The greatest Greatest Hits collection

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.

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.

Biograph was right in this mold, tho it's a big ol' box set

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

― frogbs, Thursday, 1 October 2020 18:09 (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Need to hear that ^

― calstars,

or, just get the insanely brilliant AERO album/mixtape which JMJ morphs/blends all the classics into an insanely brilliant 70+ minute session.

Dylan's second greatest hits collection is the shit.

Others are too skimpy - Siouxsie & The Banshees really could use a proper anthology, not just the pair of singles comps

The Banshees do have a Best Of, but I prefer the singles comps (nothing from A Kiss in the Dreamhouse, really ?).

the talking heads sand in the vaseline comp is a good one of these, 8 or 10 bsides and rarities across 2 discs iirc

Yeah, that's a good example

disc 1 of that set is maybe the best collection of a prolific band/artist I can think of (and it's largely thanks to the two demos + single that lead it off).

(the best collection that fits on a single disc)

its one of those comps where the extra tracks do a good job of feeling like a natural part of the bands history & catalog, rather than seeming like value-added bonus tracks dug up to sell the comp

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?

― frogbs, Thursday, October 1, 2020 9:05 AM (three hours ago)

Eno Box I & II

Early '90s CD era was good for those 2-discers. Legacy was on a roll: The Legend of Paul Revere; Poco's The Forgotten Trail; Moby Grape's Vintage and Spirit's Time Circle come to mind.

Not to mention Rhino's Anthology sets, particularly the Sparks installment.

I thought I had mentioned the Sparks one in this thread, guess not. Yeah, it hits pretty much all the high points (at that time) of a long and varied career.

Lately I’ve been playing ZZ Top’s Rancho Texicano a lot. Does a similarly great job, and I like the way it divides between the straight ahead blues rock on disc 1 and the MTV years on disc 2. Listening to the latter as I type!

Biograph was right in this mold, tho it's a big ol' box set

In terms of unreleased material, it seemed a little stingy, especially when Ten of Swords came out around the same time.

But to be fair, "I'll Keep It With Mine," "Percy's Song," "Lay Down Your Weary Tune," "Quinn the Eskimo," "You're a Big Girl Now," "Abandoned Love," "Up To Me" and the Dec. 4, 1975 performances of "Romance in Durango" and "Isis" were indeed lost classics that SHOULD have been released soon after they were recorded.

"Baby, I'm in the Mood for You," "I Wanna Be Your Lover" and the "Forever Young" demo were all pretty good, very enjoyable.

The live 1966 cuts of "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue," "I Don't Believe You" and "Visions of Johanna" were great, but not really the best representation of that epochal tour in terms of performance and song selection (for starters, two acoustic performances and just one electric?) - they really should have put out the Free Trade Hall or the Liverpool show in their entirety much earlier.

The heavily edited "Jet Pilot," "Caribbean Wind" and the live "Heart of Mine" were poor choices. "Caribbean Wind" was especially disappointing because it is definitely a great lost song, but they picked a thoroughly crappy version plagued by bad rewrites, a bad arrangement and a bad performance - they should have used the live version (the only live performance it's ever gotten), which was finally included in the Trouble No More Bootleg Series installment.

In Australia this was the standard Dylan best-of for many 80s households, which has a bit of a grab-bag quality - leaning heavily towards the hits natch but some curious selections in there

Interesting. Here is a playlist of that as far as I can tell: https://open.spotify.com/user/nickgino/playlist/1a4jYPZuLAtYtuwlgBCODb?si=FBQm6Kx1Sh-pNlMcloycOA

You should definitely own at least the first four LPs as well, but Bjork's GH is a phenomenal album.