The greatest Greatest Hits collection

Sly & the Family Stone probably

I'm often intrigued by the timing of greatest hits collections — Santana's (which is 7x platinum, supposedly) contains only songs from his first three albums, and came out right at the end of two years of almost entirely instrumental jazz fusion albums. Sly's came out because he couldn't finish a full batch of new songs — according to Wikipedia, "'Hot Fun in the Summertime' was intended to be included on an in-progress album with 'Everybody Is a Star' and 'Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)'; the LP was never completed, and the three tracks were instead included on the band's 1970 Greatest Hits LP."

Sly & the Family Stone probably

https://i.imgur.com/UjzQzsv.png
This is my Todd go to, also the first stuff of his I ever heard. Perfection in selection and sequencing imho

The Sly suffers a little because it's pre-Riot. Around ten years later the put out a double-LP (eventually a single CD) called Anthology that duped the the Hits tracklist and added "Don't Call Me..." and the Riot & Fresh singles.

https://www.allmusic.com/album/anthology-mw0000199351

To state the obvious: if you're a fan...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joy_to_the_World:_Their_Greatest_Hits

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Best_of_3_Dog_Night

I have the first, not the second. Advantage of the second is the inclusion of "Out in the Country," but there's probably waste, too.

Disc one of the UK version of Bowie's 'The Singles Collection' covers 1969 to 1977, roughly in chronological order but has a few amendments to the running order for the sake of sequencing, and includes a non-album single ('John, I'm Only Dancing') and a live cover ('Knock On Wood').

Does Bowie have an ideal compilation? I own the 3CD version of Nothing Has Changed but I don't think that's actually a very good or representative best-of, and every other one seems to have some major omissions or weird choices, or both.

The double-disc Three Dog Night comp adds, in addition to "Out in the Country": "Celebrate," "Mama Told Me Not To Come," "Eli's Coming," "Easy to Be Hard," "Pieces of April," and "Try a Little Tenderness." To be honest, I could take or leave the last few of those, but those first few are pretty crucial --- I'd say it's pretty solidly their greatest Greatest Hits album.

Speaking of definitive 2xLP collections in the shadow of a more successful single-disc version: my real introduction to the Monkees was the two-disc, mail-order-only version of Then & Now... The Best of The Monkees from 1986. Absolutely wall-to-wall Monkees classics, and not saddled with the three new 80s recordings that appear on both the single-LP version and the otherwise more generous CD issue.

https://i.imgur.com/WLkLfkJ.jpeg

For Bowie I would say 'Changesbowie' is the best one.

(xpost) Ha! Almost did a direct shout-out to Doctor Casino on the Dog.

(And yes, "Mama Told Me Not to Come" is crucial, missed that--how did that ever get left off the single disc?)

I have the two-CD Celebrate set, which is packed and perhaps too much 3DN, but it manages to show how strong some of their album tracks were, the included prehistory is quality (including the Redwood version of "Time To Get Alone," produced by Brian Wilson), and the liner notes are very well-done.

The Sly suffers a little because it's pre-Riot. Around ten years later the put out a double-LP (eventually a single CD) called Anthology that duped the the Hits tracklist and added "Don't Call Me..." and the Riot & Fresh singles.

In terms of content, Anthology is a great compilation and probably their best. (Especially since they fit it on to one single CD.) Unfortunately, like Greatest Hits they used shitty-sounding fake stereo dubs of the three non-LP singles. Over time (a long time actually) true stereo mixes were eventually made one by one, and that's what you're likely to hear on newer compilations like Sly's own installment of Sony's Essential series. FWIW, I think their Essential set (which is a two-CD set) is overlong, diluting the impact of their best material.

Audio Fidelity's reissue of Greatest Hits goes for a lot of money and it was plagued by mistakes that took two recalls to fix, but it's probably my favorite compilation. I usually listen to Riot and Fresh in their entirety anyway (along with Stand!) so I don't mind how it cuts things off before Riot. The Audio Fidelity release has surround sound mixes that tbh I never listen to, but they also use the original mono mixes which for many of its tracks were THE hit mixes, so for that alone I prefer it over all other Sly compilations.

Re: Bowie, he deserved a box set modeled like James Brown's Star Time, but once Rykodisc released a more rarities-heavy set, it probably killed off the chances of that happening under their watch. Nothing Has Change is more like a Star Time box set but it's too short and misses too much essential stuff. I guess for new listeners, Changesbowie would be a good budget pick, though the really expensive gold CD edition is better simply because they use the original version of "Fame," not the remix done for the movie Pretty Woman. But now that CD prices have gone down the tubes, I'd recommend The Singles: 1969 to 1993 as the one to get if you only have one compilation you can listen to - I usually see it for less than $10, and it's TWO discs so it doesn't skip any of his classic studio albums and is more representative of each one.

