Music snobs tend to get a bit sniffy about compilations, especially ubiquitous greatest hits collections. But compilations can be the entry points to music we end up feeling deeply connected to. I’ve written about it on my Substack. The link’s here. I’ve focused on two albums: The Who’s Meaty, Beaty, Big & Bouncy and the Stones’ Milestones.
https://thomasridge.substack.com/p/meaty-milestones-in-praise-of-lost
Cash Cows – Virgin records, one of the first 50 records I bought, £1.15 in 1980.
Side one:
XTC – Respectable Street
Human League – The Black Hit of Space
Mike Oldfield (never mind)
Ruts DC – West One Shine on Me
Skids – Arena
With the exception of Oldfield, four of my favourite tracks by four of my favourite bands. Side 2 feat. Gillan, Flying Lizards, Kevin Coyne, Capt Beefheart made less of an impact.
In terms of artist compilations every time I play Britney Spear’s greatest hits I think how brilliant it is and how it removes the need to have any of her albums.
Original pressings had The Professionals – Kick Down The Doors at side 2 track 1.
Bassist Andy Allan wasn’t under contract, so got an injunction. Vigin hastily re-issued the album with Magazine– Permafrost in its place.
My first Who album was Meaty Beaty Big & Bouncy.
Someone in my class had it, and was wandering around with it under their arm at break time.
Like you, due to my complete lack of knowledge, i had no idea it all it contained all oldies, but due to the sequencing, it doesn’t seem like a greatest hits and it is still definitely the best compilation they ever released.
I did buy Milestones as well but i think i offloaded that and swapped it for something else.
New Wave on vertigo from 1977 was quite a good introduction to a few bands.
https://www.discogs.com/master/102064-Various-New-Wave
There are some optimistic selling prices on there.
Indeed. Mine cost £1 in a second hand record shop.
It’s only now I properly clock the date and realise it was only 8 years old when I bought it
Axe Attack
https://www.discogs.com/release/1252466-Various-Axe-Attack
Yes it was on K-Tel, but a definite Heavy Metal gateway
(Volume 2 wasn’t quire as good, but still worth owning)
NWOBHM 1979 Revisited
https://www.discogs.com/master/282103-Various-New-Wave-Of-British-Heavy-Metal-79-Revisited
Compiled by Geoff Barton and Large Oilrig, and includes Trespass – One Of These Days
Neither have I been able to replace by CD versions at a decent price
(but I’ll keep looking now as I’m reminded)
That’s all very well, RD, but where’s Metal for Muthas? (Or mew-thas as someone I knew once mistakenly pronounced it!)
In 1992, NME got together 40 acts to record cover versions of previous Number 1 hits. Only available by Mail Order from NME, the contents were quite sought after – not so now as most of it’s on Youtube
(and Suedes version of Brass In Pocket has just turned up on Mojo’s “Rarities” cover disc)
Other highlights:
Billy Bragg – When Will I See You Again?
The Wedding Present – Cumberland Gap
EMF – Shaddap You Face
Ned’s Atomic Dustbin – I’ve Never Been To Me
Vic Reeves – Vienna
https://www.discogs.com/release/1187528-Various-Ruby-Trax-The-NMEs-Roaring-Forty
There’s loads of great stuff on there.
As a covers lover, this is an essential.
So forgotten that even Discogs has no trace of it: Gift One. An early to mid eighties 24 track compilation that was given away free from the bigger record shops in London. I’m ashamed to say that I’ve completely forgotten the label concerned but it was a good selection of classic Blues, R & B, and early Rock ‘N Roll from the likes of Carl Perkins, Bo Diddley, Duke Ellington, Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Jerry Lee Lewis, Nina Simone and, oddly, Townes Van Zandt.
That was a Charly Records comp.ilation and a very good one too. I think it was a sampler.
https://www.discogs.com/release/4135213-Various-The-Greatest-Real-Music-CD-Catalogue-In-The-World
Thank you, I ripped the disc and binned the packaging. Charly did another excellent freebie around the same time called ‘This is Charly R&B’. Strangely enough, those ‘free’ CDs ended up costing me a lot of money..
