‘The Best Of The Band’ Returns To Vinyl And CD
After 40 years, the greatest hits from The Band will be reissued on December 12.
After nearly 40 years out of print, The Band’s 1976 greatest hits compilation is finally being reissued. The compilation will be released on vinyl for the first time since the 1980s, as well as CD and SHM-CD. The Best Of The Band will officially be available on December 12, and is available for preorder now.
When The Best Of The Band was released in July 1976, the members of The Band were going through personal obstacles. Pianist Richard Manuel recovered from a boating accident, singer and guitarist Robbie Robertson was exhausted, and multi-instrumentalists Garth Hudson, Levon Helm, and Rick Danko were all nearly ready to hang it up. As The Band prepared for what they dubbed a farewell concert—which was documented in the seminal, Martin Scorsese-directed documentary The Last Waltz—they released The Best Of The Band, pulling selections from their first seven albums released from 1968 to 1975.
The greatest hits album captures a range of The Band’s sound and musical evolution—an evolution that impacted countless other musicians and bands in the second half of the 20th century. The Best Of The Band includes perhaps their signature song, “The Weight,” which was released on their first album, Music From Big Pink. Their self-titled sophomore album is represented with the tracks “Up On Cripple Creek” and their cover of “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.” Northern Lights — Southern Cross, The Band’s most recent album when The Best Of The Band was released, also gets two tracks on the compilation: “Ophelia” and “It Makes No Difference.”
Of course, The Band didn’t end up saying farewell in 1976, at least not forever. The group eventually reunited and released three albums in the 1990s. In 1994, The Band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Nearly 50 years after The Best Of The Band debuted, it remains an excellent collection for fans old and new.
