WAR UPGRADES TO GREATEST HITS 2.0
Career-Spanning 2-CD And 2-LP Sets Available On October 29 Feature Legendary Songs Like “Spill The Wine,” “Low Rider,” “Galaxy,” And “Why Can’t We Be Friends?”
The Band’s 50th Anniversary Celebration Continues This Month With Two Streaming Events On YouTube With Founding/Current Member Lonnie Jordan
It began on July 16 when WAR’s 2007 concert at the Grove in Anaheim was streamed in its entirety on www.YouTube.com/war. During the event, Lonnie Jordan (a founding and current member of WAR) and WAR producer/songwriter Jerry Goldstein shared their memories of the concert and answered fan’s questions in the chat section.
Tomorrow, a newly-produced retrospective celebrating 50 years of WAR will be streamed on www.YouTube.com/war at 3 p.m. EST, culminating in a live sing-a-long event bringing fans from all over the world together online. It features a Q&A session with Lonnie Jordan and Jerry Goldstein, who helped start the band and produced all of its albums. Other highlights include testimonials from artists influenced by WAR, a sing-a-long opportunity with the newly upgraded 4K video for “Why Can’t We Be Friends?” and an exclusive preview of WAR’s GREATEST HITS 2.0.
Rhino will release GREATEST HITS 2.0 on October 29 as a 2-CD set ($14.98) and a 2-LP set ($31.98). The collection will also be available on all digital download and streaming services and is available for pre-order now.
The CD version has 24 tracks recorded between 1970 and 1994, including the gold-certified singles “Slipping Into Darkness,” “The World Is A Ghetto,” “The Cisco Kid,” and “Summer.” Another gold single, “Why Can’t We Be Friends?” stayed on the charts for 31 weeks and became the soundtrack to the US-Soviet space mission where astronauts and cosmonauts linked up in the spirit of friendship. In the modern era, it has been streamed more than 100 million times. Also included is the #1 R&B smash “Low Rider,” which was inducted into the Grammy® Hall of Fame in 2014. The LP version is slightly shorter with 20 tracks. (See below for LP and CD track listings.)
In the collection’s liner notes, Los Angeles Times columnist Gustavo Arellano says GREATEST HITS 2.0 does more than capture WAR at its creative and commercial peaks. He writes: “All the big hits are here, of course, in chronological order from the Eric Burdon days up through cuts from 1982’s underrated Outlaw…But what I love about this collection is that it’s a symphonic suite for a perfect Southern California Sunday afternoon, the kind the rest of the world wants to experience but can only dream about. You can envision it by playing these albums from start to finish.”
WAR was created in the late-1960s by producer/songwriter Jerry Goldstein and British singer Eric Burdon, who was then living in Los Angeles and eager to seek out new collaborators after several years with The Animals. Goldstein spotted the musicians who would become WAR playing clubs in L.A. Soon after, Burdon started playing shows with the band and he clicked with the musicians, who were able to back his improvisational flights-of-fancy with the ease of jazz masters. Originally billed as Eric Burdon and WAR, the group would record three albums together: with Eric Burdon Declares “War” (which featured the hit “Spill The Wine”), and the double album, The Black-Man’s Burdon being released to great acclaim followed a number of years later with the vault release of Love Is All Around.
After Burdon left the group in 1971, WAR spun-off on without him, and its career took on a life of its own as its popularity skyrocketed thanks to three consecutive #1 R&B albums: The World Is A Ghetto (Billboard’s best-selling album of 1973), Deliver The Word and Why Can’t We Be Friends?.
GREATEST HITS 2.0
CD Track Listing:
Disc One
1. “Spill The Wine” – Eric Burdon & WAR
2. “Tobacco Road” – Eric Burdon & WAR
3. “All Day Music”
4. “Get Down”
5. “Slippin’ Into Darkness”
6. “The World Is A Ghetto”
7. “The Cisco Kid”
8. “Gypsy Man”
9. “Me And Baby Brother”
10. “Why Can’t We Be Friends?”
11. “Don’t Let No One Get You Down”
12. “Heartbeat”
Disc Two
1. “Low Rider”
2. “So”
3. “Smile Happy”
4. “Summer”
5. “L.A. Sunshine”
6. “Galaxy”
7. “Youngblood (Livin’ In The Streets)”
8. “Good, Good Feelin’”
9. “Cinco De Mayo”
10. “You Got The Power”
11. “Outlaw”
12. “Peace Sign”
GREATEST HITS 2.0
Vinyl Track Listing:
LP One
Side A
1. “Spill The Wine” – Eric Burdon & WAR
2. “Tobacco Road” – Eric Burdon & WAR
3. “All Day Music”
4. “Get Down”
5. “Slippin’ Into Darkness”
Side B
1. “The World Is A Ghetto”
2. “The Cisco Kid”
3. “Gypsy Man”
4. “Me And Baby Brother”
5. “Why Can’t We Be Friends?”
LP Two
Side C
1. “Low Rider”
2. “So”
3. “Don’t Let No One Get You Down”
4. “Smile Happy”
5. “Summer”
Side D
1. “L.A. Sunshine”
2. “Galaxy”
3. “Cinco De Mayo”
4. “You Got The Power”
5. “Outlaw”
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