My introduction was the Pocket Jukebox NME cassette, which was excellent. I had the tape stolen at a party which made me so angry.
I was waiting for the NME cassettes to come up. Someone from here, of the pre-drupal site, put them all up online a decade or so ago and I hoovered up a fair few.
I have the full set from that online site. Also twelve of them on the original cassettes.
Hit The Road Stax, Straight No Chaser, Chess Checkmate, The Ace Case, Night People, Little Imp, All Africa Radio, Neon West and Smile Jamaica ones were particularly fine. The Stax Live one is worth fortunes these days, I’m told.
I played that Stax tape so many times that it started playing the other side backwards. I’ve still got it and would be happy to sell for a lot of money.
I had the full set. I tried to sell them and give them to chazzas without success. So they ended up at the tip – not in a skip though, I put them in a box and gave them to the lads on the gate in the hope they’d find a good home. Shame about Stax Live…
I thought it might be forgotten but there are 113 copies of Stiff Sounds – Can’t Start Dancin’ for sale on Discogs. I either bought it or sent away to Sounds for it, I can’t remember, because it had Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll on it which annoyingly wasn’t on New Boots and Panties.
“Hits Greatest Stiffs” was a really good compilation of early Stiff singles.
https://www.discogs.com/release/985122-Various-Hits-Greatest-Stiffs
The best Stones compilation is Big Hits (High Tide & Green Grass). 😉
How about EWF’s first Greatest Hits and Madonna’s Immaculate Collection?
Great Albums, I nominated Madonna on the best compilation thread a while ago, just not sure they classify as forgotten..
Nor does Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy. It’s often hailed as the best Who album, the only one you need. Bit harsh perhaps.
Not harsh at all, I happen to agree with you, but I thought the point of the thread was great forgotten collections. We did a best compilation thread fairly recently, This seemed a nice chance to go a little deeper.
I meant harsh to say that is all you need by them.
Well personally I think Meaty Big and Bouncy and Who’s next are all you need from The Who (and I DO like them – but cant be doing with Tommy or Quadrophenia as albums)
The UK Decca Big Hits is/was excellent, the US version, less so. Is Meaty, Beaty, Big & Bouncy forgotten? it’s been superseded by other Who anthologies and comps and never reissued in remastered form.
Superseded, perhaps – but arguably never bettered.
Also, has Odds &Sods been forgotten?
I wouldn’t recommend living with just MBB&B – but I could easily cut it down to four: MMB&B, Odds &Sods, Live at Leeds and Who’s Next. Two compilations, a live album – and only one studio album.
Rolled Gold
Yes, indeed.
I’m inordinately fond of ‘A Collection of Beatles’ Oldies… but Goldies!’, far more than the Red and Blue albums. Never got the appeal of them.
‘Oldies’ has a wonderful cover, evoking that Bonzos’ ’20s vibe of the mid-60s, and still my favourite photograph of the group, the first I ever saw, on the back.
In December 66, the Beatles were so successful that anything that didn’t get to no. 1 (Love Me Do and Please Please Me) got the boot! All 11 no. 1s are present and correct, including 2 double-a sides, two Paul ballads (one of which had been a no. 1 for someone else) and… erm… Bad Boy.
Who is Williams?
Answer: the greatest rock ‘n’ roller of all, and who died in strange circumstances in 1980… like John Lennon, of course.
Put it out again Apple, with a few stray As/Bs tacked on at the end.
At the time, Please Please Me was considered to have been a No 1 (and I still think so) and it was only much later that the Record Retailer chart was considered as the defining source when the British Hit Singles book was published. It was No 1 in all the other charts in 1963, and on Pick of the Pops. Having said that, it is a coincidence that it was left off in favour of, say, Michelle, Yesterday or Bad Boy which weren’t even singles.
The best Fabs comp is The Best Of The Beatles, as any fule kno.
Nah, it’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Music. I had it on two cassettes, essentially the double LP on two tapes. For many years, it was the only Beatles music that I owned…
The Best Of Nickleback … a blank CD
Which is your favourite *insert name of band you don’t like* song?
