AMG Review of Greate$t Hit$ [1998]

Stephen Thomas Erlewine
All Music Guide

Mötley Crüe parted ways with Elektra in the spring of 1998, releasing their second compilation, Greatest Hits, on their own label that fall. Weighing in at 17 tracks, including two pedestrian new songs, Greatest Hits duplicates much of Decade of Decadence, featuring no less than eight songs -- "Looks That Kill," "Home Sweet Home" (original, not the Decade version), "Smokin' in the Boys' Room," "Girls, Girls, Girls," "Wild Side," "Dr. Feelgood," "Kickstart My Heart" (original, not the live version that was on Decade), "Primal Scream" -- that were on the previous collection. Considering all that overlap, you can be forgiven for thinking that the two compilations are interchangeable, but Greatest Hits actually has the edge, not just because it doesn't feature the silly "Anarchy in the U.K." cover, but because it features a greater selection of hits from their masterpiece, Dr. Feelgood, including "Without You," "Don't Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)," and "Same Ol' Situation (S.O.S.)," all of which weren't on Decade. It has its flaws, to be sure -- the sequencing is illogical, the newer songs are lame, and the original "Shout at the Devil" should have been featured instead of the atrocious Generation Swine re-recording -- but it's still the best overview yet assembled.