David Lee Roth Gets A CD/DVD Deluxe Edition, Greatest Hits
Diamond Dave, or David Lee Roth, whichever your preference, had a whirlwind of an excellent career even if a lot of it was shrouded in bad feelings, and all of that general bad band plague that haunts. From the timeless first album from Van Halen, to a rich solo career that began with the four-song EP, Crazy From The Heat, David Lee Roth had a rock star persona that was way over the top. But it worked, and we love him more for it.

While a ‘best of’ collection for Diamond Dave would not be as filled to the brim with hits as his band had, his stuff was still quite memorable. With his fun cover of The Beach Boy classic, “California Girls” (a song my daughter loved without question), and of “”Just A Gigolo”, and his following full-release debut, Eat ‘Em And Smile,with its batch of hits (“Goin’ Crazy”, “Tobacco Road”, “Yankee Rose”), DLR was on top of the world.

There’s more to Diamond Dave’s story, much more. And Friday Music has decided to release a Deluxe Edition of Greatest Hits that cover the solo history of his music.

On November 19, the CD and DVD set will feature new remastering by Joe Reagoso. The song selections and sequencing for this set was worked on by Diamond Dave himself. What adds to the excitement of this album is the inclusion of the entire Crazy From the Heat EP, and a DVD filled to the max with the original Dave TV video (and its four songs), and five additional videos not previously released.

The booklet will bring new photos, credits, and a full set of printed lyrics of the tracks included.

Sounds like fun to me!

CD:

California Girls *
Just A Gigolo*
Easy Street*
Coconut Grove*
Just Like Paradise
A Little Luck
I’m Easy
Tobacco Road
Goin’ Crazy
Yankee Rose
A Lil’ Ain’t Enough
Sensible Shoes
Hey, You Never Know
Hot Dog And A Shake
Land’s Edge
No Big “Ting
* Crazy From The Heat EP

DVD:

DAVE TV

Just A Gigolo
California Girls
Yankee Rose
Goin’ Crazy
UNRELEASED VIDEOS

Sensible Shoes
A Lil’ Ain’t Enough
The Nightlife
Goin’ Crazy (Spanish)
Tell The Truth

Posted by MARowe on 1 October, 2013.

Categories: Release Pieces, TAPSheet, US

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Cheers for finally releasing the videos on DVD. WTF is with that track list though? No DLR Band or Diamond Dave, and singles from Skyscraper and YFLM ignored in favor of obscure album tracks. DVD should have included That’s Life, Skyscraper music videos, She’s My Machine and Shoo Bop. Good thing we still have Cato’s Napalm DVD!

Kind of silly to put out another “Best Of” of Roth solo stuff without adding anything new to it. We already have “The Best”. The DVD sounds like a nice addition, but why do these guys always leave stuff out of their collections? Why not just release all of the videos? I guess so they can continue to rerelease stuff over and over and just change a couple tracks or videos and call it “new”.

So here we are a week from release. Anyone buying this?

I pre-ordered it, solely for the DVD contents, and am thoroughly prepared to be disappointed once it shows up. Still in denial about the cover art and track selection.

I’m not buying it. The Napalm dvd is much better and I have all the cd’s already. I can make a better compilation than what’s offered here.

I got notification from Amazon today that it has been shipped.

DAVID LEE ROTH – GREATEST HITS: DELUXE EDITION (POP/ROCK): Fans of Roth’s work in between stints with Van Halen get a chance to explore newly remastered solo tracks from 1985-1994 — sequenced by Diamond Dave himself — along with several hard-to-find accompanying videos on this expanded set. Included are 16 tracks from Roth’s handful of solo efforts for Warner Bros. including Crazy From the Heat (1985), Eat ‘Em and Smile (1986), Skyscraper (1988), A Little Ain’t Enough (1991) and Your Filthy Little Mouth (1994) — along with the entire Dave TV release, also from 1986, that includes vidoes for “Just A Gigolo/I Ain’t Got Nobody,” “Yankee Rose” and “California Girls,” among others. Also part of the DVD are promo clips for “Sensible Shoes,” “Tell the Truth” and “A Lil’ Ain’t Enough” — part of a group of five making their home-video debut. — Nick DeRiso

Got this yesterday. It is what it is. My impressions:
- Bare-bones packaging: CD/DVD comes in a double-disc clear jewel case. Like the front cover you’ve seen, the rest is simple black background with current B&W photos that you’ve seen on Facebook and The Roth Show. Liner notes list photography by Mark Rojas and graphic design by Shelly Toscano – they’re his crew that shoot and edit (respectively) The Roth Show. The liner notes are just the lyrics to the songs in black text laid over black & white photos. No colorful historical photos like on the previous The Best CD. For a greatest hits set by arguably the most colorful front man in the history of rock and roll, this sparse B&W design is the OPPOSITE of what it should have been.

- The music: not much logic to the track order. I will say that it sounds crisp, and the mastering is decent. I am pleasantly surprised that there’s still quite a bit of dynamic range to the tracks, doesn’t sound like much, if any, compression was used at all. That in itself is pretty rare these days. Kudos to Joe Reagoso for not brickwalling the music.

- The DVD: simple static menu to select songs or play all. The video content appears to be hacked together without much care. The entire “Dave TV” home video release looks like it literally was transferred from VHS. Cato’s Napalm DVD actually has slightly better image quality for the first 4 songs. For the rest of the videos, the quality varies. Goin Crazy in Spanish video looks decent, and is a little bit of an upgrade, same with ALAE, Tell The Truth and Sensible Shoes. The audio for the DVD is PCM, so at least it sounds pretty good throughout. They obviously put very little effort into creating this, though, as they didn’t even bother to edit the videos together tightly – there’s the production slates at the start of each video, followed by a lengthy chunk of black before each song starts. They even left the damn FBI warning and Warner home video logos from the VHS of Dave TV!

