This is a great collection of songs by The Smiths - but the remastering has ruined the best aspects of the original recordings. For example "Hand In Glove", which for me had just about the snappiest and most memorable snare sound (courtesy of producer John Porter), but the remastered version reduces the snare to a soul-less dull thud. All the highs from the cymbals and guitar have gone too.

Perhaps the "Very Best Of.." producers were only interested in forming a unified sound to this whole album, but they've shown no regard for the integrity of the original recordings - and as good as the Smiths were, to me it was their original producers who made their music sound so appealing.

This compilation still gets 4 stars for the songs themselves, which are all winners, but I would recommend all of the original recordings as being far superior in both fidelity and style.

There are a lot of fans doing a lot of bellyaching over this comp and I don't get it. There are 3 post band break-up "hits" comps out there, none of them have been "OK'd" by Morrissey or Marr, this one has better sound and more songs. Every A side is here, as are 5 extra "shoulda been A-sides". Comparing the sound on this with the sound on "Singles" is like night and day. You can program this to play in the order the songs were released if you're really that cranky over the random order of the tunes. Until RHINO does a proper anthology this is the best single disc comp. out there. I knocked off one star because this is an unauthorized overview, but I have a pretty good hunch that this is pretty much the same CD that Marr n' Mozz would have thrown together themselves. Keep in mind that there are no "official" Smiths T-shirts out there either but everyone seems to have one. Fans, product, supply, demand, oldest story in the book.

Warner Bros. did a lousy job splitting up the hits of the Smiths into two fairly short volumes. You should save your money and space on your shelf and just get this one. Any Smiths fan would be hard pressed to find a hit missing on this CD, although "Cemetary Gates" and "The Queen Is Dead" would have been welcomed. Even so, if you only had one album to represent the band, this is well worth the cash. Plus the remastering is excellent.

I know the story behind this release and all the crap it got from the actual members of the band. This release was not authorized or approved by the band and I believe it's actually out of print. Anyway onto the music itself. Despite what critics and elitists say this is definitely the one "Best Of..." collection from The Smiths that you should get. It has every track from the 'Singles' compilation plus 5 more to boot. It also contains a much much more interesting booklet inside with actual lyrics and pictures of their discography along with track titles from those respective releases.

For a big Smiths fan like myself I have every album and rarities there is to find. But whenever I want to carry one cd in the car with me or for travel I carry this one. It has all the most recognizeable songs on it and I'm happy with that. Now for anyone who hasn't heard of The Smiths and wants to get into them this is a great introduction to the band and the one to get before you become a convert. The only gripe I have is the album cover, it's almost a bad imitation of a Smiths cover but once you hear the music and check out the booklet you forget that. Don't listen to negative reviews or press. An absolute must buy.

This is a great compilation of the best (arguably!) Smiths tunes for fans who do not own any Smiths CD's. It's hard to pick the best Smiths tracks, but this one has most of the tracks from the two Best Of collections.

The initial "reviewer" of this album really needs to get a music encyclopedia and read up on the Smiths, because the review was awful and completely missed the sound of the Smiths. FAR from grunge, the Smiths came out of the New Wave era and scoffed at the wasteland of pop and rock music in the eighties, blowing off trendy music and combining a rock/ska/pop sound with dark, hilarious lyrics.

Smiths fans can appreciate this compilation, and if you're one of the rising number of new Smiths fans, this CD is a great starting point.