Finally, a long overdue collection from vocalist/pianist
Bruce Hornsby
was issued in 2004. The superb
Greatest Radio Hits
compiles 15 songs, including his charted singles. Eight
Bruce Hornsby & the Range
numbers and seven solo tracks are featured. Adding "radio" to the greatest-hits title and
Hornsby
's comments in the liner notes indicate a strong belief in the unpredictability of what becomes a hit.
's
jazz
-influenced
pop/rock
, particularly with
the Range
, certainly stood out from the rest of the Top 40 pack in the late '80s. Each of his two finest songs,
"The Way It Is"
and
"The Valley Road,"
packed a fine melodic wallop wrapped in socially conscious lyrics. The brilliant classic
hit number one in 1986 arguably on the strength of its instantly memorable piano hooks, but who could have expected its heartfelt examination of racism, civil rights, and social inequality to top the charts at the height of the
Reagan
era?
"The Valley Road"
was an infectiously melodic number five single, yet its melody enveloped subtle lyrics about out-of-wedlock pregnancy, abortion, and class division set in rural, small-town America. Other hits with
are
"Mandolin Rain,"
"Every Little Kiss,"
"Look Out Any Window,"
"Lost Soul"
(with
Shawn Colvin
on vocals), the underrated
"Across the River"
Jerry Garcia
on guitar), and
"Set Me in Motion"
from the
Backdraft
soundtrack
. Solo songs include
"Fields of Gray,"
"Walk in the Sun,"
"See the Same Way,"
"The Good Life,"
and three previously unreleased tracks:
"Go Back to Your Woods"
and fascinating live versions of
"Jacob's Ladder"
(which
Huey Lewis & the News
took to number one) and
"The End of the Innocence"
(co-written with
Don Henley
, who had a Top Ten hit with his take).
is destined to be a perennial catalog best-seller, and deservedly so. ~ Bret Adams