What Hits!?

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

What Hits!?
What Hits!? cover
Compilation album by Red Hot Chili Peppers
Released September 29, 1992
Recorded 1984-1991
Genre Rock,Funk Metal,Funkcore,Rapcore
Length 63:28
Label EMI
Producer(s) Various
Professional reviews
Red Hot Chili Peppers chronology
Blood Sugar Sex Magik
(1991)
What Hits!?
(1992)
One Hot Minute
(1995)


What Hits!?, by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, released September 29, 1992 on EMI, is a greatest hits/best-of compilation of tracks from their first four albums, plus one from Blood Sugar Sex Magik and another from the soundtrack to the movie Pretty Woman.

This album was released on EMI/Capitol records through a deal with Warner Bros. Records. The labels agreed that EMI/Capitol would keep all rights to any material the Peppers recorded there except one song, and Warner Bros. would then give EMI rights to one song recorded during the Peppers career there, so each album could produce a greatest hits compilation. EMI chose "Under the Bridge" for What Hits!? and Warner Bros. chose "Higher Ground" for Greatest Hits.

The title of the compilation is a joke alluding to the relative lack of success achieved by the Red Hot Chili Peppers during their tenure with EMI, highlighting the irony that many of the tracks included on what is supposed to be a 'greatest hits' compilation were generally singles that peaked notably low in the charts, arguably too low to be considered 'hits' (and even in some cases, such as "The Brothers Cup" and "Johnny Kick a Hole in the Sky", were never released as singles at all).

Therefore, the inclusion of "Under the Bridge" is an unusual choice, since the fact that the song remains the band's highest charting single and almost single-handedly propelled them to superstardom, means it is one of the few anomalies in the compilation that is not representative of its title (one may possibly also include "Higher Ground", "Knock Me Down" and "Taste the Pain" as other examples). "Under the Bridge" is an anomaly in music style as well as chart performance, existing as a melodic ballad in a compilation dominated by the funk rock tracks that the Chili Peppers were originally known for. Although other singles taken from Blood Sugar Sex Magik, such as "Give It Away" and "Suck My Kiss", may have fit better into What Hits!?, "Under the Bridge" ended up being the one included possibly to attract more sales.

"Behind the Sun" was released as a single to accompany the release of this compilation, originally appeaing on the band's 1987 album The Uplift Mofo Party Plan. Although a music video was also made, the Red Hot Chili Peppers had no involvement in its making since it was produced by EMI. The video is animated and reuses segments of the band performing taken from their earlier video for "Higher Ground". As a result there is no lip-synching and unusually guitarist John Frusciante features on the music video even though the late Hillel Slovak was the guitarist on the original album track.

  1. "Higher Ground" (Wonder) – 3:21
  2. "Fight Like a Brave" – 3:47
  3. "Behind the Sun" – 4:45
  4. "Me & My Friends" – 3:05
  5. "Backwoods" – 3:06
  6. "True Men Don't Kill Coyotes" – 3:36
  7. "Fire" (Hendrix) – 2:01
  8. "Get Up and Jump" – 2:50
  9. "Knock Me Down" – 3:43
  10. "Under the Bridge" – 4:24
  11. "Show Me Your Soul" – 4:22
  12. "If You Want Me to Stay" (Sly & the Family Stone) – 4:06
  13. "Hollywood (Africa)" (The Meters) – 4:58
  14. "Jungle Man" – 4:04
  15. "The Brothers Cup" – 3:24
  16. "Taste the Pain" – 4:34
  17. "Catholic School Girls Rule" – 1:55
  18. "Johnny, Kick a Hole in the Sky" – 5:10

There is a rare alternate version of the album that omits "Johnny, Kick a Hole in the Sky" in place of the song "Me & My Friends"

A video version of What Hits!? was also released, containing the following music videos:

  1. "Behind the Sun"
  2. "Under the Bridge"
  3. "Show Me Your Soul"
  4. "Taste the Pain"
  5. "Higher Ground"
  6. "Knock Me Down"
  7. "Fight Like a Brave"
  8. "Jungle Man"
  9. "True Men Don't Kill Coyotes"
  10. "Catholic School Girls Rule"
  11. "Fire"
  12. "Stone Cold Bush" (live)
  13. "Special Secret Song Inside" (live)
  14. "Subway to Venus" (live)
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Anthony Kiedis | John Frusciante | Flea | Chad Smith
Hillel Slovak | Dave Navarro | Cliff Martinez | Jack Sherman | Arik Marshall | Jesse Tobias | D. H. Peligro | Jack Irons
Discography
Studio albums: The Red Hot Chili Peppers (1984) | Freaky Styley (1985) | The Uplift Mofo Party Plan (1987) | Mother's Milk (1989) | Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991) | One Hot Minute (1995) | Californication (1999) | By the Way (2002) | Stadium Arcadium (2006)
EPs, Live albums and compilations: The Abbey Road E.P. (1988) | What Hits!? (1992) | Live Rare Remix Box (1994) | Out in L.A. (1994) | Under the Covers: Essential Red Hot Chili Peppers (1998) | The Best of the Red Hot Chili Peppers (1998) | Greatest Hits (2003) | Live in Hyde Park (2004)
Singles: 1984: True Men Don't Kill Coyotes, Get Up and Jump | 1985: Jungle Man, American Ghost Dance, Catholic School Girls Rule, Hollywood (Africa) | 1987: Fight Like a Brave, Me & My Friends | 1989: Knock Me Down, Higher Ground, Taste the Pain | 1990: Show Me Your Soul | 1991: Give It Away | 1992: Under the Bridge, Suck My Kiss, Behind the Sun, Breaking the Girl | 1993: If You Have to Ask, Soul to Squeeze | 1995: Warped, My Friends | 1996: Aeroplane, Coffee Shop, Shallow Be Thy Game, Love Rollercoaster | 1999: Scar Tissue, Around the World | 2000: Otherside, Californication, Road Trippin', Parallel Universe | 2002: By the Way, The Zephyr Song | 2003: Can't Stop, Dosed, Universally Speaking, Fortune Faded | 2006: Dani California, Tell Me Baby, Snow ((Hey Oh)) | 2007: Desecration Smile, Hump de Bump
Other pages: Videography | Songs | B-sides Compilation
Related articles
Chain Reaction | What Is This? | Jane's Addiction | Pearl Jam | Fear | The Mars Volta | Rick Rubin | "Krusty Gets Kancelled"
Categories: Red Hot Chili Peppers | Red Hot Chili Peppers Songs
This box: view  talk  edit
Advanced Search
Included Web Search Engines


Safe Search

close

Top Matching Results

Occasionally Search.com will highlight specialized results that are based on the context of your query. Examples of specialized results include specific links to news, images, or video.

Top Matching Results may highlight information from other Search.com pages, content from the CNET Network of sites, or third party content. The listings are based purely on relevance. Search.com does not receive payment for listings in this section but our partners that provide this data may get paid for listing these products.

Sponsored Links

This section contains paid listings which have been purchased by companies that want to have their sites appear for specific search terms and related content. These listings are administered, sorted and maintained by a third party and are not endorsed by Search.com.

Search Results

Search.com sends your search query to several search engines at one time and integrates the results into one list which has been sorted by relevance using Search.com's proprietary algorithm. You can customize the list of search engines included in your metasearch from the preferences.

The search engines that are used in your metasearch may allow companies to pay to have their Web sites included within the results. To view the Paid Inclusion policy for a specific search engine, please visit their Web site. Search.com does not accept payment or share revenue with any search engine partner for listings in this section.