Your home country is in the middle of an economic crisis and you are forced to sell your music collection to make ends meet. For reasons that only the government can explain they have allowed to to keep one Best Of/Greatest Hits compilation per artist. You can have as many compilations as you want, but only one per arist. For example, you’re allowed to have only one of the following albums by The Beatles – 1, The Red Album, The Blue Album, Past Masters. You have to choose between 40 Licks and Hot Rocks by the Stones.
Definitive Greatest Hits
by 90 Comments
You mean this kind of thing…..
http://www.thedefinitivesweddingband.co.uk/
Divine Madness
For the Stones, unless I can have Gimme Shelter, I’ll take Rolled Gold, thanks.
For The Jam has to be Snap. Their best album as well as their first and best greatest hits.
The Clash is a trickier one but I’d go with Story of the Clash (vol 1) if that was my ration.
The vinyl Snap you mean. Compact Snap was a swizz.
While I’m here, The Singular Adventures of The Style Council. Hugely enjoyable and everything you need from the cappuccino years.
Found a vinyl Snap at a car boot yesterday. Decent condition too. Spent the afternoon listening to The Jam on vinyl for the first time in 30 years. .. A good day.
If you go for The Essential Clash, you get access to This Is England. Plus it’s in chronological order (which should be an enforced standard for compilations)
Mrs Japanese once borrowed The Essential Clash to listen to in the car. She was most indignant on her return, confused as to why an ‘essential’ compilation didn’t have any of the songs she knew on it – ‘London Calling’, ‘Rock the Casbah’, ‘Should I Stay Or Should I Go?’ et al.
‘There are two discs,’ I replied.
Perhaps this has also been Deram’s problem all this time…
Bowie is of course the outlier in this discussion, as in so much. Remember it is a greatest hits list so none of this box set malarkey. After much deliberation (ie 10 seconds) I am going for the Best of Bowie (2002) though am serious tempted by the K-Tel edits contained in Greatest Hits (1980). I didn’t have the latter, they squeezed 58 minutes of music onto a single LP. Brutal.
The Singles Collection from 1992 was pretty good. Nothing Was Changed was a cheeky bit of work by the old feller – he probably liked the idea of Johnny Civilian picking up Major Tom Stardust’s Toe-Tappingest Humdingers in Sainsburys, only to be confronted on disc, track 1 by the haunted skronk of Sue.
Has, not Was
(Coincidentally the name of a band I once heard doing a ropey version of Walk the Dinosaur on a cross-channel ferry)
I’d go for the 1989 Ryko Disc boxset “Sound + Vision” which was a 3 CD set covering up you Scary Monsters ( I think they re released in 2003 with later material)
There are certain best ofs I think of fondly in their own right as satisfying artefacts. New Order – Substance is one such. In fact I’m not sure I need much more than that from them. Another is Decade by Neil Young. Something very pleasing about it. I suppose there are issues with early on compilations that miss out all that was to come but a whole career retrospective like those Essential collections can be just too broad. Too many abrupt gear changes in style, like the Dylan one. Doesn’t make for a very good, cohesive listening experience. Rolled Gold I would have too. It’s very well compiled by Roy Carr. A great listen.
I don’t mind those Columbia Essentials albums, though I don’t own the Dylan one. I have ones that cover Simon & Garfunkel, The Clash, The Byrds and Leonard Cohen. I think all of them are great.
Re Substance.
Agree that it’s a definitive greatest hits and have it in my collection somewhere. Am I right in remembering that the cassette version actually had longer versions of some of the tracks as compared to the CD (and some of those mixes are still not available in a digital format) ?
Looking at Wikipedia there were some alternative track listings according to format. I had a recording someone made for me. They added a couple of tracks from Low-life to fill up a C90. I know there were some b-sides like 1963 which is as good as any a-side they released. Regarding the track listing, all I can say is confusion!
