Greatest Hits Albums You Don’t Own But Probably Should...
I tend to be a completist and eschew repackaged albums, preferring instead to acquire a band's material first disc to last. However, sometimes one only wants a taste to sample the works of an artist, or a good set boiled-down for driving around with.
Follows are a few selections that one might wish to add to their music collections. I've tried to limit this to bands you might not otherwise have - groups big enough to have a Greatest Hits compilation (or several, in some cases), yet (I suspect) largely overlooked or totally unknown to most here.
- Elvis Presley: “Elv1s 30 #1 Hits” is probably a good place to start any list of must-have compilations. “Greatest Jukebox Hits” is better. I grew up with a battered copy of “Elvis Golden Records” (his first Greatest Hits comp, released in 1958) which is still excellent but lacks, obviously, some of his later good ones.
- Johnny Cash: "johnny cash greatest hits" yields 128 results on Amazon.com. I expect they largely cover the same territory. You need one. Buy one that tickles your pickle.
- The Beatles: A lot of people bought “1” when it came out a few years ago. For my money, you’re still better-off buying both “1962-1966” (AKA “the red one”) and “1967-1970” (“the blue one”).
- The Rolling Stones: “Hot Rocks 1964-1971”. “More Hot Rocks: Big Hits & Fazed Cookies” is an excellent addition, but not as mandatory as its predecessor. Wisely ignore anything later.
- ABBA: “Gold”. You Europeans probably have a copy of this lying around the house somewhere already. Americans, take heed! I vacuum to this at top-volume.
- Bad Company: “The ‘Original’ Bad Company Anthology”. You know half the songs on here and don’t know you know them. This is from whence comes Guitar Of Air.
- Blue Öyster Cult: “Workshop of the Telescopes”. A disc-and-a-half of perfection followed by a couple filler tracks. Still, no other BÖC comp is as complete. The math-rock of its day.
- Cheap Trick: Any of several. I like “Essential” quite a bit.
- The Clash: “The Story Of The Clash, Volume 1” & “The Story Of The Clash, Volume 2”. A deeper (and better) collection than “Essential”, “The Singles”, or “On Broadway”.
- Gang Of Four: “A Brief History of the Twentieth Century”. Heavy doses of the earlier stuff with just enough of their later, more-dancable material. There are other GO4 comps, but this one always felt more complete to me.
- Flipper: “Sex Bomb Baby!”. Enough Said.
Now, you go.
This is why we can't have nice things.
Ronnie James Dio - The Very Beast of Dio: The perfect introduction to the late great's solo career. I might have ended up buying Holy Diver just for "Holy Diver", but with this collection, I was able to hear "The Last in Line" which to me is the definitive Dio song.
Ministry - Side Trax: Not so much a greatest hits, but a compilation of Ministry side projects Pailhead, 1000 Homo DJs, PTP, and Acid Horse. So many great songs here, but the true gem is the previously unreleased "Show Me Your Spine" which is featured in the nightclub scene in Robocop.
Rockets - Galactica: A collection of the French Space rock/ New Wave/ prog band's greatest hits you might not have heard in America. If you like Gary Numan or Kraftwerk or Devo, you just might worship this.
And the cover, my god, how do you not want to listen?:
My brand new 2011 halloween comp:
http://soundcloud.com/brosupremo/hallowmix-2-the-deadening/s-BKf8z
Not so much Greatest Hits because none of the bands I listen to have been around long enough to start the Greatest Hits game. But they have albums from first song to last that are amazing and worth checking out.
Interpol Turn on the Bright Lights. Dark, beautiful, and literate.
Wolf Parade Apologies to the Queen Mary. Alternative pop from way out in left field. Some of the best lyrics that I know of.
Frog Eyes The Folded Palm. Abrasive avant-guarde rock.
Sunset Rubdown Shut Up I Am Dreaming. Experimental stadium rock. Could very have been their greatest hits album because all the songs appear on earlier works, but at the same time, they're all revamped and reimagined for this LP.
