Greatest Hits (1988)

After the huge success of Tango in the night the band released a new Greatest Hits album in November 1988 while the public were still hungry for Fleetwood Mac's music. This includes nothing pre-1975 so if you're only interested in the Stevie Nicks/Lindsey Buckingham era hits then you can't go wrong with this, although Lindsey has been replaced by Billy Burnette and Rick Vito (interesting that they needed two people to replace him) for the two new songs featured.

The UK version of this is seventeen tracks long, and is the one that I am going to concentrate on here, while the US left off the magnificent Seven wonders and the poppy Oh Diane in favour of Over my head, which isn't as good as either of those in my opinion. As only the singles are included then there's no classic album tracks such as The Chain, Songbird or Landslide. They also decided to leave off the wonderful Isn't it midnight and Mac classics Can't go back and Family man.

Anyway enough of what isn't on there, as there is more than enough here to help you forget what could have been. Rhiannon opens proceedings and has you immediately entranced. Go your own way, Don't stop, Gypsy, Everywhere, You make loving fun and Big love ensure you never want to even look at the skip button. As long as you follow is the first of the new tracks and is a Christine McVie/Eddy Quintela composition that is a pure delight. Infectiously dreamy and radio friendly it is classic Christine and should have been a big hit. Unfortunately it wasn't, but it still sounds great amongst all the classics.

Side two opens with Say you love me, then my favourite, Dreams. Little lies, Oh Diane, the full six and a half minute version of Sara is followed by the only other song from Tusk, the title track. Seven wonders thankfully makes an appearance on this version of the album and then Hold me, which is included despite flopping in the UK - never mind, it sounds great on here. That's it then apart from one more new song, the Stevie Nicks/Kelly Johnston composed No questions asked, which was released as the B-side of a re-released Hold me (that still flopped!), and is Stevie sounding more fiery and sure of herself than she did on Tango in the night, along with a catchy tune that makes for another classic moment to end what is surely one of the most consistently brilliant discs ever produced.