The greatest Greatest Hits collection

http://www.avclub.com/article/tom-pettys-greatest-hits-record-remains-best-best--239423

This was one I had growing up, though I eventually got all the albums too: Electric Light Orchestra - ELO's Greatest Hits (1979)

ctrl+f "stylistics"

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The Best of The Stylistics

Fixed

Among my most formative.

Creedence Clearwater Revival – Chronicle Vol. 1 and Vol. 2

Such a rare feat to have two separately released greatest hits packages that are equal in value. Prince's The Hits 1 & 2 are the only other ones I can think of right now. (Wait, Joni might be up there.)

The Beatles cheated by splitting up a chronological set with 1962-22 and 1967-70. The Eagles sold a bizzilion copies of both of theirs, but everyone knows the first one is the only good one. And Mr. Joel, I worship you, but you can't sell Volume I & Volume II in the same set at the same time. (Yeah, I know Prince sold his together too with the B-Sides, but they were also available on their own.)

The box format may have hurt this first.

these are prob the ones i've played the most over the years:

sly -- greatest hits
pretenders -- the singles
stones -- hot rocks/more hot rocks
chuck berry -- great 28
ronettes -- best of
smiths -- singles
prince -- hits 1 and 2
sam cooke -- portrait of a legend
the jam -- compact snap!
echo and the bunnymen -- songs to learn and sing
little richard -- 18 greatest hits
elvis -- elvis's golden records

one classic greatest hits i've never loved quite as much as everyone else is changesbowie/changesonebowie -- i prefer the albums. also almost included immaculate collection but i'm not as into the second half of that one.

with bowie, i'm definitely a tracks and not an albums person, but the tracks i like aren't the hit singles... where's "the supermen" or "panic in detroit" or "moonage daydream" or "1984"?

no Madonna comp can top the CR-90 you made for yourself in 1993.

http://cdn-s3.allmusic.com/release-covers/500/0000/278/0000278159.jpg

http://ichef-1.bbci.co.uk/news/660/media/images/72877000/jpg/_72877782_queen_624.jpg

Erasure - Pop: The First 20 Hits
Saint Etienne - Too Young To Die
Pet Shop Boys - Popart
Suede - Singles (just remember to skip Positivity)
Frankie Goes To Hollywood - Bang! (this really is the perfect Frankie album)
The Cardigans - Best Of
Dexys Midnight Runners - Let's Make This Precious
Barry White - Greatest Hits (75 version)
Duran Duran - Greatest
Felt - Stains On A Decade
The Human League - Greatest Hits/The Very Best Of
Grace Jones - Island Life

The Shangri Las Myrmidons of Melodrama: it's virtually flawless.

The Beautiful South - Carry On Up The Charts. Played that one to death back in the day and still give it a spin from time to time.

The 2cd version with a disc of their excellent b-sides is even better!

Queen's Greatest Hits and Greatest Hits II, easily. For many people, these two compilations basically represent the entire Queen discography and the "proper" studio albums may as well not even exist. Which obviously is a viewpoint I disagree with.

Think we missed Hank Williams 40 Greatest Hits. Came out in 1978 and re-introduced his original music to the world.

Buffalo Springfield -Retrospective is excellent and probably all that's needed.

Neil Young - Decade. Listen to this comp way more than the individual albums.

Super Furry Animals Songbook: The Singles, Vol. 1 is also perfect but not the best. that would probably go to Standing on a Beach, thou both bands are so much bigger than only their singles.

I'm very partial to Three Into One, the Island compilation of Foxx-era Ultravox. Think it's probably all anyone needs from that era tbh.

Unbelievably the thread got to here without anyone mentioning The Best of Leonard Cohen.

Boy Child is fucking impeccable (the reissue version, where they nixed the rope and the colt and replaced it with angels of ashes)

Is there a good, comprehensive comp of Gene Chandler?

Shangri Las - Myrmidons of Melodrama.

Re: Gene Chandler--There's this, which is oop and pricey.

I have a copy of that one, go ahead and mail me if you want the files.

That would be amazing. Thanks!

