Greatest Hits Live (Heart Album)

Greatest Hits Live (Heart Album)

Greatest Hits/Live is a compilation album and live album released in 1980 by the American hard rock band Heart. Their sixth album overall, it was a double album. The first disc was a collection of the band's most famous songs, while the second was mostly a live album, although it contained three studio recordings, including a cover of "Tell It Like It Is", the lead single. The second single released from the album was a live cover of "Unchained Melody".

Three songs were left off the compact disc version of the album due to initial limitations in CD technology, even though the total album running time would now be easily accommodated on a single disc:

• "Hit Single", a giddy and sometimes maniacal hodgepodge of voices (Ann, Nancy and others) and sounds that seemed to be culled from recording studio outtakes.

• "Strange Euphoria", a non-typical Heart dance number (named after the group's publishing company).

• "Unchained Melody", the Righteous Brothers song, despite being a single release in 1981.

"Unchained Melody" would later resurface on various compilations, while "Hit Single" and "Strange Euphoria" would only become available on the limited three-CD edition of The Essential Heart in 2009. "Strange Euphoria", of course, is also on the 2012 box set of the same name.

In the early 80's, Heart was by far not as popular in Europe as they were in North America. In fear, European record buyers would ignore an expensive double album, it was decided to release a single disc with five studio- and five live recordings (see track listing below). This version was also released on CD a few years later. In 2002, Sony Europe re-released this 10-track version with different artwork in their "Simply the best" budget series.

The double album was a success in the U.S., reaching double platinum and staying on the US Billboard 200 chart for 25 weeks.