Overall, it’s nice to have these videos in an official capacity, but if you’re already happy with the Napalm bootleg DVD, there’s really no need to buy this. Seems like a lot of missed opportunities – no previously unreleased tracks, seemingly random sequencing of songs, no music from DLR’s post-Warner albums, no videos from Skyscraper or Diamond Dave LPs, along with boring packaging = fail. Stick with The Best CD from 1997 and Napalm Up Yo’ Ass DVD and you’ve got everything you need.

Jason,

Thanks for the “first-look” review. I got my copy last night (UPS comes late here), and haven’t opened it yet.

Here’s what SHOULD HAVE been on Dave’s greatest hits, just going by what was released as singles. This is chronological order, but it could be re-sequenced for maximum impact.

1 Just A Gigolo (I Ain’t Got Nobody) 04:43
2 California Girls 02:51
3 Yankee Rose 03:55
4 I’m Easy 02:11
5 Goin’ Crazy! 03:10
6 That’s Life 02:45
7 Just Like Paradise 04:03
8 Stand Up 04:40
9 Damn Good 05:49
10 A Lil’ Ain’t Enough 04:41
11 Sensible Shoes 05:09
12 Tell The Truth 05:18
13 She’s My Machine 03:53
14 Night Life 03:34
15 Slam Dunk! 02:37
16 King Of The Hill 03:52
17 Shoo Bop 05:11
18 Ice Cream Man 03:23
19 Ain’t That Peculiar (bonus unreleased track) 04:57

77:27 total

I agree with Jason. Nothing special at all with this greatest hits package. Very underwhelming. I would have thought the Dave TV footage would have been better. Oh well, it’s not the first time I’ve felt ripped off by this band.

It really makes you wonder about the thought process behind this project. I can maybe understand why there’s no content from after 1994′s Your Filthy Little Mouth, as that newer stuff was not released on WB, so it has to be licensed separately from the rest of the catalog, okay. You’d think Dave retains the rights to his independent releases, but whatever. Probably just too lazy to go through the proper channels to get permission from Magna Carta, Detonator Records, etc. who put out Diamond Dave. Maybe it’s this same lack of effort that resulted in the crappy DVD – too much work to track down the best sources for the videos.

And now for the promotion: DLR has not said one thing about this coming out – no Facebook posts or tweets, not a peep. For someone who supposedly “hand-picked” the songs for this, you’d think he’d have his people try to promote it at least a little bit. He’s posted pictures on Facebook about how colorful his new socks are, for Christ’s sake, but he can’t be bothered to promote a new album release?!

After his first successful run with the mighty Van Halen in 1984, the legendary David Lee Roth embarked on an amazing solo career which yielded him enough gold and platinum records that King Midas would have be envious. With his songs being featured in major films, television, cartoons and chart topping video games, he truly is an all around muliti-media superstar.

While venturing into his first solo effort with the multi-platinum smash E.P. Crazy From The Heat, Diamond Dave didn’t have to go far to prove to the world that he was already on top of his game, as more smash albums and chart topping rock radio tracks followed from his stellar LPs like Eat ‘Em And Smile, Skyscraper, A Lil’ Ain’t Enough and Your Filthy Little Mouth.

Always surrounding himself with an incredible batch of tunes and super powerful musicians like Steve Vai, Billy Sheehan, Gregg Bissonette, Nile Rodgers and Steve Hunter, just to name a few, David Lee Roth truly captivates the world stages with his persona, musical acumen and showmanship.

Friday Music has been no stranger to the exciting music of the legendary Davie Lee Roth. Therefore, it is with much honor to announce for the first time anywhere David Lee Roth’s Greatest Hits/The Deluxe Edition (CD & DVD).

This past year, David Lee Roth went back to his Warner Bros. recordings and personally selected and sequenced the songs and the videos for this special Greatest Hits collection. For the CD, not only did he include the entire Crazy From The Heat e.p. with smashes like California Girls (featuring Carl Wilson of The Beach Boys) and Just A Gigolo, you also get more rock classics like Yankee Rose, Just Like Paradise, Goin’ Crazy! and I’m Easy.

The DVD also brings you the entire DAVE TV Warner Home Video release for the very first time on DVD format, as well as super rare non-commercial released videos of other DLR hits like The Nightlife, Sensible Shoes, and Goin’ Crazy ! (Espanol).

As another installment in our exclusive David Lee Roth Original Masters Series, this limited edition rock masterpiece has been mastered impeccably by Joe Reagoso from the original Warner Bros. tapes at Friday Music Studios.

As a special bonus, Diamond Dave is including new artwork, brand new photos, as well as printed lyrics to the great songs that truly enhance this newly mastered compact disc/dvd extravaganza.

If you are looking for the perfect hard rock party for your eyes and ears this holiday season, your search is over! DLR staples like Just Like Paradise and Goin’ Crazy! will amazingly jump out of your speakers as you remember them from years ago. Even more fine album tracks like Hot Dog And A Shake, Hey, You Never Know and the stellar blues classic Tobacco Road make this Greatest Hits collection the homerun that it is.

Friday Music is very excited to offer this incredible album from the David Lee Roth arsenal of legendary rock recordings. The fans have been asking for more, and we are more than happy to oblige. David Lee Roth’s Greatest Hits/The Deluxe Edition (CD & DVD)… a great new hard rock revisit in the audiophile domain… courtesy of your friends at Friday Music.

Goin’ Crazy!!!