage wasn't at its happiest or strongest, and the personal pain and internal conflict seems to have spilled into the songs (although Dylan has often claimed that the songs are not autobiographical). This helped strengthen the material, though, transforming one man's turmoil into a consistently rewarding collection of songs.
"Tangled Up in Blue," the first track on the album, had been a favorite song of mine for years. I'd heard it on a greatest hits disc years before and had fallen in love. A reunion, told in such a detailed way, to such a great instrumental bedding, such a great tune! That "Blood on the Tracks" starts with the track got me really interested, really quickly.
"Simple Twist of Fate" has such a wonderful, lilting delivery. The scene is set, a man and a woman together in a park, then traveling alongside each other, spending a night together, and then she's gone in the morning. Lots of details that seem trivial, but stick out in the memory, making the song feel real (remember those memories and details that stick with you?).
"Idiot Wind" has an almost joyous anger to it. "It's a wonder that you still know how to breathe!" I remember my pizza arriving around the time of this song, and I restarted listening because the groove was so good. It's still one of my favorites on the album.
"You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go" is a resigned understanding that nothing good lasts, relationships or otherwise. Even in the flush of love, the narrator knows there will be an end. "You might be spoilin' me too much, love / You're gonna make me lonesome when you go."
"Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts" is a a jaunty tune, you can almost hear Dylan smile as he sings some of the lyrics. Each character has a story, fleshed out in each verse, with supporting characters. A murder and a hanging, but what a way to tell the story!
"If You See Her, Say Hello" delivers a tale of a man who misses his former love, and insists that he wants her to be free even though he'd welcome her back. "Whatever makes her happy, I won't stand in the way" leads to "Tell her she can look me up if she's got the time."
"Shelter from the Storm" is delivered softly, but with an earnestness that conveys how serious Dylan is about the song. A relationship goes wrong, things were taken for granted, anger sets in. "I offered up my innocence and got repaid with scorn."
Song after song (all 10 of them), "Blood on the Tracks" bowled me over. Having gone from the relief and satisfaction of passing my exam, I was now in a more contemplative frame of mind. I watched the snow fall as Dylan seemed to confront his own behavior and nature, and I was moved by one of the last lyrics of the album in the song "Buckets of Rain," which went:
Believe it or not, this didn't dull my joy of passing the exam, or muffle the enthusiasm I had for the upcoming break. But it did make me reflect on the twists in life, how the sweet can turn sour and how anger can turn to self pity, joy to sadness, fullness to emptiness. Life is transition, changes will come.
For me, this album reinforced the notion of enjoying the good things while they last, because they may not be permanent. Passions can be ephemeral. That doesn't mean you have to dwell on the bad. Dylan's pain gave way to future joys, after all.
So here we are. Back to the St. Cloud area, back to today. Christmas has passed and the new year is upon us. College students who are on their winter breaks will be returning to class soon. People will be married. Children will be born. Birthdays will be celebrated.
And though it may not be the right music to act as a soundtrack to those good times, give Dylan's "Blood on the Tracks" a try. You might be surprised at how many of the songs will appeal to you and travel with you.
The 1988 holiday season was red-hot in record stores across America. As shoppers perused bins filled with the biggest hits of the year from the likes of Madonna, George Michael and Guns N' Roses, a pair of legacy acts joined the racks with greatest hits releases on November 15, 1988: Fleetwood Mac and Journey.
For Fleetwood Mac, it was a chance to compile the long string of monster hits the band enjoyed from the mid-1970s through the late '80s, including "Dreams" and "Big Love." It was a similar situation for Journey, with hits ranging from the end of the '70s ("Wheel in the Sky") through the mid-'80s ("Only the Young").
Both albums would land in a lot of Christmas stockings that year. Journey's greatest hits album would peak at #10 on the Billboard 200, standing as the best-selling record in the band's storied career. It still moves a smooth half-million copies every year globally. To date, the LP has sold more than 15 million copies, making it diamond certified (more than 10 million sold).
Fleetwood Mac's greatest hits record would enjoy similar success. Peaking at #14 on the Top 200, it's flirting with diamond status at eight million copies sold. Fleetwood Mac would also share a pair of new songs to their collection: "No Questions Asked" and the Christine McVie-penned single, "As Long As You Follow." The song almost hit the Top 40, peaking at #43.
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