TS: Greatest Hits vs. Super Hits vs. The Best of vs. The Very Best of vs. The Essential vs. The Anthology

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― amateur!st (amateurist), Thursday, 27 May 2004 23:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Ray Parker Jr to thread.

― Pack Yr Romantic Almanac (Autumn Almanac), Thursday, 27 May 2004 23:50 (twenty-one years ago)

does he work for sony music's catalogue department now?

― amateur!st (amateurist), Thursday, 27 May 2004 23:51 (twenty-one years ago)

The Ultimate Collection.

― Rockist Scientist (rockistscientist), Thursday, 27 May 2004 23:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Don't know, but he's got more collections than actual songs.

Anthologies are usually best because they've got stuff you're not likely to find anywhere else, and you get the 'best' songs as well. 'The Essential' is usually followed by 'Max Bygraves.'

xpost

― Pack Yr Romantic Almanac (Autumn Almanac), Thursday, 27 May 2004 23:53 (twenty-one years ago)

i love actually parsing what these different titles signify

"very best of" = either (a) cut-out cassette at truck stop; (b) nicely remastered rhino re-reissue with ugly packaging

"anthology" = (a) attempting to give mediocre artist more credibility than he should otherwise have ("the shawn mullins anthology"); (b) unsatisfying collection of album tracks and dull "rarities", compromise between box set and "greatest hits"

― amateur!st (amateurist), Thursday, 27 May 2004 23:55 (twenty-one years ago)

'the Berry Vest of Gilbert O'Sullivan'

― de, Thursday, 27 May 2004 23:59 (twenty-one years ago)

"The Best of the Best" = reserved for country arists with huge back catalogues, typically no more than 25 minutes long

― amateur!st (amateurist), Friday, 28 May 2004 00:00 (twenty-one years ago)

"The Singles" is always the best.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Friday, 28 May 2004 00:04 (twenty-one years ago)

definitely "the singles" (with bonus b-sides disc innit)

― the surface noise made by people (electricsound), Friday, 28 May 2004 00:04 (twenty-one years ago)

"The Complete Singles"
"The Complete [Label] Singles"
"The Complete [Label] A & B Sides"
"The Singles Collection"
"Singles"
"Singles +"

― amateur!st (amateurist), Friday, 28 May 2004 00:05 (twenty-one years ago)

"Absolutely the Best"

― amateur!st (amateurist), Friday, 28 May 2004 00:06 (twenty-one years ago)

The [Label] Years

― de, Friday, 28 May 2004 00:08 (twenty-one years ago)

"The Best, We Assure You"
"Who Told You This Wasn't the Best?"
"The Best: You'll Have to Trust Us"

― amateur!st (amateurist), Friday, 28 May 2004 00:09 (twenty-one years ago)

The coolest comps come from Japan, where they all seem to have titles like "THE KINKS SUPER BEST" or "ABBA SUPER GOLD SERIES" or(my favorite) "MARC BOLAN SOLOBEST".

― briania (briania), Friday, 28 May 2004 00:21 (twenty-one years ago)

D'oh how could we forget 'Gold'?

― de, Friday, 28 May 2004 00:26 (twenty-one years ago)

The Best of [ARTIST TK]: 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection

― Matos W.K. (M Matos), Friday, 28 May 2004 00:32 (twenty-one years ago)

"hits"

― the surface noise made by people (electricsound), Friday, 28 May 2004 00:44 (twenty-one years ago)

"All the Best!"
Master Serie

― de, Friday, 28 May 2004 00:45 (twenty-one years ago)

"collected recordings"
"complete recordings"
"compilation"

― the surface noise made by people (electricsound), Friday, 28 May 2004 00:49 (twenty-one years ago)

For number of comps entitled "Greatest Hits", country artists rule -- long careers, long-term label deals, loyal fan bases.

