The greatest Greatest Hits collection

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

Oh -- that single disc Earth Wind and Fire comp.

Stevie Wonder's Original Musiquarium Vol. 1.

Should have added Patsy Cline (the single-LP green compilation). I played that all the time after Sweet Dreams came out.

xx+post

my bad - i confused P Furs Greatest Hits, which is weighted down w/post-1988 comeback tracks. All of This lineup is rock solid. these guys were great in the early 80s, definitely deserve some love

Johnnie Taylor's Chronicle The 20 Greatest Hits is non-stop stax soul finery

yeah when All of This is playing it def sounds like the greatest comp of all.

Is "Jody" one of his 20 Greatest, lovebug?

includes "Jody's Got Your Girl And Gone" AND "Standing In For Jody" - Jody got around

my favorite greatest hits is probably George Jones Anniversary - 10 Years Of Hits

covers his work on Epic w/Billy Shrerrill producing

The Pretenders singles collection is a great compilation but sadly not a perfect one thanks to I Got You Babe with UB40 tagged on at the end.

Other great ones I've played to death,

The Four Tops-The Ultimate Collection
Madness-Divine Madness
Roxy Music-Greatest hits (from 77)
Bjork-Greatest Hits

Oh -- that single disc Earth Wind and Fire comp.

^^^^ EWF Greatest Hits is pretty much game over for other greatest hits comps actually

like "September" is the best new song recorded for a comp.

which is weighted down w/post-1988 comeback tracks

Gotta say, I love the late-period Psychedelic Furs stuff. I mean, yeah, it's patchy but the best stuff is awesome (i.e. "Get A Room" and "There's A World Outside") in a completely different way than "Into You Like A Train".

Anyway, my fave greatest hits is The Go-Betweens "1978-1990". Good god damn what a goldmine.

I love that one too, especially the B-side portion.

This is the greatest Greatest Hits with the greatest cover:

http://static.rateyourmusic.com/album_images/dfb3d476befe19c24a84db0f140196f7/6537.jpg

not a popular pic, probably, because they obv had a bunch of good stuff that was released after it came out, but the Cure's Standing on the Sea is probably the "Greatest Hits" that I've listened to more than any other, and it might be my most played played release of ALL TIME. every single song is unimpeachably brilliant.

someone should start a thread on it oh wait The Cure - Standing on the Beach/Staring at the Sea

also, Substance, duh

Standing on the Beach was one of the first ones I thought of as well. Also, Elton John's Greatest Hits Vol. 1.

thirding the Patsy Cline 12 Greatest Hits collection -- has to be one of the earliest examples of greatest-hits-as-concept-album. I don't know how much editorializing influenced the selection, or whether all of her highest chart placements really were all the heartbroken numbers. The latter is certainly likely, but I remember being surprised when I dug into her catalog and realized she sang about cheating or having a good time herself just as often. But the Hits collection is the one release she has that actually works as a coherent suite, just one dagger after another, it is almost too much -- when you get to the one happy one at the beginning of side 2, 'Back In Baby's Arms' it is almost more agonizing just because you know there are still five utterly broken songs to go

This is totally Chuck Berry, The Great Twenty-Eight

i mean duh

Sade.

^^^^^

(but really you need all the albums and then it becomes redundant)

the greatest Greatest Hits would probably be a compilation that's front-to-back gold and also exhaustive when it comes to that artist's career (ie it obviates the need for anything else). no one springs to mind tbh.

Emperor

Stones - The London Years. Which cuts off in 1971, obviously, but perfectly traces in chronological order how they got from callow blues copyists to conquerors of the world.

Chronicle Vol. 1.

This is totally Chuck Berry, The Great Twenty-Eight

Scanning the songlist, looks perfect. I've always had this

http://991.com/newGallery/Chuck-Berry-Motorvatin-252056.jpg

plus all three Golden Decades, but the problem with GD I is that it leaves off "Come On" and "Let It Rock." The Great Twenty-Eight gets them all.

Should also mention Endless Summer. The perception of the Beach Boys has really changed over the years--"Oh yeah, the surf stuff" is probably how a lot of people would look upon Endless Summer today--but we played it to death when my friends and I discovered it in the mid-'70s. (Besides which, you get key proto-Pet Sounds stuff like "Girl Don't Tell Me" and "Don't Worry Baby.")

Taking advantage of rare occasion to say Whiney otm

there's a Marshall Crenshaw comp that is quite good,
but got me to thinking that a comp isn't nec. a greatest hits
so forget it.

I love that Crenshaw comp, although it wanes in the middle before the victory lap.

This is totally Chuck Berry, The Great Twenty-Eight

^^^

CCR close second

i wonder if nicole still hates "music is my radar"

the CCR greatest hits is incredible for how long it keeps going, and for how long it keeps topping itself