Words & Music: John Mellencamp's Greatest Hits

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Words & Music: John Mellencamp's Greatest Hits
Words and Music Cover.jpg
Greatest hits album by
John Mellencamp
ReleasedOctober 19, 2004
Recorded1978–2004
Genre
Length147:41
Label
Producer
John Mellencamp chronology
Trouble No More
(2003)		Words & Music: John Mellencamp's Greatest Hits
(2004)		 Freedom's Road
(2007)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
411mania.com(9/10) [1]
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar half.svg [2]
The A.V. Club (mixed) [3]
The Guardian Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [4]
Rolling Stone Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [5]

Words & Music: John Mellencamp's Greatest Hits is a two-disc greatest hits album by the American singer-songwriter John Mellencamp, released on October 19, 2004 on the Island and UTV Records labels. [2]

Contents

It is a retrospective of Mellencamp's career at the time of its release, and features at least one song from each of his studio albums released between 1978's A Biography and 2003's Trouble No More . Two songs: "Walk Tall" and "Thank You", were recorded exclusively for this album. No songs are included from Mellencamp's 1976 debut album Chestnut Street Incident or 1977's The Kid Inside . Also omitted is Mellencamp's cover of "Without Expression", which was released on his previous compilation album The Best That I Could Do 1978–1988 . Initial pressings of the album included a bonus DVD that contained the music videos for "Crumblin' Down", "R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.", "Rain on the Scarecrow", "Check It Out", and "Key West Intermezzo (I Saw You First)". [2]

AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave the compilation a positive review, describing it as more thorough than The Best That I Could Do1978–1988, but criticized its non-chronological track listing. [2] In December 2004, the album was certified Platinum by the RIAA. [6]

Track listing

All songs written by John Mellencamp, except where noted.

Disc one

  1. "Walk Tall" – 3:45
    • (previously unreleased)
  2. "Pink Houses" – 4:45
  3. "Lonely Ol' Night" – 3:46
  4. "Jackie Brown" – 4:03
  5. "Rain on the Scarecrow" (Mellencamp, George M. Green) – 3:46
    • (from Scarecrow, 1985)
  6. "Love and Happiness" – 3:54
  7. "Check It Out" – 4:21
  8. "Peaceful World" – 4:06
  9. "Paper in Fire" – 3:52
    • (from The Lonesome Jubilee, 1987)
  10. "Your Life Is Now" (Mellencamp, Green) – 3:59
  11. "Human Wheels" (Mellencamp, Green) – 5:36
  12. "When Jesus Left Birmingham" – 5:16
    • (from Human Wheels, 1993)
  13. "Authority Song" – 3:50
    • (from Uh-Huh, 1983)
  14. "What If I Came Knocking" – 5:06
    • (from Human Wheels, 1993)
  15. "Crumblin' Down" (Mellencamp, Green) – 3:36
    • (from Uh-Huh, 1983)
  16. "Small Town" – 3:42
    • (from Scarecrow, 1985)
  17. "R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A." – 2:55
    • (from Scarecrow, 1985)
  18. "Cherry Bomb" – 4:49
    • (from The Lonesome Jubilee, 1987)
  19. "Pop Singer" – 2:46
    • (from Big Daddy, 1989)

Disc two

  1. "Thank You" – 3:38
    • (previously unreleased)
  2. "Martha Say" – 3:43
    • (from Big Daddy, 1989)
  3. "Key West Intermezzo (I Saw You First)" (Mellencamp, Green) – 4:54
  4. "Hand to Hold On to" – 3:25
  5. "I Need a Lover" – 5:36
  6. "Hurts So Good" (Mellencamp, Green) – 3:41
    • (from American Fool, 1982)
  7. "Get a Leg Up" – 3:47
    • (from Whenever We Wanted, 1991)
  8. "Wild Night" (Van Morrison) – 3:28
  9. "Dance Naked" – 3:01
    • (from Dance Naked, 1994)
  10. "Teardrops Will Fall" (David Allard, Marion Smith) – 4:20
  11. "Ain't Even Done with the Night" – 4:38
  12. "Just Another Day" – 3:31
    • (from Mr. Happy Go Lucky, 1996)
  13. "Jack & Diane" – 4:17
    • (from American Fool, 1982)
  14. "Rumbleseat" – 2:59
    • (from Scarecrow, 1985)
  15. "I'm Not Running Anymore" – 3:27
    • (from John Mellencamp, 1998)
  16. "Again Tonight" – 3:18
    • (from Whenever We Wanted, 1991)
  17. "This Time" – 4:20
    • (from Nothin' Matters and What If It Did, 1980)
  18. "Now More Than Ever" – 3:43
    • (from Whenever We Wanted, 1991)

Personnel on 2004 tracks

"Walk Tall"

"Thank You"

Charts

Chart performance for Words & Music: John Mellencamp's Greatest Hits
Chart (2004)Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA) [7] 93
US Billboard 200 [8] 13

References

  1. ↑ 411mania.com review
  2. 1 2 3 4 Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Words & Music: John Mellencamp's Greatest Hits – John Mellencamp". Allmusic . Retrieved February 18, 2011.
  3. ↑ The A.V. Club review
  4. ↑ "CD: John Mellencamp, Words and Music: John Mellencamp's Greatest Hits". The Guardian . November 5, 2004. Archived from the original on September 17, 2014.
  5. ↑ "Words & Music: John Mellencamp's Greatest Hits". Rolling Stone . January 27, 2005. Archived from the original on March 12, 2017.
  6. ↑ "RIAA – Searchable Database: John Mellencamp" . Retrieved July 25, 2018.
  7. ↑ Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010 (PDF ed.). Mt Martha, Victoria, Australia: Moonlight Publishing. p. 184.
  8. ↑ "John Mellencamp Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved August 26, 2022.
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