Aerosmith's Greatest Hits [Remaster] (CD - 1980)

Aerosmith: Steven Tyler (vocals, harmonica, piano); Joe Perry (guitar, background vocals); Brad Whitford (guitar); Tom Hamilton (bass); Joey Kramer (drums, percussion).

Producers include: Aerosmith, Adrian Barber, Jack Douglas, Ray Colcord, George Martin.

All tracks have been digitally remastered.

Aerosmith: Steven Tyler (vocals, harmonica); Joe Perry , Brad Whitford (guitar); Tom Hamilton (bass guitar); Joey Kramer (drums).

Additional personnel: Run-D.M.C..

Longtime Aerosmith fans are likely to quibble about the set list here. How to pare down one of rock's all-time greatest and longest-running rock bands to 18 songs? Even so, 2006's DEVIL'S GOT A NEW DISGUISE: THE VERY BEST OF AEROSMITH does an admirable job, offering a single-disc crash course in the group's biggest and best-known tunes.

Ranging from the their 1970s heyday throughout their astonishing late '80s comeback and beyond, DEVIL'S plays like a feel-good hard-rock radio revival. Old-schoolers will be happy to find the staples--"Dream On," "Walk This Way," and "Sweet Emotion"--while second-generation Aerosmith fans will find blockbuster MTV fare like "Cryin'" and "Crazy." The band's patented boogie shuffle is accounted for on "Back in the Saddle" and "Rag Doll," among others. Two new tracks, one of which gives the album its title, are also included.

Originally decried by critics as an American rip-off of the Rolling Stones, Aerosmith blew these criticisms away by going on to become the biggest and best hard rock band of the '70s. Fronted by funky and fast-talking Steven Tyler, Aerosmith was anchored by the rock-solid rhythm tandem of Tom Hamilton and Joey Kramer, while guitarists Joe Perry and Brad Whitford were the instrumental gunslingers of the band.

Much of Aerosmith's appeal lies in the band's outlaw personas, particularly on such incendiary cuts as "Back in the Saddle" and the equally powerful "Draw the Line." The flip side of these nuggets were arena anthems like the prototype power ballad "Dream On" and "Sweet Emotion," a simmering classic written by Tyler about Perry's wife. Unlike many hard rock bands of the time whose sound was solely rooted in heavy blues-rock, Aerosmith was an unabashed fan of pop. Not only did the band cover the Beatles ("Come Together") and The ShangriLas ("Remember [Walking in the Sand]), but paid tribute to James Brown by writing its own "Mother Popcorn." minimize