The shortest one.
Status Quo – 12 Gold Bars I + II
Originally had the tape version of 12 Gold Bars in about 1982. Think it as the only tape I wore out until it was replaced by the double album set in 1984
12 Gold Bars is a contnder for the tinniest-sounding LP I own. I can understand Queen’s Greatest Hits having no bass, as it is an hour long.
I suspect Coke (not that one) was consumed at the mastering stage.
Surely S-Willy could turn his attention to this one next?
I did have Relics on tape. One of the first Floyd albums I got after A Nice Pair, the budget 1 and 2 records packaged together. The price of £1.25 made it attractive on Mfp. I lost that tape somewhere. A lost compilation. A very good one.
Mrs Moles can’t be the only person who coloured in the black and white drawing on the Relics cover – vinyl. Cassette would need a good eye.
The Donovan one was quite good too, as was the early Beach Boys comp, All Summer Long was it called?
Endless summer? Came out in early seventies and easily outsold their latest album at the time.
That’s the fella!
Did Mrs Moles colour in your copy of Camembert Electrique? One of my arty friends coloured mine in at a party – I remember being a bit displeased when I spotted it the next day.
Now, of course, it’s a reminder of being at school with a load of pot-head pixies and arty types, in the mid-70s…
Relics was for a long time the only place where you could get Careful with that Axe, Eugene as well as Arnold Layne and See Emily Play.
But to get “Candy and a Currant Bun” and “Apples and Oranges,” or even “It Would Be So Nice” you had to get the imported Masters of Rock comp (which left “Point Me At The Sky” as the lost single).
There was a nice “3-CD in a book” set, with the mono and stereo mixes of Piper – released for the 40th anniversary, I think.
Third CD was the 1967 singles.
Yes, I got that edition. The blooming thing fell apart in no time at all.
Well, that’s unfortunate: mine is still intact.
No sniffiness in this house – we love a comp especially the ones I regularly custom build. I’m old school so burn to a cd with artwork and notes. Currently putting one together of Van the Man’s best of 21st century (it’s a double and heavily featuring Remembering Now.)
There was an excellent Ry Cooder Comp called ‘Why Dont You Try Me Tonight?’ It’s still pretty much my go-to Ry Cooder album
I love a compilation – my go to Pink Floyd album is Echoes, which is brilliant. I have a theory that it is actually sequenced to be a dedication to Syd, but that might be just me.
Not just you – also, I seem to remember that Gilmour mentioned in an interview that he had shoehorned in as many Syd tracks as he could get away with.
Around 1990 or so there was a compilation called Stay Awake, in which various artists who were popular/hip at the time covered songs from Disney movies. Some of the choices were left field – Tom Waits’s version of the Dwarves Marching song especially, but there was a lot of good stuff on it.
The best of the good stuff is a superb track by Bonnie Raitt, with backing vocals from Sweet Pea Atkinson and Harry Bowen:
That was a Hal Willner compilation. I still have that, mainly online in my cloud collection. A lot of good songs in it, and quite an inspired connection of singer with song, including that Tom Waits mining song, but also Natalie Merchant, Sinead O’Connor, Los Lobos, etc etc. It introduced me to Sun Ra and Bill Frisell, and was really cool.
Willner curated other compilation album and concert tributes to Charles Mingus, Thelonius Monk, Kurt Weill, Marc Bolan and many others. In my eyes and ears, he was a cultural titan, though his own album – Whoops, I’m an Indian – is such a melange of samples and abrupt jazz twists, that it’s an acquired listening taste, to say the least.
Early 70s there was a great single disc Joe Cocker comp, Cocker Happy. Got usurped when Fly re-released his first 2 records as a two-fer. For a while the only way to get his version of The Letter, the Boxtops song.
Probably my favourite compilation is “Soul Decade – The Sixties” which was a 2CD compilation that came out in 1990. A selection of Motown and Atlantic recordings – EVERY track is an absolute classic.
https://www.discogs.com/release/729901-Various-Soul-Decade-The-Sixties?srsltid=AfmBOopgy-z04K_mADLc_1jB09ar_ZFCTqGKT1hCf_7LjmIBZQguNqFQ
Definitely agreed!
