Greatest Hits
Album by Phil Ochs
Released	February 1970
Recorded	late 1969
Genre	Folk, Country, Rock, Orchestral
Length	37 min 43 sec
Label	A&M
Producer	Van Dyke Parks and Andrew Wickham
Professional reviews
AMG	3/5	link
Phil Ochs Chronology
Rehearsals For Retirement (1969)	Greatest Hits (1970)	Gunfight At Carnegie Hall (1975)

Greatest Hits was Phil Ochs' seventh and final studio album. Contrary to its title, it offered ten new tracks of material, mostly produced by Van Dyke Parks, and was released in 1970. Focusing more on country music than any other album in Ochs' canon, it featured an impressive number of musicians, including members of The Byrds and Elvis Presley's backing group alongside mainstays Lincoln Mayorga and Bob Rafkin. His lyrics at their most introspective, only one political song appeared, "Ten Cents A Coup", strung together from various anti-war rallies, and the least serious song he released in his lifetime. Image File history File links Cover of Phil Ochs seventh album, Greatest Hits. File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... February is the second month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1970 was a common year starting on Thursday. ... 1969 was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1969 calendar). ... Musical genres are categories which contain music which share a certain style or which have certain elements in common. ... Folk can refer to a number of different things: It can be short for folk music, or, for folksong, or, for folklore; it may be a word for a specific people, tribe, or nation, especially one of the Germanic peoples; it might even be a calque on the related German... A country, a land, or a state, is a geographical area that connotes an independent political entity, with its own government, administration, laws, often a constitution, police, military, tax rules, and population, who are one anothers countrymen. ... Rock and roll (also spelled Rock n Roll, especially in its first decade), also called rock, is a form of popular music, usually featuring vocals (often with vocal harmony), electric guitars and a strong back beat; other instruments, such as the saxophone, are common in some styles. ... Orchestra at City Hall (Edmonton). ... A minute is: a unit of time equal to 1/60th of an hour and to 60 seconds. ... This article is about the unit of time. ... A record label is a brand created by companies that specialize in manufacturing, distributing and promoting audio and video recordings, on various formats including compact discs, LPs, DVD-Audio, SACDs, and cassettes. ... A&M Records is a record label formed in 1962 by Herb Alpert and Jerry Moss. ... In the music industry, record producer designates a person responsible for completing a master recording so that it is fit for release. ... Van Dyke Parks (born January 3, 1943) is an American composer, arranger, producer, and musician, noted for his collaborations with Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys on the song Heroes and Villains and the recently released cult-classic-album, Smile. ... The All Music Guide (AMG) is a globally comprehensive metadata database about music owned by All Media Guide. ... Rehearsals For Retirement was Phil Ochs sixth album, released in 1969 on A&M Records. ... 1969 was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1969 calendar). ... 1970 was a common year starting on Thursday. ... Gunfight At Carnegie Hall was Phil Ochs final album, presumably comprised of songs recorded at his infamous second show at Carnegie Hall on March 27, 1970, containing less than half of the actual concert. ... 1975 was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1975 calendar). ... Phil Ochs (1940-76) Photograph from the Michael Ochs Archives Philip David Ochs (December 19, 1940 - April 9, 1976) was a protest singer (or, as he preferred, a topical singer) of the early 1960s, perhaps best known for his songs Power and Glory, There But for Fortune, Changes, When I... Van Dyke Parks (born January 3, 1943) is an American composer, arranger, producer, and musician, noted for his collaborations with Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys on the song Heroes and Villains and the recently released cult-classic-album, Smile. ... 1970 was a common year starting on Thursday. ... L-R: David Crosby, Gene Clark, Michael Clarke, Chris Hillman, Roger McGuinn The Byrds were an American rock music group founded in Los Angeles, California in 1964 by singers and guitarists Jim McGuinn (he later changed his name to Roger McGuinn), Gene Clark, and David Crosby. ... Elvis Presley Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), also known as The King of Rock and Roll, or as just simply The King, was an American singer who had an effect on world culture rivaled only by The Beatles . ...

Among the introspective tracks was "Chords of Fame", lambasting Bob Dylan's popularity, while sort of wishing for his own popularity to rise. "Boy In Ohio" saw Ochs pining for his childhood and "Jim Dean of Indiana" was a tale of James Dean's life, a tribute to him, written after Ochs had visited Dean's grave. "No More Songs" was the most telling of the tracks, as Ochs would release but five more studio tracks in his lifetime after 1970, never completing another studio album. Portrait photograph of Bob Dylan taken by Daniel Kramer Bob Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman May 24, 1941) is widely regarded as one of Americas greatest popular songwriters. ... James Dean James Byron Dean (February 8, 1931 – September 30, 1955) was an American film actor. ...

Track Listing

1. One Way Ticket Home (P. Ochs, 2:40)
2. Jim Dean of Indiana (P. Ochs, 5:05)
3. My Kingdom For A Car (P. Ochs, 2:53)
4. Boy In Ohio (P. Ochs, 3:43)
5. Gas Station Women (P. Ochs, 3:31)
6. Chords of Fame (P. Ochs, 3:33)
7. Ten Cents A Coup (P. Ochs, 3:14)
8. Bach, Beethoven, Mozart and Me (P. Ochs, 5:05)
9. Basket in the Pool (P. Ochs, 3:40)
10. No More Songs (P. Ochs, 4:31)

Participants (partial list)

• Phil Ochs - guitar, piano, vocals
• Van Dyke Parks - producer, keyboards
• Andrew Wickham - co-producer ("Gas Station Women" and "Chords of Fame" only)
• Clarence White - guitar, backing vocals
• Laurindo Almeida - guitar
• James Burton - guitar
• Bob Rafkin - guitar, bass
• Chris Ethridge - bass
• Kenny Kaufman - bass
• Gene Parsons - drums
• Kevin Kelley - drums
• Earl Ball - piano, arrangements
• Lincoln Mayorga - keyboards
• Mike Rubini - keyboards
• Richard Rosmini - pedal steel, harmonica
• Ry Cooder - mandolin
• Don Rich - fiddle
• Gary Coleman - percussion
• Tom Scott - tenor saxophone
• Bobby Bruce - violin
• Anne Goodman - cello
• Merry Clayton, Sherlie Matthews and Clydie King - backing vocals
• Bobby Wayne and Jim Glover - harmony vocals
• Bob Thompson - arrangements