The Best of The Byrds: Greatest Hits, Volume II is the third greatest hits album by the American rock band the Byrds, but only the second to be released in the United States, since the earlier The Byrds' Greatest Hits Volume II had only been issued in the UK. The album was released in the U.S. by Columbia Records on November 10, 1972 (see 1972 in music) in lieu of any new Byrds' product during that year.

Contents

The Best of The Byrds: Greatest Hits, Volume II was released just prior to the highly publicized reunion of the five original members of the Byrds. The album featured a number of the band's U.S. charting singles, including "Ballad of Easy Rider" (number 65), "Jesus Is Just Alright" (number 97), "Chestnut Mare" (number 121), and "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" (number 74). However, since none of these singles reached the U.S. Top 40, they couldn't really be considered bona fide hits.

The Best of The Byrds: Greatest Hits, Volume II was re-issued on CD in 1990, but is currently out of print. The album's cover photograph was later reused for a UK double album compilation named History of The Byrds.

Press reaction to the compilation was largely lukewarm, with Bud Scoppa, writing for Rolling Stone magazine, criticizing the album's song selection: "If you were asked to put together an anthology album of one of the longest-lived, most productive rock groups ever, and you had the total output of the group to choose from, I'll bet you wouldn't come up with anything remotely resembling this album. It's not that the obvious selections aren't included, it's that so little else is." Music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine described the album in his review for the Allmusic website as "not a bad sampling of the Byrds' final years, but Sweetheart of the Rodeo itself offers a better summation of the musical direction the Byrds took after 1967."

  1. "Wasn't Born to Follow" (Gerry Goffin, Carole King) – 2:00
  2. "Jesus Is Just Alright" (Arthur Reynolds) – 2:09
  3. "He Was a Friend of Mine" (traditional, new words and arrangement Roger McGuinn) – 2:32
  4. "Chestnut Mare" (Roger McGuinn, Jacques Levy) – 5:09

Side 2

  1. "Tiffany Queen" (Roger McGuinn) – 2:42
  2. "Drug Store Truck Drivin' Man" (Roger McGuinn, Gram Parsons) – 3:52
  3. "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" (Bob Dylan) – 2:35
  4. "Citizen Kane" (Skip Battin, Kim Fowley) – 2:33
  5. "I Wanna Grow Up to Be a Politician" (Roger McGuinn, Jacques Levy) – 2:03
  6. "America's Great National Pastime" (Skip Battin, Kim Fowley) – 3:00

References