Greatest Hits

This two-CD Belgian compilation of the recordings of Jefferson Airplane, Jefferson Starship, and Starship skips a baker's dozen of the protean group's American singles chart entries, but only two of the missing, Jefferson Airplane's "Watch Her Ride" and Jefferson Starship's "Winds of Change," scraped into the lower rungs of the Top 40 on one of the national charts. And in their place are some key Jefferson Airplane and Jefferson Starship album tracks ("Embryonic Journey," "Plastic Fantastic Lover," "Wooden Ships," "Third Week in the Chelsea," "Caroline"), plus the occasional rarity -- such as the non-LP Jefferson Airplane B-side "Have You Seen the Saucers" -- that doesn't really belong on an album called Greatest Hits. Of course, the real question, which other collections of this sort have posed, is whether it is really appropriate to put the acid rock '60s hits of Jefferson Airplane on the same album with the arena rock '80s hits of Starship. There is a continuous, chronological line that connects the recordings, and as heard here, the development in the group's sound is gradual. But by the end of the second CD, when none of the members of the group heard at the beginning of the first CD are present anymore, an entirely different entity with entirely different musical goals is performing. Nevertheless, by including all the major hits and many of the best tracks of the three related acts, the album earns its title. ~ William Ruhlmann|