The greatest Greatest Hits collection

Oh! Oh! Half of it is duff but you don't need any other records by them now it's come out, so I'd say the Best Of Blur, too. An MP3 of Popscene is perhaps of historical interest.

As a rule I don't really care for "Best Of" albums.

The problem with Hot Rocks is that you're missing "She's A Rainbow" and "Angie," and you miss the whole Goat's Head Soup/Exile on Main Street album period.

D-damn man, didn't you read the prompt?

Besides, as per Bruce McCulloch,

"Greatest Hits comps are for old women and little girls..."

It is also quite possibly the first album I ever heard - as my mother was an avid duster to "Dreams Of The Everyday Housewife" on her cassette version when I was three (the cassette version really spoiled the awful cover as the heart shaped vinyl motife was squeezed to look like a licourice allsort). I bought it for a quid.

Which 'the Doors best of' are you referring to? Last time I checked the Doors were well on the way to releasing more greatest hits, anthologies and live retrospectives than original albums. It seems as if they have elipsed this format by some nasty postmodern mediation. (increasing the case with the Beatles if anyone hasn't noticed!)

*actually their last one is pretty good.

Personally, I'm very happy with Duran Duran's _Decade_, even if it is missing "Come Undone". Also, _The Best Of Blondie_ is great.

(I don't have _The Best of Blur_, but "Music Is My Radar" could only make it better. I almost bought the damn thing solely for that song.)

Anyhow, I nearly exclusively deal in greatest hits, sometimes, because it's just a lot easier than buying a pile of crap albums to hear like 2 songs. ABBA Gold, obviously, you need; St. Etienne's Too Young To Die is fantastic; Bruce Springsteen's Greatest Hits is really the only album by him you NEED (though I'd recommend others), despite its willfull and unfortunate leaving out of Rosalita; New Order's best of is really the only New Order album I listen to; same goes for Blondie's The Platinum Collection. I'd also give marks to Blur's best of, even though half of it is crap, because it allows me to rid myself of the rest of their albums finally. Oh, and Lenny Kravitz's greatest hits is good because Lenny is definitely a singles artist, so if you just skip over American Woman and Fly Away you've got a good time on your hands. There are 10,000 Beatles' best ofs, so you should get one of those for historical sake really, and if you get the right one you really don't need more than that.

The Smiths' "Singles" wasn't bad, especially after Best Of 1 and 2, which was bloody awful. Not to mention replacing Morrissey's cover design outside of North America. Happily "Singles" had his design, a nice picture of Diana Dors and with "Louder Than Bombs" was a better "Best Of" than the offical one was.

Madonna's Immacualte Collection, plus Frozen and Beautiful Stranger, two bona fide pop classics if you ask me.

...Finally, Abba Gold. Most of these are classics, but you need 'The Visitors' on there as well. The way it builds up into the chorus is just amazingly good.

I'd say a Beatles compilation, but basically, none of the many do them justice, it's just not possible to compile one that would please everyone. (And I genuinely believe that, whatever people may say, most people like the Beatles at least a little)

Just adding to the consensus here...

Bill

Josh, if the Doors you speak of is the 2-CD thing, quit while you're ahead. That's all the Doors you need. Sad but true story: As a teenager, I loved the Doors like every good American. I had that 2-CD Best Of. I liked it so much I thought I'd love the whole Doors catalog. So I sold the Best-of and went about acquiring the 6 studio albums. I bought all those, got very sick of the Doors, and in my early 20s sold all six. Now I have no Doors at all. Hence the wisdom of quitting while you're ahead.

And if we *have* to go on to the Beatles, then go for the Red and Blue Albums, which between them contain all 27 tracks which ended up on that abomination known as "One", but which also contain a good few tracks that don't get so many daytime plays on Capital Gold :). (well, "I Am The Walrus", which is the one that really matters, though the Blue Album chooses appallingly from Abbey Road). The only Beatles repackagings worth even considering owning.

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00028HBK2.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

1. Mambo No. 5 (A Little Bit Of...) - Lou Bega
2. Macarena - Los Del Rios
3. Chan Chan - Buena Vista Social Club
4. Frenesi - Linda Ronstadt
5. Theme from "Harry's Game" - Clannad
6. Over the Rainbow
7. Barcelona Nights - Ottmar Liebert
8. Valse d'Amelie - Yann Tiersen
9. Bomboleo - Gipsy Kings
10. Pata Pata - Miriam Makeba
11. Jump in the Line - Harry Belafonte
12. Swingin' the Mambo - Tito Puente
13. Soul Bossa Nova - Quincy Jones & His Orchestra
14. Pass the Dutchie - Musical Youth
15. Hot! Hot! Hot! - Arrow
16. Grazing in the Grass - Hugh Masekela
17. Mais Que Nada - Sergio Mendes
18. Oye Como Va - Santana

Steely Dan's Greatest Hits may not delete the need to buy the actual albums but is probably the greatest collection of songs in existence.

