Squeeze - Greatest Hits | 
| Artist: Squeeze
Label: A&M
Category: Music
List Price: $13.98
Buy Used: $5.97
You Save: $8.01 (57%)
New (28) Used (25) from $5.97
Rating:  16 reviews
Sales Rank: 7089
Format: Original Recording Remastered
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5.6 x 4.7 x 0.4
MPN: 397181
UPC: 082839718127
EAN: 0082839718127
ASIN: B000007424
Release Date: September 18, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Tracks:
| • | Take Me, I'm Yours | | • | Goodbye Girl | | • | Cool for Cats | | • | Up the Junction | | • | Slap and Tickle | | • | Another Nail in My Heart | | • | Pulling Mussels | | • | Tempted | | • | Is That Love | | • | Labelled With Love | | • | Black Coffee in Bed | | • | Annie Get Your Gun | | • | King George Street | | • | Last Time Forever | | • | No Place Like Home | | • | Hourglass | | • | Trust Me to Open My Mouth | | • | Footprints | | • | If It's Love | | • | Love Circles |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Art, craft, fashion, and commerce, despite widespread presumptions, have hardly been synonymous in the record business. A prime example is Squeeze, one of the U.K. new wave's most traditional-minded bands and largely the conceit of songwriters Chris Difford (words) and Glenn Tilbrook (music). Despite glowing critical comparisons with Lennon and McCartney, tireless touring, initial successes in Britain, and a perennially popular hits compilation (45's and Under), Squeeze's fortunes were mixed. Even their hard-won status as mid-'80s MTV sensations seemed to evaporate overnight. Perhaps they were just too smart for their own good. Tilbrook's hooks and melodies comfortably recalled the Beatles and the Kinks, but with ever surprising and sophisticated twists, while many of Tilbrook's cinematic lyrics were Broadway-sophisticated in their scope. "Up the Junction," "Pulling Mussels from the Shell," and "Tempted" (the latter burnished to perfection by the production of Elvis Costello and the vocals of veteran Paul Carrack) paint remarkably robust portraits of romantic tensions set in contexts so rich with detail you can almost smell and taste them. This 20-track compilation effectively expands upon 45's and Under by appending the best of the band's final three '80s albums, even if a few provide discomfiting evidence that the band was being positioned as the English equivalent of Huey Lewis and the News. But like its effervescent early singles, what would the Squeeze saga be without a compelling twist or three? --Jerry McCulley
Album Details
20 Great Hits from the Band's A&m Years, 20 Bit Mastered.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 11 more reviews...
 NON-REMASTERED RECYCLED HITS PACKAGE WITH SUB-STANDARD AUDIO December 15, 2004
BOB (LOS ANGELES, CA)
35 out of 37 found this review helpful
Although this CD was released in 2001, it is simply a recycled "Singles 45's & Under" CD with new packaging and added tracks. The tipoff is the 1992 copyright date on the back of the CD.
The reason I'm giving it the lowest rating is that Universal chucked this one out there without updating the audio quality over the older (and BEWARE, still available, RIPOFF!) package. The masters used for this CD date from the late 80's.
All of the content of this CD exists in remastered form on many other Squeeze CD's. It's a great collection of songs, but from an audio standpoint, there is no bottom end to this CD at all; it sounds like the music is playing thru an AM radio.
A big "BOOOOO & HISSSSSS" to Universal for being so lazy.
Perhaps this is why the president of A&M hung a black arm-band over the company sign the day they closed up shop after being sold to Universal; A&M would never have done something like this in its heyday as one of the great independent record companies
Deserving of better March 8, 2005
Tim Brough (Springfield, PA United States)
22 out of 22 found this review helpful
After being all but ignored in the US for most of their career, Squeeze belatedly hit the top 40 with "Hourglass." With a novelty sing-a-long chorus and a comic video, it gave the band their needed MTV exposure...and then it vaporized almost immediately. One other minor hit from "Babylon and On," "853-5937" (annoyingly absent from this collection), and the band's fortunes fell away.