Re. Substance
One thing I do remember about that two-CD set was that it did not come in a modern, slimline 2CD case which is only as deep as a standard 1CD jewel case. Oh no. It came in one of those old-fashioned ultra-thick “fatboy” 2CD cases which took up an inordinate amount of shelf space. I think you know the type I’m referring to.
Yep, three tracks were edited down from their 12″ versions on all formats (LP, MC & CD). Also, The Perfect Kiss was cut down to fit the CD, which was surely sacrilege.
This kind of nonsense carried on well into the London Records era. There are some standard 12″ versions which are still almost impossible to buy on CD.
While I’ve learned over time to defer to you on most things, I’m not sure you’re right about PK there, Steve. (I was actually Jonesing for Substance on Spotify recently as all the versions available there fade when they should be soaring).
I think the best thing about the cassette (I had all three at one point) was the inclusion of Dubvulture, which – back in the days when this was a real thing, especially with long running tapes – made it sound like either the cassette or Walkman was malfunctioning – an effect which wouldn’t have worked on CD. Similar to that scene in Gremlins 2 when the anarchic monsters seem to set the cinema reel on fire, which carries no impact on DVD/TV…
TPK 8:46 on 12″, 8:02 on Substance CD. I’d rather they left off one of the John Robie mixes, tbh.
Ha! I should have known better. We had that 12” in the house, so I musn’t have played it much if I didn’t notice the diff..
The version on the 2 disc reissue of Low-Life is longer than the Substance version. Even that’s still a bit short of the vinyl 12” though
And then there’s the live video shoot version [9:56], and the album version [4:46], and two different 7″ edits [4:24 and 3:50], and…
*runs screaming from N section of shelf*
Queen’s Greatest Hits. Half-speed-mastered double 180g vinyl version, not the 29 mins per side wobbly original. Taylor and Deacon sound like they’re knocking the wall down with a battering ram.
I have Greatest Hits Volume 2, which is half alright (The Works, Kind of Magic eras) and half dull (the illness years). Don’t have Vol. 3 (largely post-mortis barrel scrapings).
The Simon and Garfunkel Collection (the one with the photo of them on the beach)
The Kinks, Ultimate Collection.
The Doors, Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine ( the original ‘deep cuts’ collection)
I once owned two Kinks compilations, one was The Ultimate Collection released by Sanctuary and the other was called ‘You Really Got Me: The Greatest Hits’. I kept the latter for years only because it had a great song called ‘You Do Something To Me’ at the end of it.
“Great Days” by John Prine.
That’ll do nicely.
Beatles one doesn’t exist as 1 does not contain Strawberry Fields Forever.
Ones that I like (not necessarily definitive though):
Rolled Gold, but 40 Licks is more definitive
Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy (The Who)
Greatest Hits (S & G)
Carry on Up the Charts (Beautiful South)
Complete Madness
Substance (New Order)
The Capitol Years (Frank Sinatra)
Endless Summer (Beach Boys)
Carry On Up The Charts, definitely.
There have been several TBS compos since that have mostly taken the dogs-breakfast approach of mixing it up with the Housemartins (why stop there? why not throw in Fat Boy Slim and Beats International as well?)
That said, the current Paul Heaton compo The Last King of Pop is a splendid romp through the miserable auld bastard’s insane career.
PS. If that’s the 3CD Capitol Years you mean, you have won the thread.
Big Hits (High Tide And Green Grass) [UK version] is enough for me. It’s where all the excitement and innovation is.
OK, he’s a dick, always has been and now he’s displayed his badge, opened his mouth and removed all doubt, but then so many dickheads has there been and so many fine records we still play by other artists so we shouldn’t be hypocrites although it’s not a rational thing who you feel you can listen to and who you feel youbcan’t of course. I’m talking about the Pope of Mope and his best of Suedehead. It includes Interlude, the spiffing duet with Siouxsie, and November Spawned a Monster, a bit of a gem. Shows him as a decent singles artist, as The Smiths were.