Matthew Good In Coma 1995-2005 (Deluxe Edition) Less of greatest collection, but more of love letter to his fans. While the standard is your basic greatest hits package that contains all of his singles, excluding a specific few, and three unreleased tracks from past recording sessions. The deluxe addition contains all the singles, included the ones not included in the standard, all the music videos on a bonus DVD, with commentary for most of the videos with director of most of his videos, and an unreleased animated video for 'While We Were Hunting Rabbits' a fan favorite. Acoustic reworkings of certain tracks. But the greatest part of the album, containing the tracks of two nigh impossible EPs that can go on ebay for up to $200 bucks. Along with the fact that every track on both the standard and deluxe editions were remastered. Note, this isn't all thats available in this package, just all I can remember.
"The rat inside your brain rules the world."
Citizen Kane SUCKED!!!!!!! True fact.
Alcoholism is the cure not the disease.
I only had The Very Best of The Smiths for a long time, and it was really good as an introduction to the band. Has loads of great tracks. There are heaps of Greatest Hits of theirs though; the one I mean looks like this:
Depeche Mode double disc is also pretty good.
Whoa, BIG FACE. Sorry if that frightened anyone.
Yay, ABBA! I listened to that a lot when I was a kid, haha.
The Smiths one is quite good.
Peter Green era Fleetwood.
Essential Bob Dylan.
I've found The Essential series is pretty good overall.
That's a whole 'nother thread I think.
I wanted to add that most of the discs I mentioned can be found in used bins for under $10.
This is why we can't have nice things.
Best of David Bowie 1969 to 1974 is a brilliant "best of" album.
I would go with "Changes" for my purposes.
The original issue. The expanded version is unnecessary.
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yeah, Changes would be get my vote too. and i agree the expanded version is completely unnecessary.
I never heard it. Heard the song but not the album. Is that a compilation?
1976 collection, AKA ChangesOneBowie.
http://www.discogs.com/David-Bowie-ChangesOneBowie/master/22239
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Yeah only tracks not on the 69 to 74 CD are Young Americans, Fame and Golden Years, they're on 74 to 79. He's brought out a shit-load of greatest hits and best ofs over the years.
The best of The Faces: Good Boys...When They're Sleeping
The best of the Mamas and Papas
Pink Floyd's Relics.
not really a greatest hits but still
See, I considered Floyd, but really their albums work best listened to from start to finish as whole works rather than collections of songs.
IMO, of course.
This is why we can't have nice things.
Tuffy, we must be musical soulmates. I agree 100% with you again. I'm sitting with my brother right now, going through old photos, listening to Dark Side of the Moon on record, and i only just said to him that i loved listening to records, and especially, records that were purposefully recorded to be listened to all the way through, from one side to the next. i really love that. it's one of the reasons why i enjoy listening to records; because it's a whole experience, and with CDs and even more so with MP3s, one tends to skip tracks.
IMO, of course.
i agree pink floyd's albums should be listened to start to finish but relics has tracks that didn't apear on other albums, like careful with that axe eugene. i know there's a live version on ummagumma and it is way better anyway, just an example. relics is just a nice record to own for stuff like biding ny time and maybe 1 or 2 other rarities
forgive my revolting spelling...
The Pogues Ultimate Collection is quite nice.
The Smashing Pumpkins' Rotten Apples is a good one.
aw, hell yes. Great collection.
The Black Crowes' greatest hits is a pretty quality introduction.
Some great suggestions in here! Here are a few off the top of my head:
The Buzzcocks - Singles Going Steady
Do I really need to explain this one? So many great songs.
James - The Best of James
Really great singles band. This compilation is excellent, either for fans or as an introduction to the band.
The Zombies - Singles Collection: A's and B's 1964-1969
Fabulous 2-disc set, pretty much all you ever need besides Odessey and Oracle.
The Misfits - Collection 1 and 2
I prefer Collection 2, but both are essential.
The Who - Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy
Pretty strong collection of their earlier material
Led Zeppelin - Mothership
I love all Led Zeppelin albums (yes, even Coda), but this is a good selection of songs to throw in the car or on your ipod or whatever.
Monsters of Rap '97
Well, since a lot of the rock albums I'd have listed have been taken, I bring you...
...the softer side of the Miggity...
Fleetwood Mac - The Greatest Hits
Basically just Rumors and a few other great songs added in, still one of my favorite "I'm feeling down" albums.
James Taylor - The Best of James Taylor
I used to fall asleep to this album every night when I was a kid. Stand out tracks: Live version of Steamroller and Carolina on my Mind.
