America: America 50: The Collection (2LP) [RHINO]

Why you'll love it

This 2LP set condenses Rhino's 2019 three-CD anniversary collection into 25 tracks across four sides. It covers the trio's No. 1 hits "A Horse with No Name" and "Sister Golden Hair" and the soft rock classics in between.

This edition

• 2LP set
• 50th anniversary collection

About the album

America is one of rock's better geography puzzles: a band named for the United States that formed in London. Dewey Bunnell, Gerry Beckley and Dan Peek were sons of US Air Force families stationed in England, and they started harmonizing as teenagers before heading west with a stack of acoustic guitars.

Side one opens with "A Horse with No Name," the dusty, hypnotic song that topped the US charts in 1972 and won them the Grammy for Best New Artist, followed by "I Need You" and "Sandman." "Ventura Highway" brings that famous twin-guitar shimmer, and "Muskrat Love" is here in the original version, years before Captain & Tennille made it a hit. The later sides cover the George Martin era, when the Beatles' producer helped them polish "Tin Man," "Lonely People" and "Sister Golden Hair," and the set closes with "You Can Do Magic," their early 1980s comeback hit.

Fifty years on, Beckley and Bunnell were still out on the road playing these songs. Plenty of bands have named themselves after a place; very few have made it sound this much like a long drive with the windows down.

Also at Kops: more America on vinyl · browse Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Rhino, a reissue of the 2019 compilation.