The greatest Greatest Hits collection

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

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

I gave a Pop Con talk on the very subject.

Hah, that's awesome! Thanks Alfred!

xp LOL, that's like a Norm MacDonald joke.

Devo also, with the Hits and Misses thing:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devo%27s_Greatest_Hits#/media/File:Devo_Greatest_Hits.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devo%27s_Greatest_Misses#/media/File:Devo_Greatest_Misses.jpg

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devo%27s_Greatest_Hits#/media/File:Devo_Greatest_Hits.jpg
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devo%27s_Greatest_Misses#/media/File:Devo_Greatest_Misses.jpg

Huh. Not sure why the image links aren't working, but these ones:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devo%27s_Greatest_Hits

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devo%27s_Greatest_Misses

The Shadows, 'More Hits!'
https://i.discogs.com/1LPG8oorqZ3deXqfXoc1D0dhiZ4NOzUt5EC8ZUhqGnY/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:600/w:598/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTE3NzAw/NTAtMTQ4NTkwMDg3/OC0yNDcyLnBuZw.jpeg

I used to have a Gilberto Gil compilation that was shoddily packaged but the songs were perfect. It was such a good introduction to his range of music: forro, samba, tropicalia, psych, melancholy ballads, etc.

After reading Alfred's Pop Con talk, I looked up Garth Brooks's best of and was stunned that it sold it's 10 million copies in a little over a year before he yanked it off the market. (That was in the U.S. alone, but it did equally phenomenal business in Canada as well.) I've seen him on SNL more times than I've played his records, but I keep forgetting how humongous the guy was in the '90s.

Also came across his previous "hits" CD which was apparently a McDonald's charity release. Pretty skimpy selection, but a much better album cover that visually translates the concept, tearing apart chunks of his other album covers to Frankenstein together a photo of him. (Helps that his album covers usually just show in the same exact post over and over again in different backgrounds and clothing.)

Garth Brooks' American sales are staggering, and I was there at the time.

(The Hits is terrific btw).

Oh man, I remember those McDonald's CDs, some thin greatest hits sets plus a teaser for the then-upcoming Roxette album.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am4_Dcq1c6w

that's up there with the Rock Art cups Taco Bell offered for a weird pairing of artists (Scorpions and Bell Biv Devoe)

Ok, one of the Taco Bell Biv Devoe cups is on ebay for $10 and I must not buy it, because the clutter in my house needs to be addressed before I buy any more tacky bullshit. But how much do I want that? A cup that asserts that its music is "mentally hip-hop smoothed out on the R&B tip with a pop feel appeal to it"?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/195705579028?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=pRzYl4DmThu&sssrc=2047675&ssuid=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

LOL. I'm guessing they didn't bother reaching out to Tom Waits and Iggy Pop for their Rock Art cup.

poll please

collect all five free Rock Art Cups yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah