The greatest Greatest Hits collection

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.

SuperFurryAnimalsOKThkxBye.

Tom Petty's first Greatest Hits comp (the 1993 where "Mary Jane's Last Dance" was a new track) is wall-to-wall awesome, although I lost it years ago and may have to upgrade to the 2 disc that has "Stop Draggin' My Heart Around" and some more recent stuff on it. Queen's Greatest Hits is another great one I grew up with, although now I feel motivated to hear the whole albums.

It's kind of a delicate matter, figuring out whether to buy a GH or get the actual albums, because I know once I get a best-of it'll discourage me from getting the albums. So I'm constantly weighing like OK, I can live with just an Elton John best-of, but I need to get Thin Lizzy's individual albums.

Pet Shop Boys' Discography, people!

Sparks "Profile." Excellent chronological overview of the many stylistic changes (on as many record labels) of one of my favorite bands evah.

you don't need any other records by them now it's come out, so I'd say the Best Of Blur

AS RONG AS RONG CAN BE

The answer to this thread is Steve Harley, IMO.

Definitely not the only album to own, but: John Lennon's <i>Shaved Fish</i>. All the big stuff, in the perfect order, and the most appropriate context for the absolutely-perfect "#9 Dream" (definitely not <i>Walls and Bridges</i>).

And one day I will remember that ILX uses BBcode. Sigh.

Sweet would fit in here. Just make sure you get a "Greatest Hits" that has "Love Is Like Oxygen" on it, not all of them do.

Sadly it is true. There is no AC/DC greatest hits.

Although why you would need an AC/DC greatest hits is beyond me. After all, you should own them all already. At least thru 1990 anyway.

Sly & the Family Stone's Greatest Hits will probably always be my favorite.

AC/DC's "Greatest Hits" was released in 1980 and is called "Back In Black".

No Bon, no cred.

Bingo

Sly & the Family Stone's Greatest Hits will probably always be my favorite.

-- JN$OT, Friday, November 2, 2007 1:20 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Link

Here's a few that haven't been mentioned:

The Guess Who - Their first GH compilation is a wonderfully concise and sequenced song cycle - those original records are pretty spotty. I usually place the first Blood Sweat & Tears GH alongside the Guess Who pick, but the BS&T GH leaves too many solid album tracks off the list making this a near-perfect near-miss.

A couple of recording from The Record PLant in Sausalito should be represented, if only for their outstanding soumd quality and song selection.

Bob Marley & The Wailers - From the Record Plant (tracks also appear on "Talking Blues") this never was a properly released as a GH, but those original Wailer's day's are super tight.

Kinky Friedman - Mayhem Afterthought (Stooooopid Good!) If you only own 1 Kinky record - this is THE one to have.

Swell Maps Collision Time Revisited. Not technically a greatest hits, I guess. It's my favorite band anthology, anyway.

The Pretenders, The Singles has a legit shot at the top spot here - pretty incredible run of hits

It sure is.

A few that I played frequently in high school and into my 20s: Neil's Decade, Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy, The Worst of the Jefferson Airplane, Retrospective: The Best of Buffalo Springfield, Heavy Cream, Dionne Warwick's My Greatest Hits (more my 30s with that one). The first attempts at Madonna and PSB compilations were impressive, although I was past the point where they ever became part of my life. I'm sure I've forgotten some.

a few favorites:

Merle Haggard - Hag
P-Furs - All This And Nothing
Saint Etienne - Travel Edition

A quasi-comp: Loretta Lynn Writes 'em & Sings 'em

love that Loretta album but disagree w/P-Furs, too much late period stuff sinks it

What do you consider late-period Furs? All of This... only sports "Heartbreak Beat" (and concludes by returning to the beginning with the title track).

patsy cline

My vote goes here: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4b/SmithsSingles.jpg/220px-SmithsSingles.jpg

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.)