The album is a collection of some of Springsteen's hit singles and popular album tracks through the years. Springsteen released a similar Greatest Hits album in 1995. Unlike the previous release, this album is billed to "Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band", the first time Springsteen's backing band has been credited with a compilation release. As such, it contains no Springsteen material recorded between 1984 and 2002, during which period he did virtually no studio recording with the E Street Band.[4]
Springsteen's association with Wal-Mart drew puzzled reactions from the media, given the singer's longtime support for labor causes and the company's longtime anti-union actions.[5]Huffington Post writer Tony Sachs pronounced the release one of the "top five boneheaded music industry moves of 2008",[6] while The Wall Street Journal wrote that it reflected the duality of "the liberal singer-songwriter and the commercial juggernaut recording artist."[7] Longtime Springsteen writer Charles R. Cross said that fans were now more accepting of such blatant commercial strategies given the overall slump in the music business.[7] Nevertheless, the release did draw criticism from some fans as well as from labor union activists and independent record store owners.[7][8] In response, Springsteen manager Jon Landau said, "[L]et's start with the premise that Bruce is already in Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart has been 15% of our sales in recent years. It's not a question of going into Wal-Mart; we're there. They, and other retailers, are all looking for some way to differentiate themselves, and we try to accommodate each one. We're not doing any advertising for Wal-Mart. We haven't endorsed Wal-Mart or anybody else."[8] But then Springsteen himself, during publicity for his appearance at Super Bowl XLIII, admitted that they "dropped the ball" with the association with Wal-Mart, and attributed it to insufficient vetting due to too many activities going on.[9]
Track listing
All songs written by Bruce Springsteen except where noted.
