• Songs By The Band Free
• The Band Hit Songs
• The Rock Group Free
• Members Of The Band Free

Listen free to The Band – Greatest Hits (The Weight (Remastered) Explicit, Tears of Rage (Remastered) and more). 18 tracks. A collection of The Band's most time-honoured songs, digitally remastered. A retrospective, with personal anecdotes and home photos is included in the liner notes. Queen's Greatest Hits compilation may just be one of the rock world's most perfect collection of songs. More than any other rock band, before or since, Queen were both a great albums band and a great singles band. They could do it all – heavy rock, pop, opera, disco, gospel – and they did it all brilliantly. Last week, we announced the return of The Band's Robbie Robertson with his fifth studio album—and first in 13 years. Today, we take a look back at the some of the greatest songs he made with The.

Greatest Hits is a compilation album by the Canadian-American rock group The Band. It was released in 2000 on Capitol Records. The album was released in conjunction with remastered versions of the group's first four albums. It draws very heavily from these records, with thirteen of the eighteen tracks selected from Music from Big Pink, The Band, Stage Fright and Cahoots.

Track listing[edit]

• They disbanded in 1973 and lead singer Paul Rodgers went on to become the frontman of the band Bad Company, which also featured his Free bandmate Simon Kirke on drums. Lead guitarist Paul Kossoff formed Back Street Crawler in 1975, but died from a pulmonary embolism at the age of 25 in 1976.
• Stream Greatest Hits by The Band and tens of millions of other songs on all your devices with Amazon Music Unlimited. Exclusive discount for Prime members.

All tracks composed by Robbie Robertson unless otherwise noted.

Songs By The Band Free

Group members and other participants[edit]

• John Simon - producer (tracks 1-8)
• The Band - producers (tracks 9-18)
• Rick Danko - bass, fiddle, vocals (except track 14)
• Levon Helm - drums, mandolin, rhythm guitar, bass, tambourine, vocals
• Garth Hudson - organ, piano, synthesizers, accordion, clavinet, wind instruments, bagpipe chanter, bass pedals
• Richard Manuel - piano, drums, clavinet, organ, harmonica, vocals
• Robbie Robertson - guitars
• John Simon - tuba, tenor saxophone, electric piano, baritone horn (tracks 2, 3, 7 and 8)
• Allen Toussaint - horn arrangements (track 12)
• Billy Mundi - drums (track 14)
• Byron Berline - fiddle (track 17)
• See individual albums for engineering credits.

References[edit]

Free were an English rock band formed in London in 1968, best known for their 1970 signature song 'All Right Now'. They disbanded in 1973 and lead singer Paul Rodgers went on to become the frontman of the band Bad Company, which also featured his Free bandmate Simon Kirke on drums.^[1] Lead guitarist Paul Kossoff formed Back Street Crawler in 1975, but died from a pulmonary embolism at the age of 25 in 1976.^[2] Bassist Andy Fraser formed Sharks.^[3]

Free became renowned for their live shows and non-stop touring. However, their studio albums did not sell very well until their third, Fire and Water, featured the massive hit 'All Right Now'. The song helped secure them a place at the Isle of Wight Festival 1970, where they played to 600,000 people.^[4] In the early 1970s, Free became one of the biggest-selling British blues rock^[5][6][7] groups; by the time they disbanded, they had sold more than 20 million albums around the world and had played more than 700 arena and festival concerts. 'All Right Now' remains a rock staple and has been entered in ASCAP's 'One Million' airplay singles club.^[8][9]

Rolling Stone has referred to the band as 'British hard rock pioneers'.^[10] The magazine ranked Rodgers No. 55 in its list of the '100 Greatest Singers of All Time',^[11] while Kossoff was ranked No. 51 in its list of the '100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time'.^[10] Free were signed to Island Records in the UK and A&M Records in North America. Both labels became part of the PolyGram group in 1989, then Universal Music Group (UMG) in 1998; UMG now controls the band's catalogue worldwide.^[12]

• 1History
• 2Personnel

History[edit]

