Hollies Long Road Home: 1963-2003 CD

Recorded between 1963 & 2003. Includes liner notes by Peter Doggett.

This box is a difficult thing to recommend, good -- no, make that great -- though it is. Partly, that's because it's almost too much of a great thing for most Hollies fans -- if they don't mind paying $120 for the six-CD U.K. import set, but most listeners aren't capitalized that way. And it does have its shortcomings, despite its cost. In contrast to, say, Crossroads by Eric Clapton, or Dreams by the Allman Brothers, it isn't where one could start listening to the Hollies -- there's too much that's not here, including "Bus Stop," and "Look Through Any Window." The shortcomings are understandable in a way, because between EMI in England, Sony Music in America (which still controls the Hollies classic sides from between 1966 and 1973 in that market), and sub-licensors like Disky in Holland, the Hollies may be the most heavily anthologized '60s British group this side of the Who; what to include, and how far to overlap existing collections become major problems, and they seem to have limited the hits to those that are biographically important in the band's history. such as "He Ain't Heavy He's My Brother," which re-established them commercially after Graham Nash's departure, or "Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress," which precipitated a major personnel crisis. Even with that limitation, there's almost too much here, at 136 tracks spanning 40 years. Disc One is certain to appeal to all of the group's fans, opening in 1963 with the first three tracks they ever recorded, the jangling "Hey, What's Wrong With Me," "Ain't That Just Like Me," and the achingly beautiful ballad "Whole World Over," only one of which has made extensive appearances in the decades since. Then things start jumping around in some pleasing and unexpected ways, between singles and album tracks that do showcase the many sides of the group's sound -- the selection of tracks does perhaps shine the spotlight on Tony Hicks' guitars a little more prominently than they would be with a totally random sampling, but, then, he was always the group's secret weapon; the B-sides with which the group graced British audiences, including "Keep Off That Friend of Mine," "Baby That's All," and "Come on Back," are some of the best songs of their kind that aren't generally known; and one also gets a keen appreciation of the tightening of the band's sound that took place from the moment that Bobby Elliott joined on the drums (one shudders to think what the group's cover of "Mickey's Monkey" would have sounded like with Don Rathbone still in the lineup). Among the jewels making their debut here are a low-wattage rendition of "We're Through," a crunchy, stripped down version of "She Said Yeah," and a trio of group originals, "So Lonely," "Bring Back Your Love to Me," and "Listen Hear to Me." The array of B-sides and album cuts on this disc make for a somewhat heavier, more intense sound than the Hollies were known for by way of their singles -- in a sense, one can understand "Bus Stop" not being included here, amid the heavier and more soulful sounds of "You Must Believe Me," and the near garage rock textures of "She Gives Me Everything I Want"; the only thing missing is "Tell Me to My Face." Almost as an act of defiance against expectation, we're given the folk-rock oriented "If I Needed Someone" and "Stewball," and the pop-exotica of "Oriental Sadness," the latter an LP track that deserved to be a single. It almost breaks up the celebration of their album tracks and B-sides when the disc ends with the Italian-language singl

40th anniversary box has 136 tracks over 6 cds spans their entire career. Includes hits, album tracks, some different mixes, and the sixth cd is all live tracks

THE LONG ROAD HOME: THE 40TH ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION is a box set with 6 disc and a 56 page booklet with liner notes and color pictures.

The Hollies include: Allan Clarke (vocals, guitar); Tony Hicks, Graham Nash (guitar); Bernie CalvertEntertainment Weekly (12/12/03, p.78) - "...[Proof that the Hollies] kept churning out hits long after the 1960s faded....All of those schoolboy screamers are here..." - Rating: B+
Mojo (Publisher) (2/04, p.111) - 3 stars out of 5 - [T]he sound on these songs is fantastic..."