Compiled by Chris Squire (in case you're wondering how "The Fish" made it this far upstream), Classic Yes was Atlantic's initial attempt to distill the band's best music.
The key to this collection is in the title: this is the band's "classic" music.
Anything prior to The Yes Album is cut out, no attempt is made to salvage snippets from Relayer or Tales from Topographic Oceans; Drama and Tormato are dispensed with.
What remains is what made this band great: the science fiction and fantasy-laced epics, the tangible wizardry of their arrangements, moments that crystallized the magical power of music, and two unreleased live tracks from 1978 that find the band tethered to the realm of mortals." The logic behind the live tracks is pretty simple: "Roundabout" and "I've Seen All Good People" are two tracks that missed the original LP cut, so live versions of them were included with the LP as a bonus 45 rpm single.
This is only a minor complaint, though, and one easily overlooked in lieu of the music that made the first cut.
Squire's picks are undoubtedly the right ones: "Heart of the Sunrise" to start things off, "And You and I" in all its ten-minute glory, "Starship Trooper" and "Yours Is No Disgrace" from their third album, and "Long Distance Runaround" and "The Fish." Classic Yes remains the place to start if you're interested in the band or just want to hear their best music in one sitting.
| Title/Composers | Performer | Listen | Time | Size | Size | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heart of the SunriseJon Anderson, Bill Bruford, Chris Squire | Yes, Jon Anderson, Bill Bruford, Steve Howe, Chris Squire, Rick Wakeman | Play | 10:37 | 24 MB | 68 MB |
| 2 | Wonderous StoriesJon Anderson | Yes, Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Chris Squire, Rick Wakeman, Alan White | Play | 03:49 | 8 MB | 27 MB |
| 3 | Yours Is No DisgraceJon Anderson, Bill Bruford, Steve Howe, Tony Kaye, Chris Squire | Yes, Jon Anderson, Bill Bruford, Steve Howe, Chris Squire | Play | 09:42 | 22 MB | 65 MB |
| 4 | Starship Trooper | Yes | Play | 09:25 | 21 MB | 65 MB |
| 33 mins | 76 MB | |||||
| 33 mins | 227 MB | |||||
| Artist | Job | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jon Anderson | Composer, Primary Artist |
| 2 | Bill Bruford | Composer, Primary Artist |
| 3 | Roger Dean | Artwork, Cover Painting, Design, Logo, Redesign |
| 4 | Joe Gastwirt | Digital Remastering |
| 5 | Gottlieb Bros. | Redesign |
| 6 | Steve Howe | Composer, Primary Artist |
| 7 | Tony Kaye | Composer |
| 8 | Eddy Offord | Producer |
| 9 | Chris Squire | Composer, Primary Artist |
| 10 | Rick Wakeman | Primary Artist |
| 11 | Alan White | Primary Artist |
| 12 | Yes | Primary Artist, Producer |
| Quality | Format | Encoding | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | MP3 | 320kps 44.1kHz | MP3 is an audio coding format which uses a form of lossy data compression. The highest bitrate of this format is 320kbps (kbit/s). MP3 Digital audio takes less amount of space (up to 90% reduction in size) and the quality is not as good as the original one. |
| CD Quality | FLAC | 16bit 44.1kHz | FLAC is an audio coding format which uses lossless compression. Digital audio in FLAC format has a smaller size and retains the same quality of the original Compact Disc (CD). |