Audio Mixer: Jack Joseph Puig.

Audio Remasterer: Evren Göknar.

Liner Note Author: Richard Bienstock.

Recording information: Capitol Studios, Hollywood, CA (11/2005).

Photographers: Jeffrey Mayer; Winfried Wisniewski; William Hames; Pete Leonard; Mark Weiss; Josh Westrich; Henry Horenstein; Harry Vorsteher; Annamaria DiSanto; Henry Diltz.

The glam metal band Poison's 20-year retrospective includes early hits like "Cry Tough," "Look What the Cat Dragged In," and "Talk Dirty to Me," as well as the old-school "Your Mama Don't Dance" and their version of Kiss's "Rock and Roll All Nite." Wide ranging in its scope and surprisingly contemporary-sounding, this collection is a worthy musical backdrop to two decades of public fist fights, car wrecks, splits and reunions.

It's hard to believe that through all of the debauchery, inner turmoil, and excess, Poison is still a fully functioning rock entity with all of its original members intact. It's also surprising that when looking back over that time, the group has managed to accumulate an impressive plethora of hits, especially during the peak of their career. This Best of Poison: 20 Years of Rock collection manages to trim down the excess and minor hits of the later portion of their career (which were prominently featured on Poison's Greatest Hits 1986-1996) and instead focuses on the best of their early years, which is where they unquestionably were at their best. Every single hit you could ever want or need is included here, and there's also a cover of Grand Funk Railroad's "We're an American Band" that works surprisingly well. This is probably the best compilation of Poison's work out there, and a great way to get all of the hits together on one disc. ~ Rob Theakston

Poison enjoyed a rare resurgence in the mid-2000s, with their greatest-hits compilation charting in the Billboard Top 20 and their covers album (the surprisingly likable Poison'd!) selling over 20,000 copies in its first week. To top it off, Bret Michaels spent the summer of 2007 as a rechristened television star, giving VH1 some of its highest ratings ever with the reality dating show Rock of Love. Poison may be an aging band, but the bandmates (as well as their label, Capitol Records) are far from stupid; they know to strike when the iron's hot, and -- in an attempt to make more dough off material that has already been released -- they've combined several discs into this Holiday Gift Pack. The Best of Poison: 20 Years of Rock and Poison'd! are both included, as is the Greatest Video Hits DVD that first appeared in 2001 and was later packaged with deluxe versions of the Best Of comp. Most Poison fans already own this material, and the no-frills packaging and lack of fancy liner notes make a poor case for purchasing it again. But for those who first encountered Poison through the Rock of Love series, Holiday Gift Pack is a good introduction to the band's audio and visual appeal, complete with 30-plus tracks of blue-collar hair metal and 17 glitzy videos. ~ Andrew Leahey