Wow thanks for that info

No. Bowie's best comp is 1993's out of print Ryko The Singles Collection: every single through 1993. Essential.

maybe already mentioned, but i really love the Coltrane Atlantic Best Of comp.

https://i.imgur.com/UjzQzsv.png
This is my Todd go to, also the first stuff of his I ever heard. Perfection in selection and sequencing imho

Can't get the link to load, but I'm a newcomer to Todd and interested. What is it?

“The very best of TR”
He’s sitting barefoot on the floor in the dark and his name is written out in a kind of horror movie font

XP^^Rhino's The Very Best of Todd Rundgren, which features in the liners some funny comments from Todd about the nature of 'Greatest Hits' and how he doesn't necessarily agree that the included songs are truly his best stuff.

I haven’t heard this one but it looks pretty cool

https://store.rhino.com/en/rhino-store/artists/todd-rundgren/the-complete-u.s.-bearsville-and-warner-bros.-singles/603497853878.html

the chronological singles comp 84-89 A-sides, which certainly isn't a better lp than Wonderful & Frightening or Nation's or Bend Sinister, but tells a great parallel story of the Brix years

https://i.postimg.cc/7PjGs3kx/chicago.jpg https://i.postimg.cc/jdNWGDxy/carpenters.jpg

I like them both. Everything you'd ever need, just before they both ceased to be of interest. (Actually, the Chicago comp is at least one song into their useless MOR decade.) Probably two of the biggest selling compilations ever at one time.

I'm not a fan of Chicago (I tried), but a solid update of that Greatest Hits would be to include ALL the hits they had when they put out that record (up to and including "Old Days") and to use the full-length versions preferred by the band. IIRC to would be 18 tracks at just a hair under 80 minutes. Would be a definitive CD reissue.

They'll always be a Top 40 band for me ("Questions 67 and 68" to "Feelin' Stronger" version), so honestly, full-length versions would be the last thing I'd ever want.

Thanks for the Todd answers. Looked up the liner notes on Discogs, fun read. One track after another: "What, this song? Yeah, meh. The lyrics are awful, that's why it was a hit."

Does Bowie have an ideal compilation? I own the 3CD version of Nothing Has Changed but I don't think that's actually a very good or representative best-of, and every other one seems to have some major omissions or weird choices, or both.

that 3cd version is the greatest greatest hits collection

The three-disc version of Nothing Has Changed received critical acclaim, with many praising its reverse sequencing as offering a different way to enjoy the artist's career.

First one I was aware of was The Best of Roxy Music (2001) but I’m sure there were others earlier. The very idea of this bothered my linear-thinking brain no end when I first saw/heard it, but it does flow quite well.

There is Absolute Classic Masterpieces by Felt from 1992 but I figure there has to be an earlier example.

when all is said and done...

https://i.discogs.com/Sk7nQMoR8jHWb-Dp7FD3oh-wqFkmS4b1a0YxL3YU43U/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:574/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTgwNjk4/Mi0xMzQ1MDA4ODQ5/LTI3MTMuanBlZw.jpeg

kinda almost perfect.

The first one of these that hooked me as a kid was the Best of Elvis Costello and the Attractions with the blue cover… solid selection

everything felt did was perfect

One of those jukebox favorites for yeaaaaaaaars. xpost to scott

Gold Mine Trash was earlier

xp to Kim

they didn't need that long solo deebank track on ACM but its okay. its all good in the Felt hood.

xp I was answering my own question above regarding reverse order compilations.

https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/hvYAAOSwyTpjtcxg/s-l1200.jpg

It might as well be a different band of course, but this is still my favourite Fleetwood Mac 'album'.

that rules, I also really like this German reprise FM one from around the same time:

https://www.discogs.com/master/147914-Fleetwood-Mac-The-Best-Of-Fleetwood-Mac

I don't know that one - will have to seek it out.

What was the earliest reverse chronological greatest hits compilation?

There is Absolute Classic Masterpieces by Felt from 1992 but I figure there has to be an earlier example.

The same year there is Some Girls Wander By Mistake by Sisters of Mercy which starts in the middle then goes back to the beginning, probably a wise sequencing.

https://www.discogs.com/label/441825-Chess-Blues-Masters-Series

Literally in reverse chronological order, Pulp's 'Countdown 1992–1983'.

Bananarama Greatest Hits is not strictly reverse chronological, but the Stock-Aitken-Waterman years are up front and the earlier Swain-Jolley years at the end.

Underworld's 1992-2002 comp is insanely stacked, granted you probably couldn't make a bad UW comp if you tried, even still just insane how many bangers are on this thing

Re: Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac, this CD (more or less culled from the Blue Horizon box set) was my introduction:

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51cK6R+ctXL._SX300_.jpg

The only glaring omission is "Love That Burns," but it's a big one IMHO. I would've ditched the "Albatross" remake to make room for it (especially since the disc opens with the original "Albatross") but it's possible that remake was more or less the economic reason for producing this CD.