Queen - Classic Queen
Not as good as "Queen - Live at Wimbley" but a solid listing of tracks. It does omit "We Are The Champions" but most days I'm ok with that.
The Beach Boys - 20 Good Vibrations
Effing loved this album as a kid, I'd play it to the point of annoyance to everyone around me. In fact, I'ma go listen to this now.
You know in all the years I've been here I've never been sigged?
I don't say this as a fight-starter thing, but I have never understood the appeal of Fleetwood Mac. I think they have two good songs, maybe, but somehow they've achieved legendary status...
DAMN YOU MONKEYWRIGHT FOR NOT AGREEING WITH EVERYTHING I SAY!!!
ahem.. ok, got that out of the way.
Fleetwood Mac is most likely a nostalgia thing for me, I actually only had two or three albums when I was a kid. I do think they've got a handful of good songs, most of them coming from this album called Rumours.
I'm not a huge fan outside of that.
You know in all the years I've been here I've never been sigged?
I think, for me, anything with that ultra-mellow 70s sound, anything that's like a super-clean bass line with hammond organ kind of honking away, I instantly hate the music. Which is odd, because I love great bass riffs, and I love the hammond organ. But there was just this thing in the 70s, where they put it together in such a way that I hated it.
Basically anything that sounds like this:
you did not just hate on Steely Dan
Basically anything that sounds like this:
is chevy chase on this one or is that another band completely?
Joke all you want, but I'll bet that this...
...is probably awesome*.
* Awesomeness not guaranteed. Listening in secret, on headphones, with no one else in the house counts.
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Not as good as wham...
Oh yeah, George Michael-Ladies and Gentlemen.
Wham had, what, one good song?
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yeah probably lol
The 1984 mohawked me wants to throw a punch at adult me for admitting even that much.
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they weren't that bad ha ha
The 1984 mohawked me wants to throw a punch at adult me for admitting even that much.
I laughed.
You know in all the years I've been here I've never been sigged?
apt
is chevy chase on this one or is that another band completely?
Before they were called Steely Dan or ever recorded anything, but yeah
I totally meant to include
- Deep Purple: "The Very Best of"
in my original post.
Also, "The Best of Elvis Costello & the Attractions". Or, "The Very Best Of", or "The Best of: The First Ten Years". The only difference is the last couple songs. Grab the one that has the latter-era hit you prefer. "Very" has "I Want You" which seals the deal for me.
This is why we can't have nice things.
Motley Crue's greatest hits.
- Deep Purple: "The Very Best of"
Does this cover all eras, or just a couple.. or what? Deep Purple had so many lineup changes I wouldn't have thought a Best Of could cover them?
I can't believe no one had mentioned Jethro Tull's "Original Masters" yet. I too, huge fan of listening to albums in their entirety and as they were originally intended, but Original Masters is actually better than any of the albums they put out, imo. It flows well, has the best versions of the songs and tells it's own story.
Mom's gonna fix it all soon.
Fuck All Y'all Motherfuckers!
- Deep Purple: "The Very Best of"
Does this cover all eras, or just a couple.. or what? Deep Purple had so many lineup changes I wouldn't have thought a Best Of could cover them?
Twelve of the fifteen tracks were recorded by lineups that included both Ian Gillan and Ritchie Blackmore. That's all that really matter, imo.
This is why we can't have nice things.
That's a good one, yes.
This is why we can't have nice things.
LPs became prevalent in the mid 1950s and took time to become the commercial standard in the music industry. Lots of country and black music artists released singles instead of albums (or even 78 rpm for the oldest ones) even late in the 1960s (Motown artists for example), or they released so much on so many different labels that an exhaustive collection is impossible (like John Lee Hooker).
- The Definitive Ray Charles (2CDs) : The Genius was on top for two decades (the 50s and 60s) and released some historically important albums (the two volumes of Modern Sounds in Country and Western), but this compilation is a good start if you want to appreciate his impact and his range.
- Hitsville Usa: Motown Singles Collection 1 (1959-1971) : Motown was a music factory with an all-star lineup (Smokey Robinson, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder or Marvin Gaye to name a few) and lots of interchangeable voices, but who consistently produced top quality songs. Get this one and forget the follow up, retracing the years following the move to LA.
- Phil Spector : Back to Mono : Same deal as with Motown, a perfect example of when the producer is historically more significant that his artists.