Close second, Merle Haggard's "Songs I'll Always Sing".

i'm listening to the cult's 'pure cult' thingie. pretty damn good. needs 'aphrodisiac jacket' and a few more, but i guess they weren't singles...

Thread should have been closed after Dr C's choice of the Buzzcocks 'Singles Going Steady' way up there somewhere. As far as GH go, it doesn't get better than this.

"Once Upon A Time", Siouxsie and the Banshees, is great.

Yeah, Buzzcocks for me too. Chief competition would be Sly & the Family Stone and CCR. (Greatest non-existent GH = Bob Seger's)

Not The Beatles, simply because any "Greatest Hits" by The Beatles is automatically bound to be devoid of most of the great stuff they did.

Out of the ones not mentioned, Madness had a very strong run of singles.

And then there's Bob Marley's "Legend" too. Has been voted best "best of" a lot of times although personally I really don't think it worked out until all those extra tracks were added for the rather recent special edition.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/d7/50000fall.jpg

maybe not the greatest ever but a pretty cool collection

http://umusicimages.ca/doublediscgold/parliament.jpg is awesome

http://kpuk.net/big_img/608.jpg

Is there really no AC/DC greatest hits/best of? AMG doesn't list one, nor does Amazon. How odd.

https://www.discogs.com/label/441825-Chess-Blues-Masters-Series

Literally in reverse chronological order, Pulp's 'Countdown 1992–1983'.

Bananarama Greatest Hits is not strictly reverse chronological, but the Stock-Aitken-Waterman years are up front and the earlier Swain-Jolley years at the end.

Underworld's 1992-2002 comp is insanely stacked, granted you probably couldn't make a bad UW comp if you tried, even still just insane how many bangers are on this thing

Re: Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac, this CD (more or less culled from the Blue Horizon box set) was my introduction:

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51cK6R+ctXL._SX300_.jpg

The only glaring omission is "Love That Burns," but it's a big one IMHO. I would've ditched the "Albatross" remake to make room for it (especially since the disc opens with the original "Albatross") but it's possible that remake was more or less the economic reason for producing this CD.

Need Your Love So Bad was playing when I got married, yet I've never heard this longer version! Damn.

"albatross" is one of the great achievements of western civilization

Not really the thread for it, but this 2-hour version of Albatross by Keith Fullerton Whitman also one of the great achievements of western civilisation: https://soundcloud.com/kfw/fleetwood-mac-albatross-blend

xp otm

It's PSB's Discography for me, no contest, BUT

"Live Rust" -- still the best-nearest-thing to a good "Best of Neil Young" intro that isn't overlong
"Ladies and Gentlemen: The Best of George Michael" -- a lovely 1990s object, double CD chunky plastic case, handsome George on the packaging, and lots of Wham when they were still (somewhat) undervalued. The selection on "25" is better -- "Precious Box" is on it, for a start -- but this one is more perfect (and has a much better cover)

Finally landed on the one single-disc greatest hits that rivals Earth Wind & Fire's

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/29/Respect-M.E..jpg

No. Bowie's best comp is 1993's out of print Ryko The Singles Collection: every single through 1993. Essential.

― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 9 June 2024 00:51 bookmarkflaglink

the thing with that one is, it isn't every single, and some of the songs weren't even released as singles. different track listings on UK vs US as well so they both have different omissions

"Live Rust" -- still the best-nearest-thing to a good "Best of Neil Young" intro that isn't overlong

Live Rust has the weird reggae Cortez the Killer which drives me nuts

I like Live Rust, and Decade misses a lot--impossible not to over a modest three albums--but I'd still take Decade. The new songs were really exciting at the time, topped by unearthing "Sugar Mountain."

what's the best best-of/comp for a band/artist that never had an album? this one goes in my top ten:

https://i.discogs.com/8CWtgDpL4v8OLjsIc1evPLp-A3RrgMEWLUMQJicsoWQ/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:539/w:540/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTE2MTQ1/NzgtMTM4OTUwMTYw/MC02OTU3LmpwZWc.jpeg

also this. and if you have never listened to The Poets, you totally should!

https://i.discogs.com/mG4CiF1wKth3ZU9B_4-qTk1_kUpV8tAkF-mmXbFVxic/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:587/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTUwNzQ5/ODktMTU0NjI2NDMy/OC05NTU1LmpwZWc.jpeg

The Essential Taj Mahal. I don’t know lots about him, but this contains all the “hits” I knew of, and with two discs I don’t have an urgent need to research his dozens of other albums.