A cursory look through AMG reveals the following greats who have released a "Greatest Hits Volume 3":

Five Satins, Bellamy Brothers, Byrds, Johnny Cash, John Denver, Golden Earring, Tom T. Hall, Barry Manilow, Ronnie Milsap, Supremes, Tammy Wynette, Oak Ridge Boys, Alabama, James Galway (?), Mary Kate & Ashley Olsen (?!?!), Tony Bennett, Ike & Tina Turner, Bob Dylan, Rod McKuen, Billy Joel, WESLEY WILLIS (!), Conway Twitty, Kylie Minogue, Hank Williams, Jr.

At "Greatest Hits Volume 4" the air gets even more rarified:

Don Williams (I own 3 of 4!), Rod McKuen, Kylie Minogue (?), Marty Robbins, Tammy Wynette, Cockney Rejects (?!?!?!?!?!?!?!).

― briania (briania), Friday, 28 May 2004 00:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Elvis Presley definitely had a GHV4, maybe even a 5th one. (of the original series; I'm not sure it went on beyond five, and anyway he's been compiled to death)

― Matos W.K. (M Matos), Friday, 28 May 2004 01:00 (twenty-one years ago)

piled to death

― de, Friday, 28 May 2004 01:05 (twenty-one years ago)

I've gotten quite addicted to "The Essential" (Sony Legacy Series.) It's all about having them lined up next to each other. I ownz: Neil Diamond, Leonard Cohen, Cheap Trick, Barbara Streisand, Kris Kristofferson, Andy Williams, Mahalia Jackson.

But yeah "The Singles" and "Singles As&Bs", that's the joint.

― Daniel_Rf (Daniel_Rf), Friday, 28 May 2004 01:07 (twenty-one years ago)

the elvis presley series is classic, as it went back and forth between "elvis' gold records" and "elvis' golden records" (also "elvis'" WTF--should be "elvis's"!)

― amateur!st (amateurist), Friday, 28 May 2004 03:17 (twenty-one years ago)

unless "elvis" is plural, as the famous "50,000 elvis fans can't be wrong" cover seems to corroborate.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Friday, 28 May 2004 03:17 (twenty-one years ago)

or is it "500,000"?

"500,000,000" might be more accurate...

― amateur!st (amateurist), Friday, 28 May 2004 03:18 (twenty-one years ago)

i think it's 50 million no?

― s1ocki (slutsky), Friday, 28 May 2004 03:19 (twenty-one years ago)

"5,000.00 elvis fans can't be wrong"

― amateur!st (amateurist), Friday, 28 May 2004 03:26 (twenty-one years ago)

"Super Hits" is obviously the worst of the bunch. That's either a a) ten song comp in the $5.99 bin in HMV, or b) 35-song compilation for three easy payments of $15.99 -- not available in stores -- call today!

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Friday, 28 May 2004 03:44 (twenty-one years ago)

"Best Remixed"

― amateur!st (amateurist), Friday, 28 May 2004 03:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Twentieth Century Masters. I recently was in Best Buy and saw that Semisonic have a "Twentieth Century Masters" collection, as well as numerous artists who I have never heard of.

― Daniel DiMAGGIO (Daniel DiMAGGIO), Friday, 28 May 2004 06:54 (twenty-one years ago)

"Complete Discography"

― russell, Friday, 28 May 2004 07:07 (twenty-one years ago)

the cream of...
the best of the rest of....
...the hits
but my favorite is still the very best of, it hints at connosoirship without meaning anything.

― lukey (Lukey G), Friday, 28 May 2004 08:03 (twenty-one years ago)

"20th century masters" sounds so classy.

― J.D. (Justyn Dillingham), Friday, 28 May 2004 08:32 (twenty-one years ago)

er, "super hits"? that's a new one...

― paulhw (paulhw), Friday, 28 May 2004 21:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Someone at one of the labels explained in ICE a couple of years ago that two reasons for the multiple collection thing are that they do well with titles at different price points, and that many chains will only carry whatever recent release there is from an artist.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Friday, 28 May 2004 23:55 (twenty-one years ago)

eleven months pass...

...

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Thursday, 5 May 2005 21:15 (twenty years ago)

"Anthology" is the best thing here, and it should of course be strictly chronological.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Thursday, 5 May 2005 22:15 (twenty years ago)

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