Classic Yes (1981)
1. Heart of the Sunrise
2. Wonderous Stories
3. Yours is No Disgrace
4. Starship Trooper
5. Long Distance Runaround
6. The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus)
7. And You and I
8. Roundabout
9. I've Seen All Good People
Calling Classic Yes a “Greatest Hits” package feels like a bit of a stretch—even for a band whose career was built on defying commercial expectations. When this compilation first appeared in 1981, Yes hadn’t exactly peppered the singles charts. Sure, Roundabout and I’ve Seen All Good People could qualify as their most recognizable tracks, but even those were hits in a somewhat niche, FM-radio, progressive-rock sense. Amusingly, on the original vinyl release these two were packaged together as a separate single—an afterthought to the main event. By the time CDs became the norm, the format’s extra space made it easy to tack them onto the end of the album proper.
Adding to the quirkiness, both of those “hits” appear here in live versions. Whether that’s a bonus or a liability depends on your personal taste. On the one hand, you get Yes in their natural habitat, stretching arrangements and showing off their chops. On the other, the lack of the familiar studio polish might disappoint casual listeners looking for the radio staples they actually remember. It’s a curious decision that speaks volumes about the band’s own priorities—and possibly about the label’s ambivalence toward making this too accessible.
The bulk of Classic Yes leans hard on what the title implies: the long-form, exploratory pieces that made the band legends in the first place. Tracks like Heart of the Sunrise or And You and I don’t exactly scream “radio-friendly,” but they’re essential snapshots of Yes at their creative peak. It also means the album’s running time is dominated by just a handful of songs—part of why those two singles had to be handled separately in the first place. This isn’t a quick primer for the uninitiated; it’s more like a guided tour through the band’s most revered terrain.
Is it a perfect collection? Not really. There are omissions you could quibble over, and the sequencing feels a bit like it’s trying to have it both ways—appealing to die-hards while also tossing a bone to newcomers. But if you see it as an introduction aimed at the curious listener, it’s pretty successful. You get a representative slice of what made Yes such a distinctive, sometimes challenging, always ambitious band. And for a casual buyer wandering into the record store in the early ’80s, it was a smart move to offer something that wasn’t just *another* sprawling double live album or a tangle of dense studio epics without any context.
In the streaming era—where you can instantly assemble your own Yes playlist, or choose from countless other compilations—Classic Yes has become a bit of an artifact. It may even be out of print. But for its time, it was a thoughtful, well-chosen gateway into the band’s catalog. If it converted even a few casual listeners into full-blown fans, then it more than did its job.
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