Before crooner Pat Boone showed the world his head-banging side with the 1997 metal-meets-swing album NO MORE MR. NICE GUY, he had been spending a fair amount of time as a purveyor of Christian music. He even started his own label to propagate his musical message, and GREATEST HYMNS collects on one convenient disc some of the finest moments from Boone's pre-metal spiritual sessions. Backed by orchestra and choir, the man who made both Little Richard and Metallica sound like safe-for-Sunday-morning fare sounds totally committed to the material: when he tackles familiar hymns such as "What a Friend We Have in Jesus," his smooth, carefully controlled voice floats easily above the megachurch-size arrangements.