Formation, early years and breakthrough[edit]

Most remarkable about the birth of Free was the young age of the band members who came together to rehearse and play their first gig on the evening of 19 April 1968 at the Nag's Head pub, which was at the junction of York Road and Plough Road in Battersea, London.^[13] Bass player Andy Fraser was 15 years old, lead guitarist Paul Kossoff was 17, and both lead singer Paul Rodgers and drummer Simon Kirke were 18. Adobe premiere pro with crack. By November of that year, having been given the name Free by Alexis Korner, they had recorded their first album, titled Tons of Sobs, for Island Records and, although it was not released until the following year, the album documents their first six months together and contains studio renditions of much of their early live set. To promote their forthcoming debut album they also opened some gigs at the end of 1968^{[14][circular reference]} for The Who, who played a short theatre tour with Arthur Brown.

Paul Kossoff and Simon Kirke first became friends in the R&B band Black Cat Bones, but they wanted to move on. Paul Kossoff saw vocalist Paul Rodgers singing with Brown Sugar while visiting the Fickle Pickle, an R&B club in London's Finsbury Park. He was immediately impressed and asked if he could jam with Rodgers onstage. Along with Kirke, they began the search for a fourth member. Alexis Korner recommended Andy Fraser to the band; at the age of 15, Fraser had already been playing with John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers. Korner also provided the name 'Free' to the newly formed band.

Unlike their previous albums, Tons of Sobs and Free, their album Fire and Water, released in 1970, was a huge success largely due to its hit single 'All Right Now', which reached No. 1 on the UK rock music charts, No. 2 on the UK singles chart and No. 4 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart.^[15] The album reached No. 2 in the UK charts and No. 17 on the U.S charts, making it the most successful Free album. 'All Right Now' became a No. 1 hit in over 20 territories and was recognised by ASCAP(American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers) in 1990 for garnering 1,000,000 plus radio plays in the US by late 1989. In 2000 an award was given to Paul Rodgers by the British Music Industry when 'All Right Now' passed 2,000,000 radio plays in the UK.^[16]

Highway was their fourth studio album, recorded extremely quickly in September 1970. Highway performed poorly in the charts, reaching No. 41 in the UK and No. 190 in the US.^[17]

First break-up, reformation, and final break-up[edit]

In 1971, due to differences between singer Paul Rodgers and bassist Andy Fraser, where Rodgers felt he wasn't being listened to, the band disbanded.^[18] This led to the release of the live album called Free Live!. In early 1972 the band set aside their differences and reformed in an effort to save Kossoff from his growing drug addiction, and released Free at Last in June of the same year.^[2]

Bassist Andy Fraser left the band in mid-1972 due to Paul Kossoff's unreliability in being able to perform at shows or even showing up. The remaining members recruited Japanese bass player Tetsu Yamauchi and keyboardist John 'Rabbit' Bundrick, who had worked with Kossoff and Kirke during Free's initial split, recording Kossoff, Kirke, Tetsu and Rabbit^[19] and recorded what would be Free's final album, Heartbreaker. Kossoff was replaced by ex-Osibisa guitarist Wendell Richardson for a USA tour in 1973, but shortly thereafter, Free disbanded for good, with Rodgers and Kirke going on to form Bad Company^[20] that same year. Fraser went on to form the band Sharks^[21] and later The Andy Fraser Band, and Kossoff formed the band Back Street Crawler.^[22]

After Free[edit]

With Kossoff in better health again in late 1975, he was delighted that ex-colleagues Rodgers and Kirke asked him to join them on stage for two nights. A British tour was set to begin on 25 April 1976 with Back Street Crawler headlining with Bad Company in support of Back Street Crawler's second album, but again Kossoff's drug addictions contributed to a drastic decline in the guitarist's health. On a flight from Los Angeles to New York City on 19 March 1976, Paul Kossoff died from a pulmonary embolism at the age of 25.^[23] After parting with Bad Company in 1982 Rodgers went on to explore the heavy blues stylings of Free again in his solo career during the 1980s and 1990s, and in the bands The Firm and The Law.^[20]

Subsequently, Rodgers joined two of the three remaining members of Queen (Brian May and Roger Taylor), as vocalist. In September 2008, Queen + Paul Rodgers released their first studio album The Cosmos Rocks. Rodgers also performed Free and Bad Company songs whilst on tour with Queen, in addition to the traditional Queen songs and new cuts from their most recently released album.