Sending you an email right now. LMK if it doesn't show up.

gotta say I really love those greatest hits/anthology comps that are half hits/great album tracks and half B-sides, unreleased and rare stuff. like The Kink Kronikles or Sound of Science by Beastie Boys. what other comps are like that?

are we doing really obvious ones? Neil Young's Decade is a fine example of that. it's has some of the monster hits, but also lots of great stuff you couldn't get anywhere else at the time

Unrest’s B.P.M. (1991-1994) is sorta like that (tho focusing on a specific period of time).

March To Fuzz by Mudhoney

For me personally it would have to be Every Breath You Take: The Classics

Chuck Berry's Golden Decade, and its sequels.

Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits, Vol. II

related: the other half isn't b-sides/unreleased, but mostly just album tracks or lesser-known songs - e.g. the Beatles Red/Blue albums, McCartney's Wingspan, etc.

(I always think this is cool, because in the days when Greatest Hits albums were massively bought and listened to, it meant the artist got a final say in declaring by fiat, "this song is part of my canon, hit or no hit!". See also Paul Simon sticking "Hearts and Bones" and "Train in the Distance" on his comps.)

The flipside of that is when a stinker is plopped onto a disc to be memoralized alongside a bunch of classics.

The Time of The Zombies: Side 1 is "She's Not There" and "Tell Her No" plus five other early A & B's and an album cut of "Summertime"; Side 2 is eight mostly unreleased songs from the RIP sessions; and Sides 3+4 are Odessey and Oracle.

Another Hits & Rarities: More Hot Rocks by the Rolling Stones.

My picks

The Replacements' Don't You Know Who I Think I Was?. Nothing but the hits.

The flipside of that is when a stinker is plopped onto a disc to be memoralized alongside a bunch of classics.

One that people don’t usually think of is Bob Marley - Legend

madness have had a LOT of compilations over the years, however, for a full rundown of the a-sides/b-sides and some extras, then (other than getting each of the expanded editions of the albums) this is the best option :

https://www.discogs.com/Madness-The-Business-The-Definitive-Singles-Collection/release/490961

only problem is that inbetween each track are vocal snippets from interviews with the lads.

Eclipse records in England did a series of complete a’s and b’s CD comps. Impressions, Dusty Springfield, some others. Don’t know about sound quality.

gotta say I really love those greatest hits/anthology comps that are half hits/great album tracks and half B-sides

There have been a few notable ones from artists whose best work wasn't necessarily hits - especially when many of the hits weren't that good. I know I've got at least a handful of these, but the only one I can remember right now is Artie Shaw's box set from the '90s which he personally selected himself. It's far better than any straight collection of his biggest sellers could ever be.

Bob Dylan doesn't quite have a "best of" comp like this - the standards and hits usually outnumber the deep cuts and previously unreleased material by a huge margin - but his catalog would be perfect for such a compilation. If I made one concentrating on his absolute greatest recordings from the '70s or the '80s, I'm certain half of it would consist of bootleg material, including stuff that wasn't officially released until the '90s or beyond.

those greatest hits/anthology comps that are half hits/great album tracks and half B-sides, unreleased and rare stuff

jethro tull 20th anniversary box (three discs) is like this

there are at least 1000 yes collections; presumably at least one fits the bill

Sabbaths’s We Sold our Souls for Rock and Roll is pretty great though it misses a lot of the later weirdness

Yes don't really have a lot of rare tracks or B-sides though

Devo's Pioneers Who Got Scalped probably counts here, loads of non-album tracks on that one. The trouble is the thing turns to shit a third of the way through 2nd disc, you really do not need to hear Devo cover "Head Like a Hole"

oh and Planet Jarre, iirc he remixed a lot of his tunes for it & there's half an hour of early & rare stuff

Need to hear that ^

Some of the albums named are desperately in need of an update - Kate Bush's "The Whole Story" is 34 years old! I created my own addendum. Others are too skimpy - Siouxsie & The Banshees really could use a proper anthology, not just the pair of singles comps. And then there's folks like Comsat Angels - no best of at all (though the Peel session comp functions as such).

I've created a folder of best greatest hits for my favorite artists. I try to find the best single disc, double disc and (sometimes) box set. It's not always easy - sometimes there's too many choices, or some that have some but not all the tracks you'd want. But it beats making custom playlists for everyone.