I kinda miss the "supergroup." A phenomenon of the late 60's, mainly, supergroups were formed when a bunch of guys from already famous groups got together in a new group (often at the instigation of their record companies) and almost invariably destroyed their previously vaunted individual reputations. Now, that was entertainment! Asia, anyone??? Anyway, Bad Company was just such a supergroup, but while they always had a cloud of opportunism hanging over them, they but they were never all that bad. Critics charged that the individual members left the accomplished confines of their previous bands - art rock groups like King Crimson (Boz Burrell), Mott The Hoople (Mick Ralphs), and Free (Paul Rodgers and Simon Kirke) - to cash out in the arena rock arena. And, boy, did they cash in...

...but not without merit. The boys certainly had a pedigree, and singer Paul Rodgers was very nearly "best of breed" in the full-throated, strutting lead singer category. Their first album, Bad Co. (1974), is a thrill ride of hooks and riffs, and the next two, Straight Shooter (1975) and Running With Pack (1976), each carry a lot of weight. Things got a little lighter, however, with each each subsequent release, and Rodgers eventually left the fold. He recorded first with Led Zeppelin's Jimmy Page in the Firm, then with drummer Kenney Jones, formerly of the Faces and theWho, in the Law; these days, Rodgers is a blues-leaning solo act. By the late 1980's, however, Bad Company had become just another hair band plying power ballads, and today they are merely an oldies act.

The hits package 10 From 6 is a barely adequate look back, containing just ten songs from Bad Company's first six albums (or five, really, since the disc neglects to include any cuts from Burning Sky) - and it's poorly mastered, to boot. Instead, I recommend Rhino's double-disc set, The Original Bad Company Anthology, which hits all the right spots, surveying only the Rodgers-era albums while tossing in some extra goodies for hard-core collectors.