Am I allowed a best of that runs to 4 discs? If so, I’ve choose Sparks: New Music For Amnesiacs, Ultimate Collection. If I can only have a two disc collection then I’ll select the non ‘Ultimate’ version.
Of course you are, as long as it’s a compilation of some kind. It just can’t be a boxset of their studio albums for example.
Stones – The London Years though, at 3 CDs, I suppose it is stretching into box set territory.
Dusty Springfield As and Bs.
My favourite of all is Ultimate Action.
You a fan of How Does It Feel To Feel by The Creation, deram?
Belongs on this thread, I feel.
Of course … though it did occur to me this evening during a turgid local meeting (albeit with free wine and snacks) that the Action didn’t have any “hits!”
These things are relative. Hits as in hitting the proverbial spot, yes.
Our Music is Red With Purple Flashes covers similar ground (and a little bit more) – I’ll gor for that one
Fossil Fuel: The XTC Singles 1977–92 is a belter
But it can’t be good enough if it omits Apple Venus, surely.
20 Greatest Hits – Creedence Clearwater Revival.
I think only a veritable “singles band” gets a definitive greatest hits – I think of All Wrapped Up, which collects all the A and B sides of the original incarnation of The Undertones.
Other than that, I think the real doozers are era-specific, such as The Fall’s “Brixpop” heavy 458489 or Aretha’s Life-On-Mars-style “Nowt after 1974” 30 Greatest Hits. I gather there’s a mathematical proof somewhere that demonstrates it’s not possible to fit more great music into 2 CDs..
Unless I’ve missed it nobody has yet mentioned Buzzcocks – Singles – Going Steady which surely everybody would want.
And how’s about Alice Cooper – Greatest Hits released in 1974 when Alice Cooper was still a ‘band’ as opposed to the solo artist.
And if push came to shove and it had to be just one collection that I had to keep, well without a doubt it would be…
Heroes Can Be Any Size – An Introduction To Jackie Leven
Singles Going Steady has just been given an awesome remaster.
Squeeze – 45s And Under The Singles
The later release Very Best Of Squeeze has the B Sides and the later stuff.
45s And Under is damn near perfect, and I’m sure I could survive without “Hourglass” (“Some Fantastic Place” is a tough call though)
I have the 2CD Big Squeeze: Very Best of Squeeze. The B-sides I can easily do without. My Dad had a copy of one in which the cover looks like an eye chart.
As far as I’m aware there has never been a better Pink Floyd compilation than ‘Echoes’. ‘Abba Gold’ is unlikely to be improved upon, neither is Bob Marley’s ‘Legend’.
I’d rather have Relics than Echoes. But then Echoes is by Pink Floyd and Relics is by The Pink Floyd.
Costello – the 2CD Very Best of EC that came out in the wake of She. It’s perfect.
Apart from She, obviously.
Have to disagree with you there Moose.
Girls girls girls is a better proposition – 47 tracks and all of my favourites from King of America.
The Free story is a good representation.
Which format of GGG?* (Glad to see you’ve dispensed with the stupid punctuation.)
(*complicated? Makes NOs Substance look like pretty straightforward…)
Yeah the punctuation was pants!!!!!
CD version I think.
But what about 10 Hail Marys and 10 How’s yer Fathers, the cassette edition of course.
Erm … wasn’t it 10 Bloody Marys, rather than Hail Marys?
Probably, my copy was nicked 20 years ago
The two different Ultravoxes – the Collection (1984) for the hits, of which they had more than you think. I’m listening to it now and, for a mid-80s mass-market UK vinly that lasts nearly an hour, it sounds bloody good.
The Foxx era is very well served by a cheapo compo that came out early 90s called Slow Motion.
1993’s Slow Motion is 1980 vinyl comp Three Into One, fleshed out with a couple of extra tracks, although it inexplicably drops The Man Who Dies Every Day.
It was then re-released, by the same label, in 1999 as The Island Years, with TMWDED back in place.
So I’d go for 3 into 1 (vinyl) or Island Years (CD).
