Good or Bad: Buying Greatest Hits albums when you have all the albums by the Artist

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I'm not gonna say Classic or Dud because this thread is neither that great nor horrible.

But for instence, I like The Clash's greatest hits album, The Singles, but I basically have everything off it. I probably could've just made it myself but I didn't want to (that would've envolved work). But sometimes I just wanna hear the singles. Is that good thing or a bad one.

― Voodoo Child, Sunday, 4 September 2005 15:35 (twenty years ago)

neither good nor bad, but if you have *every* track on the greatest hits album already, in other formats, i don't quite see the point of buying it. if there are a couple of ones you don't have, why not? i've been tempted to buy a geto boys comp, to get a handful of tracks i don't have alreasy.

― weasel diesel (K1l14n), Sunday, 4 September 2005 15:41 (twenty years ago)

I keep wanting to buy "Beautiful Maladies" by Tom Waits but I already have pretty much everything on it anyway. I think it's because this compilation was what really got me into him and I like the songs in that order.

― dog latin (dog latin), Sunday, 4 September 2005 15:53 (twenty years ago)

Depends on the band, and it depends on how much "extra" stuff they put on them (i.e. the B.J.Smegma mix [previously unreleased]). The completist in me has a hard time resisting that sort've thing, which is a bit pathetic, yes.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 4 September 2005 16:17 (twenty years ago)

I've only done it for track order. Like, I fell in love with Jim Croce through his greatest hits Photographs and Memories, lost that CD, and came into his albums. I got Photographs and Memories, though, because Rapid Roy the Stockcar Boy is always track 4 in my heart

― WillS, Sunday, 4 September 2005 16:26 (twenty years ago)

I haven't done it yet, but I could imagine doing it (just) - if the single edits were noticeably different and/or the original albums could do with some good mastering.

― Jedmond (Jedmond), Sunday, 4 September 2005 16:29 (twenty years ago)

I had this problem recently in respect of Sandy Denny. I was looking to buy the box set but with cash tight (as always) I thought to pick my way through the single albums. Asking a mate about the good ones he said just buy the greatest hits. Somehow that feels like cheating. My feeling is you only get a true sense of the person through the bad as well as the good but then I hear she did a few bummers, so now I'm still confused over the issue.

― tolstoy (tolstoy), Sunday, 4 September 2005 17:39 (twenty years ago)

sometimes its nice to have all the favorites on one disc but if you have the albums, just make your own disc assuming theres not new versions of things on the GH disc

― buyabiznatch (buyabiznatch), Sunday, 4 September 2005 20:03 (twenty years ago)

But for instence, I like The Clash's greatest hits album, The Singles, but I basically have everything off it

the Clash had loads of singles that weren't on albums, so they don't really fit the subject

(note that three best-ofs and one box-set (plus an incomplete b-sides comp!) in, no-one has yet actually put together a compilation that does collect all the non-album stuff)

― kit brash (kit brash), Monday, 5 September 2005 07:19 (twenty years ago)

There is something wrong with you people.

― ffjfj, Monday, 5 September 2005 07:31 (twenty years ago)

how about buying singles when you already have everything on singles comps?

― renegade bus (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 5 September 2005 07:40 (twenty years ago)

If I can help it, I try not to buy the same shit twice. I realize that sometimes it's good to have all the choice cuts in one place, but it's too much other unheard stuff I wanna spend money on. If I do have a compilation where I have most/all of the material, it was mainly because:
(a) I got it free
(b) it was by an artist that I was damn near fanatical over

― Rev. Hoodoo (Rev. Hoodoo), Monday, 5 September 2005 11:58 (twenty years ago)

For God's sake just give yr money away if yr this desp to buy SOMETHING (buy a box of matches afore ye pass it awa' if ye must)

― A Viking of Some Note (Andrew Thames), Monday, 5 September 2005 12:01 (twenty years ago)

Tolstoy: you just said you didn't want to buy a Sandy Denny best-of because you thought that was "cheating." I don't know - I guess it depends on how familiar you are with the artist. Generally, if it's someone I'm just getting started with, and they have an extensive catalog, I almost prefer to get the compilation first, so I can catch up with all the good moments before I move further. It's a hell of a thing to have your first album by an artist be the one where they jumped the shark. (That just happened to me - I bought the Bottle Rockets' LEFTOVERS because it was cheap...found out later, through AMG, that it was an "odds & sods"-type compilation for diehards only.)

― Rev. Hoodoo (Rev. Hoodoo), Monday, 5 September 2005 12:04 (twenty years ago)

The most useful sort of compilation is one which comes out when the artist's back catalogue is actually unavailable, e.g. Julian Cope's Scott Walker compilation in '81, which stimulated/reactivated interest in Walker's work, and eventually the back catalogue gradually came back into circulation.

― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 5 September 2005 12:09 (twenty years ago)

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