A distinguished collection of Skynyrd's best works. Sweet Home Alabama, What's Your Name, That Smell and Down South Jukin' all fit the bill perfectly. Has included also the classic Tuesday's Gone, an acclaimed track not arranged with say the Skynyrd's Innyrds compilation. Only thing that could have been improved upon is if Gimme Three Steps, I Ain't The One and Free Bird had been classified (Live) on the CD label cover. Don't think would have been that substantial an effort by MCA to let potential buyers become aware or familiar with such song details. Free Bird sounds effective in this crowd interactive mode, but as another reviewer claimed, Gimme Three Steps especially would have been more ideal as done in its studio-recording format. I neither favor nor denounce I Ain't The One, so its energy-acoustic Live rendition didn't pose that great a difference/impact to me...

This is an excellent compilation....my only gripe is that it contains the live version of the tune "Gimme Three Steps" which I honestly believe to be the finest song ever written. The live version is good, but the studio version is genius. Thankfully, there is a lot of other great material to be found here. Some Skynyrd is required for any self-respecting rock collection...start here.

I'm not sure why this album is a double-disc (probably because of the 14-minute version of Free Bird), but it only has eight tracks on each disc. Given the basic premise (a collection of their most successful releases), the album is solid. However, several of their better, less-known songs like "The Ballad of Curtis Lowe" are excluded. The highlight of the album is "Simple Man," which I consider to be their best song.

If you're looking for the best Lynyrd Skynyrd greatest hits album (from among the dozens that have been released over the years), keep looking. But if you just want a solid collection of some of their most famous work, this album does the job.

I bought Lynyrd Skynyrd's Gold & Platinum when it was released on L.P. in 1979 when I was a cash strapped 16 year old (it was undoubtedly the best 9 bucks I ever spent) and have listened to it regularly ever since. In short, this was and still is one of the greatest "best of" albums ever made. I am familiar with Lynyrd Skynyrd's entire catalogue of music and there is practically nothing that I would change if I were asked to come up with sixteen representative songs, except for maybe a couple of minor nitpicks. Gold & Platinum, along with One More From the Road, covers most of the essential Lynyrd Skynyrd material, although non-cash strapped hard-core fans will want all of Skynyrd's original six albums (Pronounced Leh-Nerd Skin-Nerd, Second Helping, Nothing Fancy, Gimme Back My Bullets, Street Survivors, One More From the Road) plus First.

As for RCQ2's comment/complaint that each disc contains only about 45 minutes of music, one should remember that this was a release from the "20-minutes-a-side" L.P. era. To MCA's credit, they did not monkey with the song listings, either cutting a song or two to make it fit on one CD or adding filler songs to "justify" the two CDs. They left it alone, and I appreciate that. The L.P. included song lyrics and musician listings for every song. These are not included with the CD, which is a negative.

As for DogsofWar3's comments that there are "too many live songs" I would rebut by saying that there are three live songs out of a total of sixteen songs. Furthermore, among the three songs that are live on this collection (I Ain't the One, Gimme Three Steps, and Free Bird) the live versions are vastly superior to the studio versions. Had MCA included the live version of say, Sweet Home Alabama, instead of the studio version, a legitimate complaint could be made.

If you want the best studio version of Free Bird, you are going to have to buy Lynyrd Skynyrd's First.

In conclusion, Gold & Platinum would make a fine addition to any potential Lynyrd Skynyrd fan's CD collection.

GOLD AND PLATINUM is a great collection of Lynyrd Skynyrd's classic 70s material. However, many classics, especially from SECOND HELPING, are missing. It would be better to start with THE ESSENTIAL LYNYRD SKYNYRD.