Rodgers and Kirke toured again with Bad Company from 2012 to 2016.^[24] Andy Fraser died on 16 March 2015.^[25] In 2017, Paul Rodgers embarked on a Free Spirit UK Tour in May 2017 to celebrate the music of Free by performing songs strictly from the Free catalogue.^{[citation needed]}

Personnel[edit]

Members[edit]

Timeline[edit]

Discography[edit]

• Tons of Sobs (1969)
• Free (1969)
• Fire and Water (1970)
• Highway (1970)
• Free at Last (1972)
• Heartbreaker (1973)

The Band Hit Songs

References[edit]

1. ^'Bad Company Biography'. Badcompany.com. Archived from the original on 14 August 2014. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
2. ^ ^ab'Biography – Paul Kossoff Official Website'. Paulkossoffofficial.com. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
3. ^Joe Viglione. 'First Water – Sharks Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards'. AllMusic. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
4. ^'All Right Now The 1970 Isle of Wight Festival'. YouTube. 1 January 2009. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
5. ^Nick Talevski (7 April 2010). Rock Obituaries – Knocking on Heaven's Door. Omnibus Press. pp. 348–. ISBN978-0-85712-117-2.
6. ^Pete Prown; Harvey P. Newquist (1997). Legends of Rock Guitar: The Essential Reference of Rock's Greatest Guitarists. Hal Leonard Corporation. pp. 76–. ISBN978-0-7935-4042-6.
7. ^John Tobler (1991). Who's who in rock & roll. Crescent Books. p. 1988. ISBN978-0-517-05687-5.
8. ^'iTunes – Music – Paul Rodgers'. Itunes.apple.com. Retrieved 18 April 2014.
9. ^'Information on Paul Rodgers'. Living Legends Music. 28 June 2011. Retrieved 9 July 2011.
10. ^ ^ab'The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time'. Rolling Stone.
11. ^'The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time'. Rolling Stone (1066): 73. 27 November 2008.
12. ^[1]Archived 2 January 2010 at the Wayback Machine
13. ^Johns. 'York Rd Battersea'. Wandsworth Heritage Centre. Retrieved 15 January 2015.
14. ^'The Who Tour 1968 - Wikipedia'. en.m.wikipedia.org. Retrieved 7 January 2019.
15. ^'Song title 912 – All Right Now'. Tsort.info. Retrieved 20 October 2011.
16. ^'QUEEN + PAUL RODGERS TOUR SPRING 2005'. Brianmay.com. 17 December 1949. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
17. ^'Free : Highway'. newburycomics.com. Archived from the original on 8 August 2014. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
18. ^'The Band Free (Band) Official Website'. Freetheband.co.uk. Archived from the original on 17 April 2014. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
19. ^James Chrispell (20 November 2007). 'Kossoff Kirke Tetsu & Rabbit – Kossoff/Kirke/Tetsu/Rabbit Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards'. AllMusic. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
20. ^ ^ab'Bio – Paul Rodgers Official Site'. Paulrodgers.com. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
21. ^'Andy Fraser Free (Band) Official Website'. Freetheband.co.uk. 3 July 1952. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
22. ^Back Street Crawler. 'Back Street Crawler Music Biography, Credits and Discography'. AllMusic. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
23. ^Artist Biography by Greg Prato. 'Paul Kossoff Biography'. AllMusic. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
24. ^'Bad Company Concerts'. Badcompany.com. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
25. ^'Free bassist Andy Fraser dead at 62'. TeamRock. Retrieved 25 August 2015.

External links[edit]

The Rock Group Free

Members Of The Band Free