Stepping Out: The Very Best of Joe Jackson is a compilation album from the English musician Joe Jackson.[3] The songs, arranged in chronological order, are taken from nine of his first twelve albums, all of which were released on the A&M Recordslabel.[3]Stepping Out: The Very Best of Joe Jackson reached No. 7 in the UK Albums Chart in October 1990.[4] By this time Jackson had parted company with A&M, with his next few releases being on the Virgin Records label.[5]
In his book, The Great Rock Discography, music historian Martin C. Strong awards the album 8 out of 10.[3]
The LP release did not include the songs "Beat Crazy" and "Home Town". The Australian LP/CD/tape release omitted "Fools in Love" and inserted "Real Men" in its place, as that had been a #6 hit in Australia in 1982.[6]
Production and songwriting credits
Based on the track numbering from the CD version of the album, the songs were produced by: tracks 1, 2, 3 and 4 by David Kershenbaum; tracks 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13 by Joe Jackson and David Kershenbaum; tracks 5, 6, 14 and 15 by Joe Jackson.[7]