― Three Rings for the Elven Bishop (Dan Peterson), Monday, October 19, 2020

One of my all timers is his Best of vol 1 from ‘81,

xposts

Lol this was the only version of Cortez I knew for a long time - when I eventually heard it on Decade, I was like "where's the reggae bit?"

xps The Missy Elliott disc is awesome. Anyone know why it was never issued in the U.S.? (Not that it matters - imports for it are cheap. I got another copy last year to replace one a friend never gave back for $10.)

No actual hits, but The Way of the Vaselines: A Complete History. I downloaded it years ago, but just bought it for real last week and have been listening to it in the car the last few days. The two songs Nirvana covered, "Molly's Lips" and "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam," are both brilliant (with great user-created videos available on YouTube). Many other excellent songs: "Son of a Gun," "Rory Rides Me Raw," "Bitch" (sung by Frances McKee, who looks like Mary Lynn Rajskub on her gatefold photo), "No Hope." Of the 19 songs, the only one I'd remove is the Divine cover ("You Think You're a Man")--just feels a little gimmicky and anomalous to me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toQx3VavKqk

> Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam

i don't think he does

It's so weird--there's the title ("does"), the chorus ("doesn't"), and then Nirvana changed the title to match the chorus.

odd, i've always known it as the latter

odder still, the lp i have doesn't even contain it:

https://www.discogs.com/master/318194-The-Vaselines-Dum-Dum

"wants me" was something we'd sing in school assemblies

https://www.discogs.com/master/85439-The-Vaselines-All-The-Stuff-And-More - 'doesn't'. but everywhere else is 'does'

On Returning (1977–1979) is by far the Wire album I've listened to the most.

The lp misses out a bunch of tracks to fit ("Mannequin" ???) but it's expensive now.

The two songs Nirvana covered, "Molly's Lips" and "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam,"

Nirvana also covered Son Of A Gun

Mannequin isn't on the CD either. I like the live version of 12XU it opens with

Oh that’s right.

It was “Dot Dash” I was thinking of.

what's the best best-of/comp for a band/artist that never had an album?

Alan Braxe & Friends - The Upper Cuts

or maybe Basic Channel - BCD

Ah, the Vaselines, they used to provoke a mass exodus to the bar whenever they were the support act at gigs in Glasgow... which seemed to be often.

You know what is a solid greatest hits album that could really have been mentioned in this thread earlier?

Idol Songs: 11 Of The Best (1988).

The Boy Child compilation is all I need from Scott Walker's early career.

I’m three ales and a gummy into the evening and ready to declare that disc one of ZZ Top’s Rancho Texicano best of is my ideal example of this.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51YVKjG83VL._UF1000,1000_QL80_.jpg

Marshall Tucker Band's first "greatest hits" album, first released in 1978, easily found on a CD that usually sells for a dollar or two.

They've since released a longer and "remastered" Greatest Hits collection, but I think their music wears thin pretty fast. The original compilation is only eight songs long and it plays like a solid album, likely all you need if you're not taken with them. (Even here, the hits play like an album rather than a compilation, with one mighty peak, a couple of smaller ones and the rest simply pleasant.)

Ear-Bleeding Country: The Best of Dinosaur Jr, which Cherry Red (a UK boutique) reissued with a bonus disc of selections picked out by fans, but disc one's the original Rhino release, and it pretty much has all the Dinosaur Jr I'd want to hear most outside of You're Living All Over Me and Bug.

Also, I like the artwork as well - much more palatable than Mascis's usual album covers but still very fitting.

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/BW_MEDIAX_AVIF_MEASUREMENT_1306696-T4/images/I/51iEVWXZXGL._SY300_SX300_QL70_ML2_.jpg

born and raised by the eagles greatest hits 1 & 2, so probably those

Actual Miles is actually not a bad Don Henley collection. His disdain for putting it out is obvious from the artwork, and the final three non-album cuts all suck (if licensing wasn't an issue, his hit duet with Stevie Nicks, "Leather and Lace," would've made far more sense), but otherwise tracks 1 through 10 covers all the hits in expedient fashion.

Even better, ditch the aforementioned last three cuts and maybe "I Will Not Go Quietly" (that was never a single and never a hit in any way) and you have a nice and tidy single LP.

Is there a thread of greatest hits comps that came too early?

Not like, an artist with a long career needing vols i and ii, or artists whose career includes a rebirth and were not done hitmaking .

More like someone with two albums?

birdistheword, were you up at 3 a.m. listening to Don Henley?

xp Cheekiest Greatest Hits Album

lol, I was up from jet lag but only typing about Don Henley, not listening!

Is there a thread of greatest hits comps that came too early?

Steve Miller Band

He had THREE greatest hits comps before the legendary 1974-1978 (vol 4?) greatest hits collection that we all know and love.

The first two albums, Anthology and the mega-selling Greatest Hits pretty much covers everything I'd want to hear from Steve Miller's sizable discography while repeating only ONE track.

(also they not terrible as pure chewing gum blooz rock pop tho. which is not nothing in my head. but its a very old and actually damaged head).