Bob Seger

Biography

Born in 1945 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Seger is the son of a musically-active father, who led a big band and sang in a barbershop quartet before taking a job at a Ford plant. He grew up with a passion for rhythm & blues, and formed his first group, the Decibels, at age 16. The next few years were spent in a series of local bands before his first regional hits like "East Side Story" and "Persecution Smith" starting in 1966. (For all the attention paid to Detroit rock & roll from the MC5 to the White Stripes, Bob Seger was at the scene's center from Day One.) In 1969, The Bob Seger System recorded "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man," their first album for Capitol Records, a label he has stayed with for over 30 years; the title track reached the Top 20 on the national charts, while the anti-war song "2+2=?" was a memorably powerful Vietnam protest.

After gathering the core of the Silver Bullet Band over the next few years, Seger's real breakthrough came with 1975's Beautiful Loser album, represented on Greatest Hits 2 with the haunting title song and the roaring "Katmandu." The well-honed results of the band's non-stop touring were chronicled on Live Bullet, which has gone on to sell more than five million copies.

Then in 1976, Seger released his first studio album with the complete Silver Bullet Band - the landmark Night Moves, anchored by the unforgettable title track, which established him as a leading figure in '70s rock. Remarkably, after including several songs from the album on the first Greatest Hits set, there were still three choice cuts ("The Fire Down Below," "Sunspot Baby," and "Rock and Roll Never Forgets") left for the new Hits. Where Night Moves looked back at Seger's younger days, the follow-up, 1978's Stranger In Town, offered his response to life after rock stardom.

The next chapter came with Against the Wind in 1980, featuring a maturing Seger's reflections on growing older - especially on several striking ballads, including "Fire Lake" (which, like the sassy "Her Strut," is contained on the second Hits album). Against the Wind, like Stranger in Town, was recently certified quintuple-platinum. Another double live album, Nine Tonight (1981) followed, while The Distance (1982) featured Rodney Crowell's song "Shame on the Moon," one of many Bob Seger songs to cross over to country radio, and his biggest hit on the country singles chart.

Like a Rock (1986), with its mammoth title song, and The Fire Inside, from 1991, continued Seger's streak of nine consecutive platinum albums. The release of It's a Mystery in 1995, including the hard-driving "Manhattan," marked Seger's last studio album; only "Chances Are," from the Hope Floats soundtrack, has emerged since then - until the new tracks on Greatest Hits 2, hopefully indicating that a new full-length release isn't far away. But Seger's timeless catalog continues to sell week in and week out, a tribute to the universal emotions and clear-eyed observations captured in his best work. With hit records now spanning five decades, Bob Seger is a genuine voice of our rock & roll heartland.