Customer Rating: 
Summary: Greatest Hits Indeed!
Comment: This is truly a Guns N' Roses greatest hits collection. It perfectly sums up the band's entire career, with it's core members. There seems to be a problem with the tracks Geffen (record label) chose for this compilation. I noticed more than half the 1-2 star reviews rated so low simply because it didn't contain the tracks THEY wanted it to have. Keep in mind, this is a Greatest Hits package, not a Best Of.. meaning a collection of hits that were at one time released singles by the band launched to radio/MTV by the label. I couldn't agree more with this list, with the slight exception of a song that was a single but ommitted here.
Appetite for Destruction: (1987)
Welcome to the Jungle
Sweet Child O' Mine
Paradise City
*Three singles off that album.--two others off the album include It's So Easy and Nightrain, but were not included due to spacing on the album.*
G N R Lies: (1988)
Patience
You can't expect much attention to an EP on a Greatest Hits album. This was the only release from this album anyway. -and acoustic at that.
Use Your Illusion I: (1991)
Live and Let Die
Don't Cry (Original)
November Rain
*These are 3 singles off that release. There are videos for songs off that album that were not released as singles such as The Garden, Garden of Eden and Dead Horse. That is why those aren't on there.
Use Your Illusion II: (1991)
Civil War - the final track in GNR's career to feature Steven Adler as the drummer before being replaced by Matt Sorum. There is no video for this single.
You Could Be Mine - notably off The Terminator II
Yesterdays
Knockin On Heaven's Door- though the second single off that album, no video was officially made for it. The song Estranged was another single and video released, but as with the 2 others off Appetite, it was left off due to spacing. Too bad, it personally enjoy that song, as it's one of two of their most progressive tracks. The 2nd being Coma off UYI I.
*For a good Best Of compilation of the two Use Your Illusion albums, check out Use Your Illusion.
The Spaghetti Incident?: (1993)
Since I Don't Have You
Ain't It Fun
*Probably 2 out of 3 songs on here that non-GNR fans may not be familiar with. Though singles, not much airplay these days. Both covers off this cover album. Ain't it Fun didn't have a video, unlike Since I Don't Have You, which is their final video...to date.
Interview With The Vampire Soundtack: (1994)
Sympathy For The Devil - (the 3rd of the 3)
This cover of
The Rolling Stones song (1969?) released as a single, the final featuring Slash on lead guitar, was indeed their... final single with Slash. Released in 1994, it was supposedly the final straw that broke the camels back, so to speak, for Slash. According to Slash, Paul Huge, the backing guitarist, who was Gibly Clark's replacement after Axl fired him, recorded a guitar part over Slash's guitar part without his consent. Slash finally had it, and supposedly quit right after. Congrats Axl!! Huge isn't even in the band anymore. (oh how things work out the way they do) anyway, Axl and other sources claim otherwise... I'm not writing this to discuss the matter even further. Ok, the acutal soundrack is rare to find in stores, so Geffen decided to stick the song as the final track on the album. Listen to the guitar parts and decide for yourself. Back to the compliation.
Other than the removal of those few tracks because of space (Geffen chose to have a single disc release rather than a double one) I have no problem with the songs chosen for this release. They are hits. Sure, as a GNR fan myself, I have my personal favorites and could come up with a Best Of collection, based on personal preference. Doesn't make this album horrible. Horrible enough to rate so poor, unless you hate the tracks themselves. There are some other poor reviewers who
stress the fact that Guns N' Roses were "unorginal" as more than a third of the singles on here are covers. Well, that may be, and a 5 songs out of the 14 are in fact covers. Knockin' On Heaven's Door (Bob Dylan), Live and Let Die ( Sir Paul McCartney), Ain't It Fun (The Dead Boys), Since I Don't Have You (The Skyliners) and Sympathy For The Devil (
The Rolling Stones). Why they were released as singles...they're good covers. But Guns N' Roses have very good original material and were definately more than the average hair/glam metal bands that erupted out of the 80s. The Illusion albums prove this.
Also as mentioned in other reviews, you should purchase this set for one of three reasons.
1. You want a Guns N Roses album but want only one. A non-fan who wishes to expand his or her collection of music. This is perfect for that collection.
2. You are a die-hard fan, like myself (one of my favorite rock/metal groups) and want to support that group by purchasing anything that is released by them, even complilations like this here.
3 You plan to give this as a gift to a non-fan in hopes of him or her becoming one. (A reason already mentioned by a very helpful review on this product.)
In conclusion, I highly recommend this album. I believe it is unfairly given the Explicit Lyrics tag on the title. The only song on the album worthy of this tag would be Ain't It Fun, for its rebellious, carefree lyrics, smaking the "C" word in the middle of the song. Still recommended though. Unfortunately there is not a lot on the inside, such as band photos (only one on the inside and one on the back both in black and white), no tour pictures, and other extras. Geffen must have used all that for their live compilation Live Era '87-'93. All the credit is given, band members, song/lryic writers, for each track, as well as pictures of each album cover by Guns N Roses. Because if this I was tempted to drop the rating a little, but it didn't bother me much (since I own the rest of the albums) but only whole stars are clickable on Amazon, not pieces of stars, therefore it rounds out to a full 5 stars.
Hope you enjoy!!!!!
