Greatest Hits (1988)
1. Only the Young
2. Don't Stop Believin'
3. Wheel in the Sky
4. Faithfully
5. I'll Be Alright Without You
6. Any Way You Want It
7. Ask the Lonely
8. Who's Crying Now
9. Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)
10.Lights
11.Lovin' Touchin' Squeezin'
12.Open Arms
13.Girl Can't Help It
14.Send Her My Love
15.Be Good To Yourself
16.When You Love a Woman *
*included on the 2006 reissue
Journey’s Greatest Hits is, in all but name, the definitive statement from one of America’s most enduring rock bands. There is nothing here from the pre–Steve Perry years, but that is as it should be. The earlier incarnation of the band, though musically ambitious, never really connected with the masses. It was only with the arrival of Perry’s unmistakable tenor and the band’s shift toward melodic arena rock that Journey began to forge their legacy.
The album itself is practically flawless. A concentrated burst of their prime-era material, Greatest Hits is structured with the assurance of a band that knew exactly who they were—and what their audience wanted. Each track seems engineered to remain permanently lodged in your brain. And they do. The songs don’t age; they settle in, become part of the atmosphere. It is precisely this durability that has turned the record into a perennial catalog seller.
Years pass, trends fade, yet Greatest Hits continues to resonate. There’s something to be said for a band whose music is so thoroughly of its time and yet so resolutely timeless. In 2006, the compilation was reissued to include When You Love a Woman, a late-period hit drawn from the otherwise tepid Trial By Fire. The track restored a measure of the old magic, a final glimmer from a band that always knew how to deliver a chorus.
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