Standard Weight Black Vinyl

Chrysalis returns the Waterboys' first retrospective to vinyl on standard-weight black wax, in a 3mm spine sleeve with a printed inner. The compilation first appeared on 29 April 1991 and gathers twelve tracks that Mike Scott selected himself, drawn from sessions recorded between May 1982 and February 1990 and running a little over fifty-three minutes.

Chrysalis built it to solve a specific problem. A survey the label ran among album buyers found that eleven percent counted themselves Waterboys fans while one percent owned a Waterboys record. "The band have a great reputation and they've released five albums, but people don't know where to start," the label's head of marketing Jason Guy told Music Week in 1991. "This compilation solves that problem." A reissued single of "The Whole of the Moon" went out ahead of it and reached No. 3 on the UK Singles Chart, a press campaign began on 22 April and a television campaign followed. The album reached No. 2 on the UK Albums Chart and No. 11 on the European Top 100.

Scott compiled it himself, and said so plainly. Speaking to Melody Maker in 1991 he called the project "a very un-Waterboys thing to do, but I didn't have any choice. They had the right by contract, some loophole in the contract. I couldn't stop them, so I thought I would get involved. I compiled the album myself." He listed what would not fit: "The Pan Within," "December," "Savage Earth Heart," "A Pagan Place," "Rags" and "The Stolen Child."

The sequence runs from the band's early Big Music period into the Celtic folk-rock of the Fisherman's Blues band. Scott wrote all twelve songs, with Karl Wallinger co-writing "Don't Bang the Drum," Steve Wickham co-writing "Fisherman's Blues" and Anthony Thistlethwaite co-writing "Strange Boat." "Old England" is a live recording made at Barrowlands in Glasgow in March 1989, and "A Man Is in Love" incorporates "Kaliope House." Chrysalis's own notes describe "Killing My Heart" as an exclusive outtake and put UK sales of the original release above 100,000 copies. The original booklet reproduced the band's five studio album sleeves and their track listings, so that a buyer could work backwards into the catalogue from whatever they liked here.

The sleeve and labels on this pressing are set as '81-'91. The album has been catalogued as '81-'90 since its 1991 release, and nothing on it was recorded after February 1990.

Tracklist

Side A

1. A Girl called Johnny
2. The Big Music
3. All the Things she gave Me
4. The Whole of the Moon
5. Spirit
6. Don't Bang the Drum

Side B

1. Fisherman's Blues
2. Killing My Heart
3. Strange Boat
4. And a Bang on the Ear
5. Old England
6. A Man Is in Love

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Last updated: 2/6/26

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Last updated: 2/6/26