Hit

I've never really listened to Genesis, The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway appeals about as much as Tales of Tophographic Oceans, but Peter Gabriel I've always liked. The first thing I heard was Games Without Frontiers, though it was more Robert Fripp's guitar & Kate Bush's vocal I recall. Along with Ashes to Ashes, it was one of the first records I liked as a youth (age 7, I do believe!). & Gabriel has released some pop songs since, some verge on irritating (Big Time, Steam- both here- though at least we'r spared Kiss That Frog & Barry Whatever Show)- but frequently wonderful soundtrack works (Passion, Birdy, Rabbit Proof Fence) & sublime ballads (Blood of Eden, Mercy Street). It's an interesting career, and Hit attempts to condense it over two discs, and largely succeeds- this is far superior to the previous Gabriel retrospective, Shaking the Tree (1990).The running order is curious, and it has to be noted that some of the tracks are in truncated versions or remix form- I think it's pretty terrible to shorten Blood of Eden (though curiously I think the version with Paula Cole from the 93 live album is the best take of it!)- the tracks from Up (not a huge success like So) are fine (More Than This especially) & the new single Burn You Up, Burn You Down is suitably excellent.It's nice to see another side of Gabriel acknowledged- Lovetown (from the soundtrack to Philadelphia), The Rhythm of the Heat (from Peter Gabriel 4, but also known as 'The Heat' from Birdy- an instrumental that was also used in the snakebite/pharmacy scene in the film Natural Born Killers)- very sinister stuff, that could be Colin Newman/Wire, if you think about it! & it's great to see some of the earlier material acknowledged- Here Comes the Flood (an influence on Radiohead?- listen to the intro of Everything In It's Right Place on I Might Be Wrong, what title is Thom Yorke singing?), DIY (from the second album) & the sublime San Jacinto, which along with In Your Eyes (sadly missing, as is Across the River!), remains my fave Gabriel moment.The major hits are present- Solsbury Hill (recently covered by Erasure, also featured on their greatest hits!), Sledgehammer, Don't Give Up, Games Without Frontiers, Steam, Red Rain (covered by REM), Big Time & the anthemic elegy, Biko. It's pleasing to see the art side of Gabriel present here- No Self Control, Digging in the Dirt, Washing of the Water, I Have the Touch, The Drop & Shock the Monkey all standing out (but no Mercy Street, no I Don't Remember, no Across the River, nothing from Passion: The Last Temptation of Christ...proof that it is hard/impossible to represent everything there...).Hit is still a great compilation of Peter Gabriel's solo works, despite the missing tracks- for a two-disc set this is screaming good value, though you'll probably want to own the albums anyway. Not sure about that beard though- is it Gandalf or more Dennis Hopper in 24's first series?

I've been after this album for a while so Happy when I seen a price drop worth buying

2nd cd as gd as 1st cd. Excellent.

Had high hopes for this collection of his but at least now I know why disc 1 is labelled "hit" and disc 2 "miss"! lol :pStill has all his most famous hits on first CD at least which is the main thing.

Good album with all the great tracks on and a few I hadn't come across before.

ALL PETER GABRIELS HITS ON ONE CD

this record was bought because you can depend on peter Gabriel to make a album of some worth a piece of music that you will definitely want to listen to again and I mean more than once ,I have owned a few of his records before but not this one and I must say it is as good as expected and the company who I dealt with was pretty good as well

Amazing catatlogue of a musical career, the first CD focussed on his chart hits which i knew some of them and the second cd was his more prog tracks which were also good but take a bit of listening to to get into his groove.