When an artist has been around as long as Billy Idol, there are bound to be a ton of Greatest Hits Compilations. Billy is no exception to that rule. There are legitimate, very well thought out compilations and then there is not. This is the later. ’10 Great Songs’ is a Budget Compilation by the record companies that has been released over the years and a ton of artists have their own version. This particular package was originally released in 2009 on EMI with a different cover and slightly different track listing. My version is from 2010 on Capitol Records and it actually has the same track listing and even order as the 2014 issue that was called ’20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection’.
The 10 songs here are all from his prime period, The 1980’s. There was a collection released in 1988 in the UK called ’11 of the Best’ and that set has all the songs ’10 Great Songs’ does plus one extra (“Don’t Need a Gun”). That should tell you that this collection is nothing special and nothing you haven’t already seen before. There are only two people that buy this type of CD. One – the very casual fan that is willing to spend a lot of money for a basic set of hits to whet their appetite. Two – people like me who collect everything from an artist. I already have the ’11 of the Best’ CD’ and if I saw the 20th Century Masters’ one, I’d buy it too.
The opening track is the title song “Rebel Yell” which actually opened the ‘Rebel Yell’ album. It is a scorcher of a song, high energy and attitude. The opening of the song is all done with the guitar even though it sounds like both a guitar and a keyboard. Steve is showing off right out of the gate. Vocally, Billy is on fire and you can see his lip curling up while he is signing which is amazing as it is on vinyl. “Rebel Yell” was actually inspired by the Rolling Stones according to Billy on VH1 Storytellers. Billy was at a party thrown by the Stones and everyone was drinking Rebel Yell Bourbon Whiskey. I guess he loved that whiskey (along with a lot of drugs at the time).
The first single on ‘Whiplash Smile’ was a cover of William Bell’s “To Be A Lover” which was co-written by Booker T. Jones back in 1968. Billy completely modernized the song and turned it in to a dance track. It has some great soulful female backing vocals and fancy piano riffs and an all around fantastic track. The song is actually quite poignant in that with his longtime girlfriend leaving him since he “forgot to be a lover” with his drug use and sexcapades with other women. It felt like he was confessing that he screwed up.
Continue reading “Billy Idol – ’10 Great Songs’ (2010) – Album Review (The Billy Idol Series)”
2 Loud 2 Old Music 