The Essential Herbie Hancock

The Essential Herbie Hancock is the forty-sixth album by American jazz musician and pianist Herbie Hancock. It is part of Sony BMG's The Essential series. Unlike the box set The Herbie Hancock Box, this two-disc set is the first compilation of Hancock's music that included music from all the various recording labels for which Hancock recorded.

The Essential Herbie Hancock
Greatest hits album by Herbie Hancock
Released	2006
Recorded	1962–1998
Genre	Jazz, jazz fusion, R&B, acid jazz
Label	Columbia
Herbie Hancock chronology
Possibilities (2005) The Essential Herbie Hancock (2006) River: The Joni Letters (2007)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Tom Hull	B+

Track listing

Disc one

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Watermelon Man" (from Takin' Off, 1962)	7:12
2.	"'Round Midnight" (from the Sonny Rollins album Now's the Time, 1964)	4:03
3.	"Cantaloupe Island" (from Empyrean Isles, 1964)	5:30
4.	"Maiden Voyage" (from Maiden Voyage, 1965)	7:55
5.	"Circle" (from the Miles Davis Quintet album Miles Smiles, 1967)	5:48
6.	"The Sorcerer" (from Speak Like a Child, 1968)	5:38
7.	"Tell Me a Bedtime Story" (from Fat Albert Rotunda, 1970)	5:01
8.	"Hidden Shadows" (from Sextant, 1973)	10:11
9.	"Chameleon" (from Head Hunters, 1973)	15:41
10.	"Joanna's Theme" (from Death Wish, 1974)	4:43

Disc two

No.	Title	Length
1.	"Butterfly" (from Thrust, 1974)	11:17
2.	"People Music" (from Secrets, 1976)	7:08
3.	"Milestones" (from Herbie Hancock Trio, 1977)	6:37
4.	"4 AM" (from Mr. Hands, 1980)	5:22
5.	"Come Running To Me" (from Sunlight, 1978)	8:24
6.	"Finger Painting" (from the V.S.O.P. album Five Stars, 1979)	6:42
7.	"Stars In Your Eyes" (from Monster, 1980)	7:05
8.	"Rockit" (from Future Shock, 1983)	5:24
9.	"St. Louis Blues" (from Gershwin's World, 1998)	5:50
10.	"Manhattan (Island of Lights and Love)" (from The New Standard, 1996)	4:04