It makes "Greatest Hits" a frustrating experience. While it does nicely supplant the old "45's and Under," it ignores the non A&M material, and their final albums, especially the great "Loving You Tonight" and title track from "Some Fantastic Place." And since for some insane, criminal, reason, the entire classic Squeeze discography is out of print in America, this remains the sole place to get about a third of the songs on this disc.
The Lennon and McCartney comparisons that Difford and Tilbrook frequently garnered are apparent here, starting from the singles off "Argy Bargy," which was where Tilbrook and Difford coalesced their quirks to their classicism. By their best album, "East Side Story," the band was aiming for the edge of the universe, and with Paul Carrack's perfect vocal, "Tempted" became their benchmark. But it also became their anchor, as their desire to make great art and still have mad success began to strain them. "Sweets From A Stranger" was wildly uneven, with the soulful "Black Coffee in Bed" being the most brilliant moment. (And "I've Returned" missing in action here.)
Then it was off to some overbearing solo work and an erratic reunion (the three best songs from "Cosi Fan Tutti Fruitti" are all here). Then they got serious for one last hurrah and made the stunningly poppy "Babylon And On." With the energetic "Trust Me To Open My Mouth" and classic sounding "Footprints," this was what most people probably think of when they refer to a Squeeze sound. "Frank" had some ok moments, but this time it was record company indifference that did the album in.
But for those moments that dot the soundscape of "Greatest Hits," you get some of the finest pop the 80's produced. The gamut from quirky new wave ("Cool For Cats"), country ("Labeled With Love"), soul ("Tempted" and "Black Coffee in Bed") and classic, sophisticated pop ("Footprints," "Up The Junction"). Squeeze were maestros of modern music. While you'll find plenty to like here, they deserve better than this haphazard anthology.
Missing one song from Singles 45s and Under June 29, 2003
12 out of 12 found this review helpful
FYI: Actually this has 11 of the 12 songs from "Singles 45's and Under." Missing is "If I Didn't Love You" from Argy Bargy and substituted from the same "era" is "Labelled With Love" from East Side Story.
 Not the definitive summary June 27, 2004
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
This collection was first issued in the UK back in 1992, to relaunch the band's career after their return to A&M records. The first 12 tracks are copied from the UK edition of "45's & Under" (which differed slightly from its US incarnation), whilst the following eight are culled from the band's three eighties albums for A&M - there's nothing from 1989's "Play", recorded for Reprise to no great commercial success. At the time, this album contained all but one of the Squeeze singles to hit the UK chart ('Bang Bang', since you ask!).
At the time, this album served its purpose well and sold brilliantly. But why it was issued in the USA as late as 2001 is hard to understand, since it fails to include the American Top 40 hit '853-5937', and much of the other mid-eighties material, though well-written, sounds over-produced. As others have noted, this is only exacerbated by the now-outdated CD mastering.
In Britain, this CD has now been superceded by stupidly titled "The Big Squeeze", which drops most of what was added to this in favour of five minor UK hits from the 1990s and the title track of their farewell album "Domino", as well as massively improved sound quality. If you can't stretch to that, you're probably as well making do with "45s and Under" - but you should buy a Squeeze singles collection of some sort, since they were among the great masters of the format.
 No "dry well" here! September 22, 1999
17 out of 20 found this review helpful
I disagree that the output of Squeeze dried up at the decade mark.On the contrary, I think Squeeze matured to a nice, mellow sound that makes for much more enjoyable listening. How anyone can claim that a band that has changed as many members, yet kept the two principles, can be washed up is beyond me. The band has grown, shrunk, changed faces, and even regrouped with Paul Carrick--all to great effect. I highly recommend this album to anyone who would like an instant collection of the greatest hits of Squeeze--this album will only force the listener to buy more and more albums! As for comparisons to Lennon and McCartney, well, that's grossly unfair. As Squeeze matured, their music did not become anthems of drug abuse, bizarre lifestyles, and lunacy. Their music became a bit more adult and still makes sense.
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