Producers include: Bruce Springsteen, Mike Appel, Jon Landau, Steve Van Zandt, Chuck Plotkin.

Engineers: Louis Lahav, Jimmy Iovine, Neil Dorfsman, Toby Scott.

Includes liner notes by Bruce Springsteen.

"Streets Of Philadelphia" won 1995 Grammy Awards for Song Of The Year, Best Male Rock Vocal Performance, Best Rock Song and Best Song Written Specifically For A Motion Picture Or For Television. "Streets Of Philadelphia" was also nominated for Record Of The Year.

Personnel: Bruce Springsteen (vocals, guitar, electric guitar, harmonica, keyboards, percussion, background vocals); Steve VanZandt, Steven Van Zandt (guitar, acoustic guitar, mandolin, background vocals); Nils Lofgren (guitar); Clarence Clemons (saxophone, percussion, background vocals); Roy Bittan (piano, Fender Rhodes piano, keyboards, synthesizer, glockenspiel, background vocals); Danny Federici (piano, organ, keyboards, glockenspiel); David Sancious (keyboards); Garry Tallent (bass guitar, background vocals); Max Weinberg (drums, percussion, background vocals); Jeff Porcaro (drums, percussion); Ernest Carter, Gary Mallaber (drums); Frank Pagano (percussion); Mike Appel, Patti Scialfa, Soozie Tyrell, Lisa Lowell (background vocals).

Audio Mixers: Chuck Plotkin; Jimmy Iovine; Toby Scott; Bob Clearmountain.

Audio Remasterer: Bob Ludwig.

Recording information: HIt Factory; The Hit Factory, New York, NY.

Editor: Brian Lee.

Photographers: Jim Marchese; Frank Stefanko; Pamela Springsteen; David Gahr; Eric Meola; Annie Leibovitz; David Rose.

Here's the challenge in putting together a Bruce Springsteen compilation: Though he scored 18 Top 40 hits (12 of which made the Top Ten) through 1994, Springsteen is not a "singles artist." Some of his biggest hits have come with his slightest or least characteristic material; he has written numerous songs that were hits for other artists; and some of his most memorable songs were not released as singles. While a Springsteen "hits" collection logically would contain such Top Ten singles as "I'm on Fire" and his cover of Edwin Starr's "War, " few Springsteen fans would miss their omission; on the other hand, many would support the inclusion of "Blinded by the Light" and "Pink Cadillac, " Top Ten hits for Manfred Mann's Earth Band and Natalie Cole; and anyone even remotely familiar with Springsteen's albums and concerts would have trouble countenancing the absence of such non-singles as "Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)" and "Thunder Road." Facing this challenge, Springsteen has adopted his own set of criteria: First, he seems to have wanted to pack as much music onto a single disc as possible (the result, a CD-busting 76:47 running time); second, he seems to have wanted to include as many tracks as possible, even if that means editing songs (the result, 18 tracks are included, though five have been substantially shortened -- "My Hometown" [by 24 seconds], "Glory Days" [by 29 seconds], "Human Touch" [by 82 seconds], "Better Days" [by 23 seconds], and "Streets of Philadelphia" [by 60 seconds]); third, like many artists, he is more interested in including his recent material than his older material (the result, there is nothing from Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. or The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle -- no "Blinded by the Light, " "Spirit in the Night, " "4th of July, Asbury Park [Sandy], " or "Rosalita [Come Out Tonight]" -- but both sides of his 1992 single "Human Touch"/"Better Days" are included); fourth, he has not felt bound to interpret the album's title to mean he must include his most successful singles the Top 40 hits "Prove It All Night, " "One Step Up" and the Top Tens "Cover Me, " "I'm on Fire, " "I'm Goin' Down, " "War, " and "Tunnel of Love" are left off, while the album tracks "Thunder Road, " "The River, " and "Atlantic City" and the minor chart single "Badlands" are included); and fifth, he has opted to include both a couple of new songs ("Secret Garden" and "Blood Brothers"), a previously unreleased outtake ("Murder Incorporated"), and a new recording of a previously unreleased old song ("This Hard Land"). All of which is to say that Greatest Hits is a hodge-podge that, while not without merit, is nevertheless unsatisfactory in several ways. Springsteen considered calling it something other than Greatest Hits (one idea: This Hard Land), and that might have been a better idea if he was going to fiddle with the concept this much. Some of Springsteen's best and best-known hit recordings are here -- "Born to Run, " "Hungry Heart, " "Dancing in the Dark, " "Born in the U.S.A., " and the recent "Streets of Philadelphia, " the success of which probably prompted the release of a compilation. But many worthy tracks are missing, and the new selections don't justify the hoopla surrounding the surprising and temporary reunion of Springsteen's celebrated backup group, the E Street Band. ~ William Ruhlmann

Compiling a greatest-hits collection for Bruce Springsteen should be an easy task, yet Greatest Hits manages to miss the mark. Nothing from his first two albums is included, and the set includes such non-hits as "Atlantic City" and "The River" instead of hits like "Cover Me," "Tunnel of Love," and "Fade Away." In fact, a good portion of his hits are missing, as are important album tracks like "Backstreets," "Rosalita," and "Candy's Room," making this neither a straight hits collection nor a compilation of his best tracks. What's left are some of his biggest hits and best songs ("Born to Run," "Glory Days," "The River"), but not all of them, as well as four new tracks, the best of which is an outtake from the Born in the U.S.A. sessions ("Murder Incorporated"). Aside from "Murder Incorporated," the new tracks follow the synth-laden adult contemporary direction Springsteen began pursuing with "Streets of Philadelphia," only without the lyricism or melody. So, it's a mixed bag, drawing an incomplete portrait of one of the prime rockers of the '70s onward. Although voluminous by comparison, the three-disc The Essential Bruce Springsteen released in 2003 is a far better choice. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

You can grumble about the early romps that aren't here--what, no "Rosalita"?--or about your favorite B-side not being included, but the fact is these are the songs that have lasted through Bruce Springsteen's first two decades, and you could hardly ask for more Springsteen on a single disc. This really is the cream.

The four blockbusters that open GREATEST HITS weren't actually hits--"Born To Run" peaked at #23 on the charts, "Badlands" didn't break the top 40, and the other two weren't singles at all--but they laid down the rules for all the hits that followed and they've remained concert and rock radio staples. "Born To Run" wraps a restless American dream into one of the most rollicking rock 'n' roll singles ever made; the latter couple find the dreamer waking up and finding real folk struggling with that dream everywhere he looks. What follows is one of the greatest strings of singles to ever deal head-on with that confrontation between dreams and realities.

The four new songs on GREATEST HITS find Springsteen finally finding a way to incorporate his E Street Band--which hadn't performed on a studio album for 11 years before this--into his current infatuation with mellower, though no less hard-hitting rock. "Murder Incorporated" is actually an E Street outtake from 1982, and it's an all-out, searing track. The others, all 1995 recordings (though "This Hard Land" was also written in the early eighties) form a cycle about unrealized dreams, in love, friendship and life.