Slow Motion cost five quid brand new. That impressed me, I’m from Yorkshire.
Actually these days you can probably get the first three albums on CD for pennies and there’s nary a duff track on any of them, so they don’t really belong on this thread, unlike old Pencil Tache’s tenure.
I think I paid £4.99 for 3 into 1, about the same for The Island Years, then the three albums were remastered as CDs with extra tracks at 7 quid each, then there was a box with the 3 albums remastered again (with the extra tracks on a fourth CD) for about a tenner.
Still, what kind of absolute idiot would buy the same music four times over?
Lou Reed: NYC Man (rather than Very Best Of or Essential). It’s pretty comprehensive. Some might say all you need really. And they’d be right.
Elvis ’56. Long since deleted – beautifully packaged and mastered. Remember him this way.
https://www.discogs.com/Elvis-Presley-Elvis-56/release/4510838
Tom Petty – 1993s Greatest Hits is a pretty good starter, but for full Tom effect on compilation form you need Anthology: Through the Years
The Ramones
Two Options – you could cheat a bit and for for the double-pack All The Stuff and More Volume I & II (which is basically the first 4 albums plus bonus tracks), or play by the rules and select Hey Ho Lets Go – The Anthology (58 tracks stuffed onto 2 CDs)
Hey Ho gives you a pretty good tour of the post 1980 stuff, to the extent that it’s worth having even if you already have the first four albums.
Little Feat – “Hot Cakes and Out Takes” will keep me going.
Oop oop! Here’s another – the Four Seasons Story, a justified big seller in the 70s.
Utterly terrible packaging, top notch tuneage.
https://www.discogs.com/The-Four-Seasons-The-Four-Seasons-Story/release/2369505
Hawkwind – Acid Daze
RT – Watching The Dark (though I’m going to sneak a copy of Guitar, Vocal as well)
Can – The Singles
King Crimson – Condensed 21st Century Guide To.. (not ideal because of the abridged versions, but better than nothing)
Oh, and many thanks to “Twang” for the tip about the Little Feat collection. I wasn’t aware of that one before, but it’s now on my ‘Please Can I Have That for Christmas’ list… and I promise to be very good.
Nick Drake ‘Way to Blue’ is a superb compilation.
That was what I was looking for.
Great moniker, btw.
Prince – has to be The Hits/The B-Sides, purely for the B-Sides. The actual ‘hits’ are better served by 4Ever. All clear with that? 😉
Roxy Music – Street Life
Madonna – The Immaculate Collection
Van Morrison – Back On Top
Kylie – Step Back In Time
The Sound Of The Smiths
Earth, Wind & Fire – Greatest Hits Vol 1.
Only ten tracks but they are choice!!!
“Death to the Pixies”
That’s the one.
Return of the Roughnecks …best of the Chamelons. Includes the Tony Fletcher ep.
Or maybe a Church comp but I don’t think there’s a definitive one.
The Saints Are Coming – The Best Of The Skids
21 tracks on one CD. Top quality from beginning to end.
Mention above of The Creation reminds me of some vinyl greatest hits that capture a more minor group in a better light than a longer set, especially when they had good sleeve notes.
Electric Prunes- Long Day’s Flight
SRC- The Revenge of the Quackenbush Brothers
John’s Children- A Midsummer Nights Dream
Kaleidoscope- Bacon from Mars
Seeds- Evil Hoodoo
Pretenders – The Singles
Best of Blondie
Why Best Of Blondie and not Greatest Hits? The latter has Maria, which I think deserves to be included.
Best of Blondie is from an era when – listen to your gramps and prepare to be amazed, Spotify kids – punters got genuinely excited that a band had reached the point in their career when a greatest hits was anticipated with excitement.
OMG all those singles (most of which, granted, you’ve already shelled out for) on one LP!
I think the iconic cover and sense of event at its announcement, as well as the fact that it goes as far as Rapture but stops short of The Hunter material gives it the edge. Sorry, Maria*
(*Belongs in the “Brilliant Song, Goes On Two Minutes Too Long” thread…)
You mean that thread with “Scattered” by The Kinks?
