Consumer Guide Album

Paul Simon: Greatest Hits, Etc. [Columbia, 1977]
Including only two cuts from the must-own Paul Simon plus the live version of a third, adding two quizzical new songs, and unerringly selecting the most durable tracks from Rhymin' Simon and Still Crazy--I'd replace the overly quizzical (or else arrogantly insular) "Have a Good Time" with "Was a Sunny Day" (pure bliss plus Roches) or "You're Kind" (the fifty-first way to leave your lover), but that's a matter of personal ideology, and the omission of S&G's actually-a-hit "My Little Town" more than makes up. In short, fourteen good-to-great pop tunes for our time. A