History
The album is a collection of some of Springsteen's hit singles and popular album tracks through the years. Springsteen released a similar Greatest Hits album in 1995. Unlike the previous release,this album is billed to "Bruce Springsteen &The E Street Band",the first time Springsteen's backing band has been credited with a compilation release. As such,it contains no Springsteen material recorded between 1984 and 2002,during which period he did virtually no studio recording with the E Street Band. [4]
Springsteen's association with Wal-Mart drew puzzled reactions from the media,given the singer's longtime support for labor causes and the company's longtime anti-union actions. [5] Huffington Post writer Tony Sachs pronounced the release one of the "top five boneheaded music industry moves of 2008", [6] while The Wall Street Journal wrote that it reflected the duality of "the liberal singer-songwriter and the commercial juggernaut recording artist." [7] Longtime Springsteen writer Charles R. Cross said that fans were now more accepting of such blatant commercial strategies given the overall slump in the music business. [7] Nevertheless,the release did draw criticism from some fans as well as from labor union activists and independent record store owners. [7] [8] In response,Springsteen manager Jon Landau said,"[L]et's start with the premise that Bruce is already in Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart has been 15% of our sales in recent years. It's not a question of going into Wal-Mart;we're there. They,and other retailers,are all looking for some way to differentiate themselves,and we try to accommodate each one. We're not doing any advertising for Wal-Mart. We haven't endorsed Wal-Mart or anybody else." [8] But then Springsteen himself,during publicity for his appearance at Super Bowl XLIII,admitted that they "dropped the ball" with the association with Wal-Mart,and attributed it to insufficient vetting due to too many activities going on. [9]
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