“Ray, 4 minutes, 12 seconds, really? Here, if we just chop this bit off … (sound of something being chopped off with a saw) … we’ve got a three minute song – and a sure-fire hit. Autumn Almanac, Waterloo Sunset, Days. Yeah. Remember?”
10cc Greatest Hits 1972-78
A peerless collection of tunes.
And also one of the first 5 albums I ever bought.
1.”Rubber Bullets” (Godley, Creme, Gouldman) – 4:43
2.”Donna” (Godley, Creme) – 2:56
3.”Silly Love” (Stewart, Creme) – 3:15
4.”The Dean and I” (Godley, Creme) – 2:52
5.”Life Is a Minestrone” (Creme, Stewart) – 4:27
6.”The Wall Street Shuffle” (Stewart, Gouldman) – 3:52
7.”Art for Art’s Sake” (Stewart, Gouldman) – 4:21
8.”I’m Mandy, Fly Me” (Stewart, Gouldman, Godley) – 5:21
9.”Good Morning Judge” (Stewart, Gouldman) – 2:54
10.”The Things We Do for Love” (Stewart, Gouldman) – 3:22
11.”Dreadlock Holiday” (Stewart, Gouldman) – 5:01
12.”I’m Not in Love” (Stewart, Gouldman) – 6:06
My parents had a 10cc compilation CD in the 90s which I thought was great. I bought my own (different) copy a year or two back and it was nowhere near as good, despite being twice as long.
Was it Changing Faces which had the Godley and Creme stuff on too?
10cc “Dreadlock Holiday” (Eric Stewart, Graham Gouldman) 1978
10cc “The Wall Street Shuffle” (Stewart, Gouldman) 1974
Godley & Creme “Under Your Thumb” (Graham Gouldman, Lol Creme) 1981
10cc “Life is a Minestrone” (Creme, Stewart) 1975
Godley & Creme “An Englishman in New York” (Godley, Creme) 1979
10cc “Art for Art’s Sake” (Stewart, Gouldman) 1975
10cc “Donna” (Godley, Creme) 1972
Godley & Creme “Snack Attack (Remix)” 1987 (Original Version 1981)
Godley & Creme “Cry” (Godley, Creme) 1985
10cc “The Things We Do for Love” (Stewart, Gouldman) 1976
Godley & Creme “Wedding Bells” (Godley, Creme) 1981
10cc “I’m Mandy Fly Me” (Stewart, Gouldman, Godley) 1976
10cc “Good Morning Judge” (Stewart, Gouldman) 1977
10cc “Rubber Bullets” (Godley, Creme) 1973
Godley & Creme “Save a Mountain for Me” (Godley, Creme) 1982
10cc “I’m Not in Love” (Stewart, Gouldman) 1975
It may well have been, I vaguely remember there being some Godley & Creme on there too. If that came out before 1995 then it will probably be that one.
1987 apparently. God, I feel old.
Yes. Sometimes a concise well-sequenced Best-Of, even though it might leave out things that you’d like to have heard, can hit the spot better than a crammed double CD set or box.
As a peerless example, Aretha’s Gold from 1968. A celebration of just how wonderful Ms. Franklin’s Atlantic output was up to then.
Just 14 tracks, I still have the cassette that lived in a succession of cars for many a year.
This might offend some purists but there are quite a few greatest hits albums I have which I feel are definitive for those acts and i don’t need anything more of theirs:
The Cure – Standing on a Beach (1986)
Crowded House – Recurring Dream (1996)
The Divine Comedy – A Secret History (1999)
Talking Heads – Once In A Lifetime (1992)
And most of those have the advantage of being compiled at the time the artist is at their peak, before they have had a chance to descend into their lean years, so pretty much are all killer no filler.
Agree on the Divine Comedy.
Lovely tunes up to that point, I lost interest after that, but it is a truly fine album.