💿 Release: Big, Bigger, Biggest! The Best Of Mr. Big
🎸 Artist: Mr. Big
📀 New Formats: Vinyl / SACD / MQA-CD+CD
🗓️ Original Release: 1996
Get the turntable warmed up and prepare to test exactly how much Billy Sheehan bass your living-room speakers can handle, because one of Mr. Big’s definitive collections is getting a serious physical-media upgrade.
Big, Bigger, Biggest! The Best Of Mr. Big is set to make its long-awaited debut across vinyl, SACD and MQA-CD+CD formats, giving fans another opportunity to dive into a compilation packed with some of the American hard-rock favourites’ biggest songs.
Originally released in 1996, the 16-track collection brings together material including “To Be With You,” “Just Take My Heart,” “Green-Tinted Sixties Mind,” “Wild World,” “Colorado Bulldog” and the wonderfully titled “Daddy, Brother, Lover, Little Boy (The Electric Drill Song).”
In other words, this isn’t exactly short on absolute belters.
Nearly 30 years after the compilation first appeared, it’s time for things to get Big, Bigger and — inevitably — Biggest all over again. 🤘🔥
💿 Big, Bigger, Biggest! Goes Vinyl
For collectors, the big attraction here is obvious.
Vinyl.
Despite Big, Bigger, Biggest! having existed in various CD and digital editions over the years, this new release finally brings the collection to vinyl.
And if there’s one band whose music deserves to be turned up until the neighbours start filing paperwork, it’s Mr. Big.
Their mixture of huge melodic choruses and genuinely ridiculous musicianship has always made them considerably more than your average late-’80s/early-’90s hard-rock outfit.
Eric Martin brings the voice.
Paul Gilbert brings enough guitar wizardry to make mere mortals reconsider their life choices.
Billy Sheehan attacks the bass as though somebody has personally offended it.
And the late, great Pat Torpey provides the engine room.
That’s one hell of a line-up.
🎸 A Greatest-Hits Collection With Serious Muscle
Mr. Big occupy an interesting place in rock history.
Ask the wider public to name a Mr. Big song and there’s a very good chance they’ll immediately go for “To Be With You.”
Understandably so.
The acoustic anthem became an enormous international hit and remains one of the defining rock ballads of its era.
But reducing Mr. Big to one massive ballad does the band a colossal disservice.
These lads could play.
And Big, Bigger, Biggest! does a particularly good job of demonstrating both sides of their personality.
There’s the melody.
There’s the radio-friendly songwriting.
But there’s also enough technical musical firepower to frighten the living daylights out of anyone who’s recently picked up a guitar and thought they were getting quite good.
❤️ ‘To Be With You’ – The Song Everybody Knows
You can’t talk about Mr. Big without eventually arriving at “To Be With You.”
Released on their breakthrough album Lean Into It, the track became a global phenomenon and transformed Mr. Big’s career.
It’s wonderfully simple compared with some of the band’s more technically ferocious material.
Acoustic guitar.
Handclaps.
Harmonies.
A gigantic chorus.
Sometimes that’s all you bloody need.
Decades later, it remains the song most immediately associated with Mr. Big and an essential part of any collection attempting to tell their story.
Naturally, it’s sitting right here.
🔥 But Then There’s ‘Colorado Bulldog’…
Anyone who discovered Mr. Big through “To Be With You” and then wandered unsuspectingly into something like “Colorado Bulldog” probably wondered whether they’d accidentally put on another band.
Because suddenly Sheehan and Gilbert are off.
The track is a glorious reminder of the sheer technical ability sitting inside Mr. Big.
That’s always been the fascinating contradiction at the heart of the band.
They could write an acoustic ballad capable of conquering mainstream radio…
…and then immediately start playing something that makes musicians stare at their instruments with a profound sense of inadequacy.
Show-offs.
Brilliant, brilliant show-offs.
🟢 ‘Green-Tinted Sixties Mind’ Remains A Gem
Then you’ve got “Green-Tinted Sixties Mind.”
Built around one of Paul Gilbert’s most instantly recognisable guitar parts, the song demonstrates exactly why Mr. Big’s melodic side deserves as much attention as their instrumental fireworks.
It’s catchy without becoming lightweight.
Technical without becoming an exercise.
And decades later, that opening remains capable of getting guitarists reaching for their instruments.
That’s the sweet spot Mr. Big hit when everything came together.
Enormous musicianship serving an actual song.
🐈 ‘Wild World’ Gets The Mr. Big Treatment
The collection also includes Mr. Big’s take on “Wild World,” originally written and recorded by Cat Stevens.
Their version became another significant hit for the band and demonstrates how effectively Eric Martin’s voice could carry material outside the more muscular hard-rock side of Mr. Big.
