Still, 24-bit Digital Re-Mastering is hard to beat for quality of sound, and all "Best Of ..." and "Greatest Hits" collections leave something to be desired by almost everyone. Take into account that most April Wine albums, especially "First Glance", are hard to find in the U.S., if at all, and this isn't that bad of a disc to start an April Wine CD collection with. This CD will ROCK, but won't rock your wallet either. At it's worst, this CD will leave you wanting more.

RECOMMENDATION: Start with the excellent 24-bit Digitally Remastered sound quality of "CLASSIC MASTERS" and keep your fingers crossed that Capital Records will begin remastering and releasing the rest of the April Wine catalog the same way.


Needs "Ladies Man" and "All Over Town"   March 9, 2004
Marc Lahn (Southern New Jersey, USA)
8 out of 9 found this review helpful

First off, these Classic Masters CDs are top notch re sound quality. the remastering is excellent

Of course, the Cds should be longer (more tracks), but what are ya gonna do?

This is a nice collection, but I'm NOT buying it for this reason:

The CD DOES NOT include "LADIES MAN" or "ALL OVER TOWN" (not to mention some of the other great early material)

Both the above songs are very good, hard rocking April Wine tunes that DID receive radio play in the early 80's

So EVEN THOUGH this collection includes other greats such as I LIKE TO ROCK, SIGN OF THE GYPSY QUEEN and their excellent cover of King Crimson's "21st CENTURY SCHIZOID MAN", it's OMISSION of "Ladies Man" and "All Over Town" keep me from buying

It's a SHAME because these two very good ROCK songs could've replaced a couple of those lame, commercial, sappy MUSH songs like "Love Remembered Me" or "Tell Me Why"

This "could've been" a complete and most excellent hard rock example of April Wine.

But EMI needs someone who knows the band a bit better to compile the tracks

That being said, it's an okay introduction and you can be guaranteed that the sound quality is excellent

Just a shame it's not complete with essential songs from this band

Marc


Where's the Beef?   November 26, 2005
Tony James (Canadarocks)
5 out of 10 found this review helpful

In the 70's there was American British and Canadian rock. Its a shame that most living outside of Canada didn't get an opportunity to hear a lot more of the Canadian product. My biggest beef with all of the April Wine "greatest hits" compilations was the fact that most of the rocking early years has been largely ignored. Who put these compilations together? Where was lead singer/songwriter/guitarist Myles Goodwyn during all of this? Where is "Fast Train, Bad Side of the Moon, Drop Your Guns, Electric Jewels, Weeping Widow, Just Like That, You Could Have Been a Lady, Anything You Want, Victim for Your Love, Forever for Now, Cat's Claw, Come on Along, The Band Has Just Begun" etc etc etc? The albums "Electric Jewels, On Record and Stand Back" as well as "Live at the El Mocambo" are much more representative of April Wine. Canada rocked, we really did. You just wouldn't know it from this pap.


An Excellent Collection, But Missing Many Great Songs   November 17, 2003
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

CLASSIC MASTERS is a great collection of April Wine songs, but it's missing many great songs from the late 70s/early 80s, and doesn't even cover the stuff from the early years, such as "You Could Have Been A Lady" and "Bad Side Of The Moon." However, what's here is great, and, like any good hits collection, makes you want to get the original albums.


Has the big hits, but lacking   September 13, 2006
Too Old To Play Hockey (Flower Mound, TX USA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

As the other reviewers have said, the Classic Masters collection just doesn't cover enough material to be worthy of the April Wine discography. I find "The Hits" much more palatable as a long time fan, but it too is missing some of the best material and has some "fluff" that doesn't belong. Although it is expensive and somewhat hard to find, the box set is the way to go. It covers the band's career from the early days through their hitmaking period and includes some excellent live performances. It's always tough to please all of the people all of the time on a greatest hits collection, but classic masters definitely misses the boat.