The Hits is a compilation album from REO Speedwagon. It contains hits such as "Can't Fight This Feeling" and "Keep on Loving You", as well as new tracks "Here with Me" and "I Don't Want to Lose You". "Here with Me" cracked the top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100. and the top ten on the Adult Contemporary chart; however, it would be the last single to feature drummer Alan Gratzer and guitarist Gary Richrath, as they each left the band within the year following this album's release. The album has sold over 4 million copies in the U.S. which led it to go 4× Platinum.
A conspicuous absentee from the album is "Keep the Fire Burnin'", which reached #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1982. The collection is one of several released by the band's label. The album was remastered and reissued in 2002. The album was also re-released in 2020 on black and white vinyl.
Cash Box called "Here with Me" a "power ballad that lifts you up where you belong, a majestic and sweeping effort that has romanticism, leavened with pop sensibility." Cash Box called "I Don't Want to Lose You" a "hard-driving, corporate-sounding rocker."
Track listing
Personnel
REO Speedwagon
- Kevin Cronin – lead vocals, rhythm guitars, keyboards
- Gary Richrath – lead guitars
- Neal Doughty – keyboards, synthesizers
- Gregg Philbin – bass, backing vocals (tracks 9 and 12 on the original CD, tracks 10 and 14 on the reissue)
- Bruce Hall – bass, backing vocals (lead on track 13)
- Alan Gratzer – drums, backing vocals
Additional personnel
- Tommy Funderburk – backing vocals
- Eric Persing – additional synthesizers, programming
Production
- Keith Olsen – producer (1, 2)
- Kevin Cronin – producer (3-9, 11, 12, 13)
- Gary Richrath – producer (3-9, 11-14)
- Paul Grupp – producer (3, 11)
- John Boylan – executive producer (3, 11)
- Kevin Beamish – producer (4, 6, 8, 13)
- Alan Gratzer – co-producer (4, 6, 8), producer (5, 7, 9, 12), associate producer (13)
- David DeVore – producer (5, 7), production assistant (9, 12), package assembling, mastering
- John Stronach – producer (10, 14)
- Gary Lubow – production assistant (13)
- John Henning – producer (14)
- Joe Gastwirt – engineer
- Steve Hall – mastering
- Tony Lane – art direction
- Nancy Donald – art direction
- David Coleman – design
- Harry Mittman – photography
- Dennis Keeley – inner sleeve photography
- Malcolm Dome – liner notes
- Baruck-Consolo Management – management
Studios
- Recorded and Assembled at Pacific Studios (Chatsworth, California).
- Mastered at Future Disc (North Hollywood, California).
Charts
Certifications
Catalog numbers
- Original 1988 release: Epic Records OE/OET/EK 44202
- 2002 remastered CD release: Epic Records EK 86518
Notes
