Greatest Hits (Alabama album)

Infobox Album
Name = Greatest Hits
Type = Greatest hits
Artist = Alabama


Released = January 1986
Recorded = 1985 (new tracks)
1980-1984 (older tracks)
Genre = Country
Length = 48:21
Label = RCA Records
Producer = Harold Shedd and Alabama
Reviews = *Allmusic Rating|5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:6z320r6ac48n link]
Chronology = Alabama
Last album = "Alabama Christmas"
(1985)
This album = "Greatest Hits"
(1986)
Next album = "The Touch"
(1986)

"Greatest Hits" is the first greatest hits package released by the American country music band Alabama. The album was released on RCA Records in 1986, and has since been certified platinum for sales of 5 million units by the Recording Industry Association of America [http://www.riaa.com/gp/database/search_results.asp] .

By the mid-1980s, Alabama had become the most dominant act in country music. During the first half of the decade, the Fort Payne, Alabama-based group had 18 No. 1 songs in as many single releases (discounting their 1982 Christmas single, "Christmas in Dixie"), plus they had released six multi-platinum albums and had won many awards from the Country Music Association and Academy of Country Music.

Alabama's first greatest hits album includes eight of their hit singles; seven of those reached No. 1 on the "Billboard magazine" Hot Country Singles chart between 1980 and 1985. The eighth song of that group was "My Home's in Alabama," widely considered to be their signature tune (despite only reaching No. 17).

Extended live concert versions of "My Home's in Alabama" and "Tennessee River" are presented on this album. The album-length versions of "Why, Lady, Why" and "Mountain Music" are also included, as opposed to their respective single/radio edits. Also, the version of "She and I" included here (complete with false fade-out toward the end of the song) runs more than five minutes, nearly 1-1/2 minutes longer than the single edit.

The album also contains two new tracks. Of the two, "She and I" was the only single release, and it became the band's 19th No. 1 song in April 1986. The other song, "The Fans," is Alabama's ode of thanks to their fans.

Track listing

#"She and I" (Dave Loggins) – 5:18^A
#"Mountain Music" (Randy Owen) – 4:12
#"Feels So Right" (Owen) – 3:37
#"Old Flame" (Donny Lowery, Mac McAnally) – 3:12
#"Tennessee River" (live version) (Owen) – 8:06^A
#"Love in the First Degree" (Tim DuBois, Jim Hurt) – 3:18
#"40 Hour Week (For a Livin')" (Loggins, Don Schlitz, Lisa Silver) – 3:21
#"Why Lady Why" – (Teddy Gentry, Rick Scott) – 4:11
#"The Fans" – (Greg Fowler, Gentry, Owen) – 4:54^A
#"My Home's in Alabama" – (live version) (Gentry, Owen) 8:27^A

^A Previously unreleased

Charts

Album

Billboard (North America)

ingles