"All Time Greatest Hits" is proof of this band's lasting legacy, tragically ended in a 1977 plane crash that killed lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, whose awesome voice was matched only by his songwriting genius; third guitarist Steve Gaines, whose addition to the band added zest and maturity; his sister Cassie, who sang background; and original tour manager Dean Kilpatrick. What an infinite loss for the music world, and how lucky we are to be able to listen to the music they left behind.

Because this collection is the band's greatest hits, all are familiar and well-loved, from "Sweet Home Alabama" to "What's Your Name" to "Free Bird," a magnificent live version that simply tears your heart out. But I love "The Ballad of Curtis Lowe," which Van Zant wrote with Allen Collins, an ode to the unsung heroes of the blues; and "Comin' Home," haunting in retrospect.

Really, I cannot say enough about this band and their music, and I recommend this collection to fans of the band as well as those whose only connection to their hits is "Sweet Home Alabama."

47 of 54 found the following review helpful:


You Can Find Better  Nov 01, 2000 By Bill R. Moore
Obviously, since this does indeed have many of Skynyrd's best songs on it, it is going to be a good album. However, it is not the best Skynyrd "best of" album that you can find. It could've been a lot better. For instance, Tuesday's Gone, my all-time favorite LS track isn't on this disc at all! Neither is the studio version of Freebird! To have a Skynyrd disc that is missing those two songs and to call it "All Time Greatest Hits" is blasphemy! Get The Essential Lynyrd Skynyrd instead.

32 of 36 found the following review helpful:


How about an easy-to-read track list?  Mar 31, 2011 By Roy F. Johnson
Tracks:

1. Sweet Home Alabama
2. Gimme Three Steps
3. Simple Man
4. Saturday Night Special
5. Swamp Music
6. The Ballad of Curtis Lowe
7. Call Me the Breeze
8. Comin' Home
9. Gimme Back My Bullets
10. What's Your Name
11. You Got That Right
12. All I Can Do Is Write About It
13. That Smell
14. Free Bird (live)

51 of 61 found the following review helpful:


Really 3.5 Stars For All Time Greatest Hits...  Dec 24, 2005 By Uncle_Audio
Whenever any band produces a 'greatest hits' album they run the risk of eliminating sales of many of their earlier releases. With this 'greatest hits' I think many of the tracks chosen are really not the best of those particular songs. If you're looking for a great live "Free Bird," it's not here! The positive aspects of this release are the great cross-section of songs chosen, and not the particular rendition. One of the things that sets a band like Lynyrd Skynyrd apart from the rest of the Southern Rock crowd is their musical and lyrical integrity. Tracks that really shine are, "Simple Man," "That Smell" and "Saturday Night Special". This band went way out on a limb with their anti hand-gun track "Saturday Night Special." This song was released at a time when the NRA and the gun lobby enjoyed almost unparalleled influence within the halls of Congress. I think that your money might be better spent by shelling out a couple of bucks more for the 'The Essential Lynyrd Skynyrd' a two-CD set. This set has all the same releases as the 'greatest hits' yet there are almost twice as many tracks for a few dollars more. Many would say the reason why this band was so popular in the seventies; was that they played live and sounded decent, although sometimes fairly raw, when live too. In that vein, you might also want to consider a live release as the best way to really hear what the band could do with their studio material. My pick for the live album would be; "One More from the Road". What makes a choice like this extremely hard is the fact that this band is probably the most over-produced and over-released band in the Southern Rock genre. Amazon alone has over (80) releases listed for sale. Which amounts to a whole lot of redundancy for a band with about (45) songs! Unfortunately, none of the original 1970's releases are still offered here on Amazon as un-remastered original vinyl recordings on CD. If by some chance you have an opportunity to hear this band from a still-good vinyl release, by all means get it to a good sound system and crank it up. But alas, all that may be left is a good bunch of Rice Krispies from vinyl these days? At least with the way we used to treat our records in the 1970's!

11 of 12 found the following review helpful:


The Definitive Collection  Dec 18, 2006 By Carlos Rodriguez
This CD is all you really need from Lynyrd Skynrd. It contains 14 of their greatest songs and each one is a classic. There are no fillers on this album. It's filled with hit after hit of some of the best southern rock ever recorded. All of the songs are classics as I said but one song that I'm happy that they included in this collection is "All I Can Do Is Write About It" (acoustic version). This is one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard. The words are simple and yet deeply moving and powerful. Listen to this song carefully and it will touch your heart like it did mine. The CD opens with what is probably one of the most famous songs in the classic rock pantheon "Sweet Home Alabama". This one is considered to be a rock n'roll anthem and I completely agree. Overall this is an album that every fan of classic rock should not be without. This is Lynyrd Skynyrd at their very best and beyond.

See all 86 customer reviews on Amazon.com