It’s another reason Big, Bigger, Biggest! works as an introduction.
This isn’t sixteen variations on the same song.
You’ve got acoustic material.
Ballads.
Melodic hard rock.
Technical fireworks.
And straight-up rock ‘n’ roll.
🤘 The Classic Mr. Big Combination
The collection captures material associated with the classic Mr. Big line-up of:
- Eric Martin – Lead Vocals
- Paul Gilbert – Guitar / Vocals
- Billy Sheehan – Bass / Vocals
- Pat Torpey – Drums / Vocals
Individually, that’s a frankly silly amount of talent.
Together, they created a band capable of satisfying both the guitar-magazine crowd obsessing over technique and listeners who couldn’t care less how many notes somebody could play as long as the chorus was massive.
That combination became the heart of Mr. Big.
🥁 Remembering Pat Torpey
Revisiting these recordings also inevitably means celebrating Pat Torpey.
The drummer, who died in 2018, was an essential component of the classic Mr. Big sound.
And not simply behind the kit.
Torpey’s backing vocals helped contribute to those huge Mr. Big harmonies, while his drumming provided exactly the combination of power, groove and musical intelligence required when sharing a stage with Gilbert and Sheehan.
These recordings preserve that chemistry.
And hearing them given another physical-media life is a fitting reminder of what that classic line-up created together.
💿 Big, Bigger, Biggest! The Best Of Mr. Big – Tracklist
- Addicted To That Rush
- Rock & Roll Over
- Green-Tinted Sixties Mind
- To Be With You
- Just Take My Heart
- Daddy, Brother, Lover, Little Boy (The Electric Drill Song)
- Wild World
- Colorado Bulldog
- Promise Her The Moon
- Nothing But Love
- Take Cover
- Goin’ Where The Wind Blows
- Seven Impossible Days
- Not One Night
- Unnatural
- Stay Together
The collection runs for just over an hour and provides a cracking snapshot of Mr. Big’s early career.
📀 SACD And MQA-CD+CD Editions Incoming
Vinyl might grab the attention of traditional record collectors, but it isn’t the only physical format getting some love.
The compilation is also heading to SACD and MQA-CD+CD, giving audiophile-minded fans additional ways to revisit the material.
Mr. Big’s catalogue is particularly well suited to the audiophile treatment.
This is music filled with instrumental detail — from Sheehan’s bass work and Gilbert’s guitar playing to Torpey’s drums, the vocal harmonies and Martin’s lead performances.
There’s plenty going on underneath those enormous choruses.
Now fans are getting more ways to dig into it.
⚡ Nearly Three Decades Later…
The original compilation dates back to 1996, when Mr. Big were already several albums into a career that had taken them from American hard-rock hopefuls to international stars.
And the collection has proved remarkably durable.
That’s partly because the songs themselves cover such a broad spectrum of what made Mr. Big special.
You can arrive for “To Be With You.”
Stay for “Just Take My Heart.”
Discover “Green-Tinted Sixties Mind.”
Get flattened by “Colorado Bulldog.”
And then wonder what possessed Billy Sheehan and Paul Gilbert to make playing instruments look quite that easy.
Rude, frankly.
🎸 The Riff Report Says…
Greatest-hits albums used to be gateways.
You’d discover one song on the radio, buy the compilation and suddenly find yourself disappearing down an entire band’s back catalogue.
Big, Bigger, Biggest! is exactly that sort of collection.
Yes, “To Be With You” is here.
Of course it bloody is.
But the joy of Mr. Big is discovering that behind one of the biggest acoustic rock hits of the early ’90s was a band containing some genuinely outrageous musicians.
Gilbert and Sheehan could seemingly turn absolutely anything into an excuse for instrumental gymnastics, while Martin brought the melodies and Torpey made the entire machine groove.
Putting this collection onto vinyl for the first time, alongside new SACD and MQA-CD+CD editions, gives fans another excuse to celebrate that combination.
And we’re perfectly happy with that.
Turn up “Addicted To That Rush.”
Attempt to keep up with “Colorado Bulldog.”
Fail spectacularly.
Then stick “To Be With You” on and get the entire room singing.
Big? Definitely.
Bigger? Absolutely.
Biggest?
Well, they did warn us in the title. 🤘🔥
💿 Release Details
Artist: Mr. Big
Compilation: Big, Bigger, Biggest! The Best Of Mr. Big
Original Release: 1996
New Editions: Vinyl / SACD / MQA-CD+CD
Genre: Hard Rock / Melodic Rock
Tracks: 16
Original Running Time: Approximately 61 minutes
Classic Line-Up: Eric Martin, Paul Gilbert, Billy Sheehan & Pat Torpey
🎸 The Riff Report – Supporting rock, metal and the glorious racket in between.