I used to have a cassette of Atlantic Soul Classics, a once-ubiquitous compilation. I played it to death really, every song is essential…
Arthur Conley – “Sweet Soul Music”
Wilson Pickett – “In The Midnight Hour”
Eddie Floyd – “Knock On Wood”
Sam & Dave – “Soul Man”
Aretha Franklin – “Respect”
Don Covay – “See Saw”
Solomon Burke – “Everybody Needs Somebody To Love”
Bar-Kays – “Soul Finger”
Ben E. King – “Stand By Me”
Carla Thomas – “B-A-B-Y”
The Drifters – “Under The Boardwalk”
Otis Redding & Carla Thomas – “Tramp”
Booker T & The MG’s – “Green Onions”
Percy Sledge – “When A Man Loves A Woman”
William Bell – “A Tribute To A King”
Otis Redding – “Sittin’ On The Dock Of The Bay”
Considering that The Doors are mentioned in another much commented upon thread I think a nod towards Weird Scenes Inside the Goldmine is appropriate. For a long time that double album along with LA Woman were the only Doors releases I owned. I still think “Weird Scenes” is the best album released under The Doors moniker.
Agreed!
Me, three
13 was the first Doors album I heard, that is a bit lost having been superseded by others. I think a compilation is the best way to hear them personally avoiding those overlong tracks like The End and When the Music’s Over
I have previously sung the praises of the short, well-curated vinyl compilation album as the best value for hearing a minor band: ‘Long Day’s Flight’ by the Electric Prunes, ‘Revenge of the Quackenbush Brothers’ for the SRC, ‘Evil Hoodoo’ for The Seeds. Triple CD sets are just data dumps in comparison.
There was a great Marble Arch Kinks compilation called Well Respected Kinks which I bought in 1966 which collected single and EP tracks from 1964/5 and was my only Kinks record for ages. Similarly, Donovan’s Universal Soldier did the same trick with EP and single tracks released on LP for the first time. Searchers cheap comps followed too. Pye certainly liked to wring the most out of their catalogue.
One Christmas in the late seventies, I asked for Status Quo music (and patches for my denim jacket), having recently taped 12 Gold Bars off of a friend. I was rathe bemused, thinking of them as double denim wearing, long haired boogie merchants to be given this
Who were these people, who was the Hermann Munster figure, and why did Alan Lancaster look like an 8 year old girl? As to when I listened to it – dear God, what was this organ-drenched soft-voiced pop psychedelia?
Once I got to know it though, I found I had (and still have) a great soft spot for the acidic sounds.
The patches and stickers I got given, by the way disappeared on the day I was given them and I never found them again.
Just a sidebar here, if I may.
I have never known anyone to call matchsticks anything other than matchsticks – apart from Brian & Michael’s song about LS Lowry, where they sing about “matchstalk” men/cats/ dogs.
There’s a possible joke about Bryant & May here, but if you can contrive something of substance from such thin gruel, then go for it.
Something about fireplaces and guitars?
I had this one: my mum thought they looked “like they hadn’t washed for a week”!
Might still be in my loft…
Here’s another essential comp: Sly & The Family Stone’s Greatest Hits from 1970 — better than any subsequent anthology and easily the best way to hear the band pre-Riot.
Yeah, it’s got Hot Fun In The Summertime on there as well which I don’t think was on an album
Think “Everybody Is A Star” and “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” were also non-album singles. Amazing body of work in a short, concentrated time period.
I’ve got an Autumn Records compilation put out by Edsel in the ’80s: very early Sly, The Great Society’s only studio sides, Beau Brummels, Charlatans… Brilliant stuff!
No you’ve reminded me of it, I’ll give it a spin.
A shout for the Motown Chartbuster series, particularly Volume 3 with the silver cover. Everyone had that one.
