Greatest Hits (Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel album)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[7]
NME	8/10[8]

Upon its release, Mark Sinker of NME stated: "[Harley] was five years late on the eccentric cameo Englandisms that Bowie and the Kinks had defined and exhausted. He had a sillier speech defect than Ian Hunter, and a more absurdly elevated sense of rock's theatrical possibilities. He was camper than Queen could be, and far less forgiveable than Ferry. And still, for all that, he wrote a wicked little melodrama of a tune. The art-pomp of most of these songs has exactly the wistful tinge that Ray Davies had lost, by the early '70s. I don't suppose we noticed that. We were too busy thinking ourselves smart for knowing what he was on about, or hating him for not being real ROCK. I'm obviously going senile, but this is a brilliant record."^[8]

Donald A. Guarisco of AllMusic retrospectively wrote: "Of all the glam-rock acts to hit it big in England during the 1970s, Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel were second only to David Bowie himself in terms of artsy ambition. Tunes like "Judy Teen" and "Love's a Prima Donna" may have been poppy enough to sail into the English singles charts, but they also boasted unconventional instrumentation and poetic lyrics with lots of surreal, Bob Dylan-esque wordplay. The result was a string of intelligent yet catchy singles, all of which are compiled on this collection. Greatest Hits also includes a generous array of album favorites, and highlights Harley's oft-underrated skill with ballads. The only real downside is that its surprisingly short track list omits some early gems: the compilers could have easily thrown in another two or three songs to fully flesh out the track selection. Despite this quibble, Greatest Hits is a fine collection and makes a great introduction to this group's ambitious, artsy style of pop."^[7]

All songs written by Steve Harley except "Here Comes the Sun" by George Harrison and "Freedom's Prisoner" by Harley and Jimmy Horowitz.