Edward the Great: The Greatest Hits isIron Maiden's third "best-of album", originally released on 4 November 2002. Unlike the band's other works by the group collecting together songs from different albums, such asBest of the Beast,Edward the Great does not feature any material from the group's first two albums, which featuredPaul Di'Anno as vocalist, but does include material fromBlaze Bayley's five-year tenure with the band.
According toMick Wall, the collection was controversial amongst fans as it was released not long after previous compilations such asBest of the Beast andEd Hunter.[3] Bassist and founder memberSteve Harris comments, "We did get a bit of flak for theEdward the Great album but it wasn't aimed at the hardcore fan, it was aimed at the peripheral people who've heard the name or seen the name on a T-shirt and wouldn't know which record to pick up."[3] To satisfy "the real collector", the band released theEddie's Archive box set simultaneously.[3]
In 2005, a revised edition was released in Europe, Asia and South America with an updated track-listing. The new version coincided with the release ofThe Essential Iron Maiden compilation, released solely in North America, and featured songs from theDance of Death album as well as an alternate live version of "Fear of the Dark".[4] The updated CD also added the song "Brave New World" from thealbum of the same name and the booklet included a new foreword by Iron Maiden managerRod Smallwood, replacing the original foreword by founding member Steve Harris. The album cover does not differentiate between the two editions.[4]
Janick Gers – guitars ("Holy Smoke", "Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter", "Man on the Edge", "Futureal", "The Wicker Man", "Fear of the Dark", "Brave New World", "Wildest Dreams" and "Rainmaker")
Adrian Smith – guitars (except "Holy Smoke", "Bring Your Daughter... to the Slaughter", "Man on the Edge" and "Futureal")
Steve Harris – bass, producer ("Man on the Edge" and "Futureal"), co-producer ("The Wicker Man", "Fear of the Dark", "Brave New World", "Wildest Dreams" and "Rainmaker")
Clive Burr – drums ("Run to the Hills" and "The Number of the Beast")
Blaze Bayley – vocals ("Man on the Edge" and "Futureal")
Production
Martin Birch – producer (except "Man on the Edge", "Futureal", "The Wicker Man", "Fear of the Dark", "Brave New World", "Wildest Dreams" and "Rainmaker")
Nigel Green – producer ("Man on the Edge" and "Futureal")
Kevin Shirley – producer ("The Wicker Man", "Fear of the Dark", "Brave New World", "Wildest Dreams" and "Rainmaker")
Simon Heyworth –remastering (except "Man on the Edge", "Futureal", "The Wicker Man", "Fear of the Dark", "Brave New World", "Wildest Dreams" and "Rainmaker"),mastering ("Man on the Edge")
Ronal Whelan – mastering ("Futureal")
George Marino – mastering ("The Wicker Man", "Brave New World" and "Fear of the Dark" – 2002 edition)
Tim Young – mastering ("Wildest Dreams" and "Rainmaker")
Howie Weinberg – mastering ("Fear of the Dark" – 2005 edition)
[2]
