''The Greatest'' is the seventh studio album by Cat Power, the stage name and eponymous band of American singer-songwriter

Chan Marshall Charlyn Marie "Chan" Marshall ( ; born January 21, 1972), better known by her stage name Cat Power, is an American singer-songwriter, musician and model. Cat Power was originally the name of her first band, but has become her stage name as a ...

. All tracks on the album were written by Marshall, making it her first album not to include any

cover songs In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

. The Memphis Rhythm Band includes Roy Brewer, Teenie Hodges, Steve Potts, Dave Smith,

Rick Steff Rick Steff is a Memphis keyboard artist who has recorded with bands such as Lucero, Cat Power, Dexys Midnight Runners, and Hank Williams Jr. Rick's father is Dick Steff, a trumpet player who appeared on many songs with Elvis Presley, and Dusty ...

, Doug Easley, Jim Spake, Scott Thompson and Susan Marshall. String arrangements were contributed by Harlan T. Bobo and Jonathan Kirkscey. ''The Greatest'' debuted at #34 on the ''Billboard'' 200, her highest charting album at the time. It also won the 2006

Shortlist Music Prize The Shortlist Music Prize, stylized as (shôrt–lĭst), was an annual music award for the best album released in the United States that had sold fewer than 500,000 copies at the time of nomination. First given as a cash prize in 2001 under ...

, making Marshall the first woman to win the honor. It was also named the 6th best album of 2006 by ''Rolling Stone'', as well as the 26th best album of the decade.

Critical reception

''The Greatest'' has received a very positive response since its release. At

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an

average In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...

score of 80, based on 35 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". ''

Rhapsody Rhapsody may refer to: * A work of epic poetry, or part of one, that is suitable for recitation at one time ** Rhapsode, a classical Greek professional performer of epic poetry Computer software * Rhapsody (online music service), an online m ...

'' ranked the album #6 on its "Alt/Indie’s Best Albums of the Decade" list. "The mercurial Chan Marshall returned to her Southern roots and recorded this blissful album in Memphis. The Greatest glows with a new ease, and the music itself -- which features many of the greatest soul musicians in history -- is sunny and open. There's a sense of joy coming through here that you'll want to share with friends."

Track listing

Personnel

–

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

* Mabon "Teenie" Hodges –

on all songs except "Hate" *

Leroy Hodges Leroy Hodges (born July 13, 1943) is an American electric bass player. He was born in Germantown, Tennessee. Paired with either Booker T. & the MGs's drummer Al Jackson, Jr. or Stax staff drummer Howard Grimes, Leroy and The Hodges Brothers w ...

– bass (on tracks: 1, 3, 8, 12) *David Smith – bass (on tracks: 2, 4-6, 9, 10) *Steve Potts – drums * Doug Easley –

pedal steel The pedal steel guitar is a console-type of steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings to enable playing more varied and complex music than any previous steel guitar design. Like all steel guitars, it can ...

*Rich Steff –

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

, clavitone,

, organ *Jim Spake –

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of Single-reed instrument, single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed (mouthpi ...

*Scott Thompson –

trumpet The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...

*Roy Brewer –

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

*Johnathan Kirkscey –

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 ...

*Beth Luscone –

viola ; german: Bratsche , alt=Viola shown from the front and the side , image=Bratsche.jpg , caption= , background=string , hornbostel_sachs=321.322-71 , hornbostel_sachs_desc=Composite chordophone sounded by a bow , range= , related= *Violin family ...

Chart positions

The album debuted at number 34 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' 200 chart, selling about 23,000 copies in its first week. As of 2009, the album has tallied 125,000 copies in the United States alone, according to Nielsen SoundScan. It was awarded a gold certification from the

Independent Music Companies Association The Independent Music Companies Association (IMPALA), originally the Independent Music Publishers and Labels Association, is a non-profit trade association established in 2000 to help European independent record labels represent their agenda a ...

, which indicated sales of at least 100,000 copies throughout Europe.

Sales

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Greatest, The (Cat Power Album) Cat Power albums 2006 albums Matador Records albums Contemporary R&B albums by American artists Soul albums by American artists