War: Greatest Hits (50th Anniversary Edition)
Released 31 July 2026
CD | Vinyl | DL | Streaming
4.0 out of 5.0 stars
It’s time to revive the legacy of one of the foundational bands of 1970s soul and funk. Although War had fewer chart successes in the UK than in their native US, their Greatest Hits is packed with inspirational and innovative tunes. Robert Plummer knows how to dance without spilling the wine.
“Football’s coming home again, with Tommy Tuchel,” sang the England fans: sadly, it was not to be. Nonetheless, it was a joy to hear them borrow the riff from War’s enduring Latino-flavoured anthem Low Rider for their short-lived World Cup chant. We’ll probably never hear that version again, but the original is making a glorious return as part of a fresh anniversary edition of the SoCal street-funk band’s greatest hits.
War’s multi-ethnic mix of soul, jazz and rock helped to shape the Seventies, yet it took time to mature. They first came to prominence when legendary Animals frontman Eric Burdon took them under his wing. That resulted in the US smash single Spill The Wine, which opens the newly expanded CD edition of this compilation: the vinyl version, sticking to the original 1976 format, omits it.
After two albums with Burdon, War struck out on their own. James Brown was still a major dancefloor force at the time: disco and hip-hop were not yet on the horizon, but urban music was in ferment. While the East Coast had party jams from the Fatback Band and the still raw early Kool & The Gang, War delved deep into Afro-Cuban and Chicano culture for that extra edge.
The mellow tones of All Day Music, a minor US Top 40 hit in 1971, are where this story starts. Just wallow in that hazy hot summer vibe, sustained by barbershop harmonies and a liquid organ sound: “Let’s have a picnic, go to the park/Rolling in the grass ‘til long after dark.”
Still, this is no mere escapist outfit, as the sombre Latin blues of Slippin’ Into Darkness soon makes clear. After that, The World Is A Ghetto, with its in-your-face message and its downbeat yet hypnotic mood, removes all doubt about the seriousness of War’s intent. By now, it’s increasingly hard to pigeonhole this music: Wikipedia describes the song as “psychedelic soul”, but that doesn’t feel right for a song of such realism.
Did the heaviness of the subject matter harm War’s commercial chances? Not a bit of it: The World Is A Ghetto was the biggest-selling US album of 1973 and the single was their first US Top 10 pop hit. Other politically and socially committed artists should take note – you can express all the home truths you like, but you need the tunes to back them up.
That same album also spawned The Cisco Kid, an easy rolling monster that built on 1960s Latin soul boogaloo fusions and retooled them for a new decade. Syncopated timbales and congas drive the rhythm forward, with the lyrics celebrating Mexican cowboy heroes from an iconic TV series: the Wild West wasn’t all John Wayne, runs the implication. The single was War’s biggest US hit, reaching number two in the charts, so ears of all colours were clearly pricking up.
Their next hit, the harmonica-powered Gypsy Man, showed War could embrace West Coast rock when they wanted to. It came from their sixth album, 1973’s Deliver The Word, which also gave us the no-nonsense hard-funk workout Me And Baby Brother. The latter tune’s relentless uptempo rhythm belies the gritty lyrics, which spell out that the younger sibling has followed the wrong path in life – “Come back, baby brother.”
Further classics ensue: Southern Part Of Texas, the funkiest ever song about a miscarriage of justice, then the cod-reggae plea for racial harmony Why Can’t We Be Friends? The album arguably peaks with Low Rider, but there are four more songs on the CD version. They include Summer, a new track added to the album in 1976, which picks up where the seasonal ambience of All Day Music left off.
The laid-back atmosphere continues to the end with the remaining additions. Don’t Let No One Get You Down and So are languid deep cuts from the late 1970s, inessential but nice to have, whereas Galaxy is a suitably peppy closer. While the heatwave continues, there’s no better chillout music.
Aside from the occasional appearance on the terraces, War’s music doesn’t get the recognition it deserves these days. But the political and social woes that birthed it have not gone away – the world remains a ghetto for many and there’s still no reason we can’t be friends. These infectious grooves are as relevant now as they have always been: to invert a time-honoured phrase, free your ass and your mind will follow.
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You can find out more about War on their official website. They are also on Instagramand X.
All words by Robert Plummer. More writing by Robert can be found at hisauthor’s archive. He is also on X as @robertp926.
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