For some reason, my dad had Motown Chartbusters Vol. Six – the one with the incredible Roger Dean “space beetle” cover. Nice!
https://www.instagram.com/p/CaawxbUBjuN/
My other half had vol. six – the one with War and Ball of Confusion.
It now lives in my car.
Edit: that should be vol five, of course…
I have the first six, perfect compilations. They went up to 13 wikipedia says, but the quality drops off as we enter the mid-70s.
Pretenders Singles. Only a single duff track on there and it’s at the end so you can skip it easy enough
I’ve told the story on here before of playing that at a sixth form house party, and Nick throwing up barley wine in the kitchen sink. I know UB40’s cover of I Got You Babe isn’t great, but that’s a fairly extreme reaction.
I Got Spew Babe
There’s a reason Barley Wine is sold in tiny bottles. When I still lived around Harrow, there was a charming old chap who was in my local “early doors” who drank Barley Wine with large whiskey chasers. He’d been in the British Army in India, was built like a pit pony and still had a magnificent handlebar moustache. He’d have a couple, then go home to cook dinner for his disabled wife. Known to all as Colonel George.
Yes that is one of the few compilations I have, and again no need IMHO to own anything else they did except perhaps the first. Always will associate it with early days running a touring theatre company and the driver would play the Pretenders singles and the first Tracey Chapman album frequently.
Just saw this, surely this is the one you need and not the other one it’s possibly named after.
It’s in a charity shop in Alnwick and I’ll be there next week. Should I buy it?
Ah, swinging parties… If that came out today, it would be subtitled “a singalong for dogging hookups”.
Where is that confounded Moose?
Someone in my family had that one, and it used to come out every Boxing Day. It’s horrible. You should get it.
Unless Beany has beaten you to it.
Beany will already have at least six copies.
“Have we got any ideas for the cover then?”
“How about a photo taken with someone’s Kodak where half the people aren’t looking at the camera? If you want, we can leave some space at the bottom where you can list all 28 songs in pointlessly small font size”
“Sold”
Doing it for the Kids from Creation in 1988 or thereabouts. The vinyl cost 1.99 I think. One of the first indie records I bought when I was 15. I thought it was amazing. All these years later, despite containing Christine by House of Love and Ballad of the Band by Felt, it’s basically a reminder of how woeful Creation Records actually were (outside their handful of era-defining classics), particularly in their early years.
Woeful indeed – the names of the bands championed by the inkies promised so much, but they were, almost without exception, as dangerous and groundbreaking as Colon.
The NME ‘Indie City’ and Melody Maker ‘Gigantic!” cassettes were a better deal by far.
Multi-artist vinyl compilations on my shelf:
Live Stiffs Live (Stiff GET1)
The first Stiff Tour. Nick Lowe, Wreckless Eric, Larry Wallis, Elvis Costello, Ian Dury.
“That Summer” O.S.T. (Arista 4C 064-62832)
Ian Dury, Mink DeVille, Elvis Costello, Boomtown Rats, Zones, Only Ones, Wreckless Eric, Patti Smith, Ramones, Undertones, Eddie & The Hot Rods, Nick Lowe, Richard Hell.
The Front Line (Virgin VC 503)
Mighty Diamonds, U-Roy, Johnny Clarke, I-Roy, Gladiators, Delroy Washington, Keith Hudson.
Motown Monster Hits (Pickwick PTP-2088) double album
Four Tops, Martha & The Vandellas, Jr. Walker, Jackson 5, Diana Ross/Supremes, Isley Brothers, Elgins, Jimmy Ruffin, Stevie Wonder, Monitors, Temptations.
Sound D’Afrique (Island ISSP 4003)
Mekongo, Eba Aka Jerome, Kambou Clement, Pablo, Etoile De Dakar, Menga Mokombi.
Sound D’Afrique II “Soukous” (Island ISSP 4008)
Lea Lignanzi, Mensy, Vonga Aye, Moussa Doumbia, Pablo Lubadika Porthos, Jeff Louna, Asi Kapela.
