Description
The Best of Kansas is the first compilation album by the American rock band Kansas, released on CBS Associated Records in August 1984, manufactured and distributed by CBS Records. The compilation features two remixes (“The Wall” and “Carry On Wayward Son”) as well as one new track, “Perfect Lover”, written by then-lead vocalist John Elefante and his brother Dino Elefante. (“Perfect Lover” was recorded at Pakaderm Studios in Long Beach, California; and features guest musicians Dino Elefante on bass and Bryan Duncan of Sweet Comfort Band fame on backing vocals – and kind of sounds like a leftover from Sweet Comfort Band’s Perfect Timing recorded and produced by Dino Elefante at Pakaderm the same year.) The album cover art, by artist Steve Carver, is a parody of Grant Wood’s 1939 painting of the author Parson Weems, and contains elements of nearly all previous Kansas album covers. The album has sold over 4 million copies in the United States and was certified quadruple platinum in 2001.
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-best-of-kansas/158580313)
LP tracklist:
Side One
A1. “Carry On Wayward Son” (Remixed version) – 5:22 (from Leftoverture, 1976)
A2. “Point Of Know Return” – 3:11 (from Point of Know Return, 1977)
A3. “Fight Fire With Fire” – 3:40 (from Drastic Measures, 1983)
A4. “Dust In The Wind” – 3:27 (from Point of Know Return, 1977)
A5. “Song For America” (Edited version) – 9:08 (from Song for America, 1975)
Side Two
B1. “Perfect Lover” – 4:19 (new song)
B2. “Hold On” – 3:52 (from Audio-Visions, 1980)
B3. “No One Together” – 6:57 (from Audio-Visions, 1980)
B4. “Play The Game Tonight” – 3:26 (from Vinyl Confessions, 1982)
B5. “The Wall” (Remixed version) – 4:49 (from Leftoverture, 1976)
Note: Simultaneously released on cassette, 12-inch vinyl LP, and CD. Re-issued in 1999 in a version supervised by the original band members, so “Perfect Lover” was dropped in favor of three additional tracks to make it fit on a single CD. Added were “The Pinnacle” from Masque, “The Devil Game” from Song for America, and a live track deleted from Two for the Show called “Closet Chronicles”, originally from Point of Know Return. The versions of “Carry On Wayward Son” and “The Wall” on the 1984 release of The Best of Kansas are specially remixed versions unique to the first version of this collection. For the 1999 reissue of the collection, the original 1976 mixes from the album Leftoverture are used instead. The original track listing and mixes were restored for the 2014 180-gram vinyl release of the album by Friday Music.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.