This was the second LP to be released on Grateful Dead’s Round Records label. The label was formed in 1974 for solo projects. This album was simply titled, Garcia, as was the 1972 Garcia LP. It became known as Compliments Of Garcia as the word “compliments” was printed above the title on early, complimentary copies of the LP. This title was officially adopted for the 1989 release to match common usage and avoid confusion with the 1972 Garcia. This LP is often described as one for which Garcia chose some of his favorite songs but this is not the case. He discussed the LP during an interview in the early 80’s: “Most of those songs I didn’t know, either, so I went in there like a studio vocalist, with the lyrics – most of them I’d only heard one or two times. That was one of the few times when I didn’t really go on a trip about the material. I let John do the material selecting, except for a few suggestions like Russian Lullaby, which was one of mine. I wanted him to have something to do. I enjoy working with him and it’s one of those things that he can do, and it’s one of those situations that doesn’t happen to him much in the other parts of his musical life … John and I share such similarities of taste, something that I like John is almost sure to like it. We’re very like each other musically. That’s one of the reasons I’ve been playing with him all this time.” The LP reached number 49 in Billboard’s album charts.
