Greatest Love Songs

Greatest Lovesongs Vol. 666 is the debut album by Finnish band, HIM. It was produced by Hiili Hiilesmaa, who also produced their first EP 666 Ways to Love: Prologue. Like that EP, this album was recorded at Finnvox, MD and Peacemakers in Helsinki, Finland. Guest vocals were provided by Sanna-June Hyde and Asta Hannula on "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" and "For You", respectively. A special Digipak version of the album was also released with "For You" moved to the first track. Another special edition was released in Germany with the bonus track "Stigmata Diaboli", taken from 666 Ways to Love: Prologue. In keeping with the theme of 666, the albums length is 66 minutes and 6 seconds and contains 66 tracks, 56 of which are blank. Although sometimes perceived to have Satan-worshiping references, Valo has stated that the album was not to be perceived as such.

Original Finnish Tracklist

1. "For You (Intro)" - 4:00
2. "Your Sweet Six Six Six" - 4:11
3. "Wicked Game" (Chris Isaak cover) - 3:54
4. "The Heartless" - 4:01
5. "Our Diabolikal Rapture" - 5:20
6. "It's All Tears (Drown in This Love)" - 3:42
7. "When Love and Death Embrace" - 6:08
8. "The Beginning of the End" - 4:07
9. "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" (Blue Öyster Cult cover)* - 6:23

After track 9 ("(Don't Fear) The Reaper"), there is a series of untitled hidden tracks (numbers 10 - 66) that fill 666 megabyte, although only track 66 contains any music, the same music from the end of the 666 Ways To Love version of The Heartless. However on the US re-issue (due to Jimmy Franks Recording Company's extensive editing.) the disc was 664 megabytes and the length was 66:04.

• Don't Fear The Reaper from Greatest Lovesongs 666 is the demo version. When HIM got their first album ready, the length was only 32 minutes, then they remembered that this song was good in the band’s first demo, even though it was never published. So they put it to the end of record. As it lasted 7 minutes they got the whole album’s length to 40 minutes, which was enough.

Germany Tracklist

This track listing was also featured on the Japanese, Russian and Australian versions.

1. "Your Sweet Six Six Six" – 4:12
2. "Wicked Game" – 3:54 (Chris Isaak cover)
3. "The Heartless" – 4:02
4. "Our Diabolikal Rapture" – 5:20
5. "It's All Tears (Drown in This Love)" – 3:43
6. "When Love and Death Embrace" – 6:08
7. "The Beginning of the End" – 4:07
8. "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" – 6:24 (Blue Öyster Cult cover)
9. "For You" – 3:58

After track 9 (For You), there is a series of untitled hidden tracks (numbers 10 - 66) that fill 666 megabyte, although only track 66 contains any music, the same music from the end of the 666 Ways To Love version of The Heartless. In the second verse of "It's All Tears (Drown In This Love)" the woman heard screaming from The Heartless demo can be heard on the left panel.

German Special Edition

This version was produced in very small quantities in 1998.

1. "Your Sweet Six Six Six"
2. "Wicked Game" (Chris Isaak cover)
3. "The Heartless"
4. "Our Diabolikal Rapture"
5. "It's All Tears (Drown in This Love)"
6. "When Love and Death Embrace"
7. "The Beginning of the End"
8. "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" (Blue Öyster Cult cover)
9. "For You"
10. "Stigmata Diaboli"

References