Truth be told, most of the best of Yes could be had by purchasing three albums; "The Yes Album," "Fragile" and "90125." Most of the rest of the Yes catalog contains a long of overlong bloated art rock and precious little in the way of rock energy. Nevertheless, they did manage to come up with an interesting song now and again, and this album gets most of them down. Half of the tracks are from the above three above-mentioned albums (hey, they can take a hint). The best of these are "Starship Trouper," "I've Seen all Good People" and of course, "Owner of a Lonely Heart," their biggest selling single. Of the other stuff, "Survival" and "Time and a Word" are good early tracks, while the edit of "Soon" (cutting an excruciating twenty-five minute snooze into a decent four minutes) "Wonderous Stories" and the relatively rocking "Going for the One" are excellent choices. The album ends with the single "Rhythm of Love" which was the highlight of 1986's dull "Big Generator" album.

Overall, this is one of the best single disc "Best of" albums I've run across. Of course, rabid fans will want their box set, but this is plenty for most casual fans.

I was seeking the best stuff from the 70s and early 80s. I wanted that unique sound and style that made them great. This album is all you need if you are a casual fan or not. "Starship Trooper","I've seen all good people" and "Roundabout" are supreme displays of this bands ability and far reaching songwriting and talent.

Yes, "Yes" is an album band and you should buy them all, but if you're looking for a single disc collection, this is pretty good. Even at just 12 tracks, it does at least include their biggest hits. "I've Seen All Good People", "Roundabout", "Long Distance Runaround", and the huge hit "Owner Of A Lonely Heart" are all included. Me being a child of the 80's, I'm really glad this has "Leave It" and "Rhythm Of Love", but I wish it also had "It Can Happen" and "Love Will Find A Way". Oh well, what can you do. One thing for sure, the last three tracks sound very 80's, while the rest of course has that 70's feel to it, which I guess makes sense. Overall this is an excellent dose of classic rock, and a good sampling of classic "Yes".

But it is a good introduction to an ordinary music fans who are not accustomed to grand scale prog masterpieces. As it was released in 1993 when people still remember the glories of 80s great melodic rock masters. And for most of music fans Yes was part of melodic rock history represented by Asia/Survivor styled hits such as Owner of A Lonely Heart, and Love Will Find A Way. If you like 80s melodic rock superstars such as Asia, Survivor, Journey, Styx and Foreigner, it is definitely a must have because it shows progressive rock was fathers to those bands. Particularly Yes influence is immense for the development of melodic rock during late 70s. My favorites from this collection include Survival(very melodic indeed!) and I've Seen All Good People and Leave It as well as No.1 hit Owner of A Lonely Heart. Modern day prog appreciators who love Dream Theater or Transatlantic may, however, need different collections such as Classic Yes.

If you love the bombastic Yes singles that you hear on the classic rock station, but just can't get into the extended compositions on the albums, then this collection ought to do the trick for you. The hits are here; the few obscurities are well-chosen; and the duds (like from off of _Tormato_) are avoided. This stripped-down setting portrays the band's truly amazing instrumental virtuosity to all the better effect. It also testifies to their durability, tracing their career from late '60s mysticism, high baroque art-rock, to MTV pop smarts. This is only a part of Yes' career, but if the singles are the part that interest you, this is the disk to get.