Greatest Hits (CD - 2003)

This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.

A greatest-hits album appearing after just three studio albums and following a Christmas album by months can only mean one thing -- an artist is reaching the end of her contract, and she's riding it out. So appears to be the case with Jo Dee Messina, whose Greatest Hits was released in May of 2003, seven years after her first album. During those seven years, she amassed quite a number of hits, including five chart-toppers. All of them are here on this generous 15-track collection, along with four new tracks, highlighted by the opening track and lead single "Was That My Life." Only two of her charting singles for Curb are missing -- the first, "Do You Wanna Make Something of It," and the last, "Dare to Dream" -- which makes this an excellent summary and introduction to an artist who may not have blazed trails, but delivered consistently enjoyable mainstream and fairly traditional country, as this fine collection proves. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

As an inheritor of the school-of-hard-knocks-persona of Reba MacEntire, Jo Dee Messina has perfected the art of appealing to both sexes. Her first greatest-hits compilation neatly summarizes her ability to interpret tough-but-tender, THELMA & LOUISE-type themes in a way guaranteed to bring out the protective instincts in guys and recognition and empathy in women.

Time and again on GREATEST HITS Messina hits the ball right out of the park on songs such as "Heads Carolina, Tails California," "Bye Bye," and, in perhaps the ur-Messina performance, "Stand Beside Me," with its chorus that also functions as a declaration of intent--"I want a man that stands beside me/ Not in front of or behind meà" Messina is a class act--you won't find any dance club remixes here--and about as country as Nashville gets nowadays. Unlike some of her contemporaries she's kept her sound slick without becoming too glossy, and her songwriting choices remain catchy and hook-laden. Even on the ostensibly pop-oriented "That's the Way It Is" Messina remains easy to listen to without falling into the easy-listening trap, and that's the story throughout GREATEST HITS. minimize