''Greatest Stories Live'' is a 1976

greatest hits A greatest hits album or best-of album is a type of compilation album that collects popular and commercially successful songs by a particular artist or band. While greatest hits albums are typically supported by the artist, they can also be crea ...

live album by the American singer-songwriter

Harry Chapin Harold Forster Chapin (; December 7, 1942 – July 16, 1981) was an American singer-songwriter, philanthropist, and hunger activist best known for his folk rock and pop rock songs. He achieved worldwide success in the 1970s. Chapin, a Grammy A ...

. It was recorded over three nights at three

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

venues in November 1975. Certain elements had to be re-recorded in the studio due to technical problems with the live recordings. The original LP release featured three new studio tracks, two of which ("She Is Always Seventeen" and "Love Is Just Another Word") were excluded from the CD release. "

A Better Place to Be "A Better Place to Be" is a song by Harry Chapin from his 1972 album, '' Sniper and Other Love Songs''. The song is about a midnight watchman confiding in a waitress, while drinking gin, about a woman that he met a week before and had a one-night ...

" was released as a single, and did manage to crack the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The album is notable for its extended version of "30,000 Pounds of Bananas", infamous for Chapin's recounting of his brothers' remarks after hearing the original ending: "Harry...it sucks." The quote became so popular with Harry Chapin fans that concert shirts were sold with the quotation on it.

Track listing (CD release)

*"She Is Always Seventeen" and "Love Is Just Another Word" appear between "30,000 Pounds of Bananas" and "The Shortest Story" on side 4 of the original 1976 vinyl release.

Personnel

*Harry Chapin -

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or withou ...

*Ron Bacchiocchi - synthesizer,

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...

, clavinet *Ed Bednarski - clarinet *

Stephen Chapin Stephen Chapin (born December 30, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter. He is best known as the youngest of the four Chapin brothers, which include Harry Chapin and Tom Chapin and is son of drummer Jim Chapin and Elspeth Burke Chapin Hart, edit ...

- synthesizer,

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

, vocals *

Tom Chapin Tom Chapin (born March 13, 1945) is an American musician, entertainer, singer-songwriter, and storyteller. Chapin is known for the song " Happy Birthday", released in 1989 in his ''Moonboat'' album. It takes its melody from "Love Unspoken", a so ...

- guitar, banjo, vocals *Christine Faith - vocals *Cheryl Ferrio - vocals *Howie Fields - drums *David Kondziela - vocals *

Paul Leka Paul Leka (February 20, 1943 – October 12, 2011) was an American songwriter, record producer, pianist, arranger, and orchestrator, most notable for co-writing the 1960s hits " Green Tambourine" and "Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye", the latter of ...

- piano, clavinet *Michael Masters -

cello The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G ...

*Tim Moore - piano *Mark Mundy - vocals *Ronald Palmer - guitar, vocals *Don Payne - bass *Kathy Ramos - vocals *Tim Scott - cello *

Allan Schwartzberg Allan Schwartzberg (born December 28, 1942) is an American musician and record producer. He has been a member of the rock band Mountain, Peter Gabriel's first solo band, toured with Brecker Brothers' Dreams, B.J. Thomas, Linda Rondstadt, Stan Get ...

- drums *

Frank Simms Frank or Franks may refer to: People * Frank (given name) * Frank (surname) * Franks (surname) * Franks, a medieval Germanic people * Frank, a term in the Muslim world for all western Europeans, particularly during the Crusades - see Farang Curr ...

- vocals *George Simms - vocals *Ken Smith - percussion *Bob Springer - percussion *

John Tropea John Tropea (pronounced 'tro-pay'; born January 7, 1946) is an American guitarist. Career Tropea began guitar studies at the age of 12. His musical education continued at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he studied jazz guitar, harmo ...

- guitar *Betsy Wager - vocals *Doug Walker - bass, guitar, vocals * John Wallace - bass, vocals *Sue White - vocals * Christopher von Koschembahr - vocals

Charts and certifications

Charts

Certifications

References

{{Authority control Harry Chapin albums Albums produced by Paul Leka 1976 live albums Elektra Records live albums