Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Don't You (Forget about me)
2. Promised you a Miracle
3. Waterfront
4. Alive and Kicking
5. Glittering Prize
6. All the things she said
7. Santify yourself
8. Someone somewhere(in summertime)
9. Ghostdancing
10. Up on the catwalk
11. Speed your love to me
12. Theme for Great cities
13. Love Song
14. The American
15. Sweat in Bullet
16. Life in a Day
17. I travel

Disc 2:

1. Let there be love
2. This is your land
3. Kick it in
4. Let it all come down
5. See the lights
6. Stand by Love
7. Real Life
8. She's a river
9. Hypnotised
10. Glitterball
11. War Babies
12. Mandela Day
13. Biko
14. Belfast Child
15. The real life (Raven Maize)

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #908 in Music
• Released on: 2001-11-05
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: .25 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
The title of this compilation tells the truth--almost. Although one is moved to question the validity of including the Raven Maize club hit "Real Life"--selected on account of it sampling the tonal poetry of "Theme From Great Cities"(a prime slice of the early Minds' funked-up Eurosynth futurism) and slapped on the end as if to convince a jaded public that Simple Minds really are "contemporary" and have a profound relevance to today's dance scene--this really contains the best of Simple Minds. Which is a very good thing indeed--but where's "Changeling"? These trifling grievances aside, this compilation does Simple Minds' chart-history justice. Sometimes unduly castigated for blustery over-expression and much ado about nothing, re-familiarisation with much of the post-Sparkle In The Rain material reveals a band at ease with an astute musical economy--the grand gesturing of "Mandela Day", for example, may well sound monumentally sincere and overwrought but it consists of a measly three chords, while the trotting-horse bass-line to "Waterfront" is one note repeated for over four minutes (and that note was "D" if you're interested). Some great pop singles aside--"She's A River", "Alive And Kicking", "Up On The Catwalk" and "Promised You A Miracle", a song cut from the same tartan cloth as early Spandau Ballet--the most interesting thing about Simple Mind's evolution is how they started to get more successful once they'd stopped impersonating Roxy Music only to hit pay dirt with a song which Bryan Ferry didn't have enough time to record, namely Keith Forsey's "Don't You Forget About Me". --Kevin Maidment

CD Description
Jim Kerr's Scottish rockers' greatest hits collection includes the UK Top 10 singles 'Don't You (Forget About Me' (featured in the film 'The Breakfast Club'), 'Alive and Kicking','All The Things She Said', 'Belfast Child' and 'Let There Be Love'. Simple Minds have sold over 30 million records worldwide and have had 5 no.1 UK albums, taking in krautrock, stadium bombast and celtic roots rock.

Customer Reviews

Where is New Gold Dream?
Simple Minds were one of the best bands to emerge from Britain in the post-punk era. Their late 70s and early 80s material was a clever fusion of rock and European electronica (think Kraftwerk, Berlin-era Bowie). Then in 1985 the Minds became a major international stadium-filling act and whilst they still made some great music from the late 80s onwards it wasn't as good as the early material and the band lost their way somewhat in the 1990s.

Listening to this CD was the first time I'd played a Simple Minds disc for quite some time now and this reaffirmed my belief that the group were top class. This is a very good compilation CD, no doubt about that, but it loses a star for failing to include New Gold Dream - one of the bands' best songs and from what was arguably their seminal LP of the same name. One good thing is that this is a more comprehensive collection of material than the Glittering Prize album from 1992. At last we get two CD's worth of some of the bands' best music.

It's good to see some of the very early songs on here (Life In A Day, Theme For Great Cities, I Travel) but I do feel that too much of this compilation is given over to the post-1989 Street Fighting Years era. In fact the first CD concentrates on the early-mid 80s material, the second CD from 1989 onwards.

As an introduction to Simple Minds it's pretty good but unfortunately not very definitive. I would like to have seen Book Of Brilliant Things included, along with the aforementioned New Gold Dream. If you have at least a passing interest in the band, it's worth the money. If you want to explore the band's best material go check out their early 80s albums such as Sons & Fascination, New Gold Dream and Sparkle In The Rain

All The Things He Sang
A timely compilation of Simple Minds songs which covers practically everything they've done. Glance down the track listing (Promised You A Miracle, Waterfront, Alive & Kicking, Belfast Child, Let There Be Love, She's a River) and you realise that Simple Minds were perfect pop pioneers.

For those who are only familiar with their heydey, there's plenty of less 'popular' tracks to get your teeth into. There's stuff from the early days (Life in A Day, I Travel) and the more recent albums are also represented (Glitterball, Hypnotised).

To say every one is a winner wouldn't be entirely true (War Babies was a failure both commercially and critically) but the scope shows the dramatic changes the band have gone through over the years (from electro based glam, through to stadium rock and back again).

One small problem - the recent cover of Theme for Great Cities by Raven Maize is included (Real Life). Wouldn't it have been better to have included New Gold Dream (an album track certainly, but very influential nontheless)?

That apart, this is a superb package which should make some new fans for The Minds.

80s at its best!
I first heard a simple minds song on the great movie "the breakfast club", to which "dont you(forget about me)" is the theme. just hearing this amazing song was enough to sway me to buy the greatest hits album! I love all the big beat uplifting 80s rock music so this seemed like the perfect buy, and it was!
disk 1 contains all the classics like "dont you", "waterfront , "promised you a miracle" and the outstanding "theme for great cities".
The second disk has some good songs but it seems that all the best numbers have been put on the first.
I fully reccommend this album and I got it at a great price from Amazon!