The Big Wheels Of Motown (Motown EMTV 12)
Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, Mary Wells, Four Tops, Temptations, Diana Ross, Jackson 5, Martha & The Vandellas, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross/Supremes/Temptations, Gladys Knight & The Pips, Jimmy Ruffin, Isley Brothers.
Burning Sampler (Burning Sounds BRS 2001 LP)
Mighty Maytones, Linval Thompson, Cornell Campbell, Dennis Brown, Well Pleased & Satisfied, Al Campbell, Jimmy London, Junior English, Junior Soul, Pat Kelly, Mystic Eyes, Leroy Smart, Mike Brooks, Revelation, Jimmy Riley.
Hits Greatest Stiffs (Stiff FIST 1)
Nick Lowe, Pink Fairies, Roogalator, Tyla Gang, Lew Lewis, Damned, Richard Hell, Plummet Airlines, Motorhead, Elvis Costello.
Roots Of Soul (K-Tel NU 9300) triple album
Ray Charles, Fats Domino, B.B. King, Ben E. King, Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson, Chiffons, Marcels, Crystals, Drifters, Dells, James Brown, Ike & Tina Turner, Wilson Pickett, Aretha Franklin, Rufus Thomas, Booker T. & The MG’s, Otis Redding, Arthur Conley, Sam & Dave, Barrett Strong, Diana Ross & The Supremes & The Temptations, Gladys Knight & The Pips, Mary Wells, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, Impressions, O’Jays, Billy Paul, Intruders, Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes, K.C. & The Sunshine Band, George McCrae, Gwen McCrae, Timmy Thomas, Quincy Jones.
Roll On (Polystar REDTV 1)
Gap Band, Crown Heights Affair,Kool & The Gang, Linx, Shakatak, Gladys Knight & The Pips, Eddy Grant, Yarbrough & Peoples, Light Of The World, Black Slate, The Whispers, Coffee, Heatwave.
Sex Sweat And Blood (Beggars Banquet BEG A 34)
Fashion, Perry Haines, Maximum Joy, Medium Medium, The Dance, David Gamson, Ministry, Lora Logic, 23 Skidoo.
Allnighters (Mercury 6498 025)
James Brown, Dobie Gray, The Flamingos, Nina Simone, Mitch Ryder, Anna King, The Chiffons, The High Numbers, Bruce Channel, The Pretty Things, Alexis Korner’s Blues Incorporated, The Graham Bond Organisation, The Shangri-Las, The Small Faces.
Babylon O.S.T. (Chrysalis CHR 1294)
Yabby U, Michael Prophet, I-Roy, Cassandra, Aswad, Dennis Bovell.
Mutant Disco (Island/Ze ISSP 4001)
Coati Mundi, Gichi Dan, Don Armando’s Second Avenue Rhumba Band, Kid Creole & The Coconuts, Material, Was (Not Was).
Put It On, It’s Rock Steady (Island ILP 978) (cover missing)
The Wailers, King Perry, Clarendonians, Delroy Wilson, Justin Hines, Movin’ Brothers, Bob Andy, The Tartans, Hopeton Lewis, Ken Boothe, Mr Foundation, The Gaylads, Tree Tops, Pat Kelly.
There was a series of compilations that came out getting on for 2 decades ago, from Albion records, entitled Strange Folk, Strange Soul, Strange Country and Strange Jazz, respectively. The strangeness varies as to one’s interpretation or experience, but are solid samplers encroaching the margins of each genre, as well as dropping in some bigger names doing some lesser known.
Folk includes Espers, 18th Day of May, Vashti Bunyan, ISB, Beth Gibbons and Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Soul has Sly, The Isleys, OutKast, Nina Simone, E,W&F alongside Chocolate Milk and Edna Wright.
Country? Sparklehorse, Calecico, Handsome Family with Puerto Muerto, Porter Wagoner and even Johnny Cash and Hank Williams.
Jazz has Miles, Lonnie Liston Smith, Colin’s faves the Mahavishnu Orch, Gato Barbieri and Weldon Irvine (who appears also on the Soul set)
Not essential but fun.
I remember these: I have the Strange Folk CD with Espers; it coincided with the “acid folk” scene of the 2000s
In a similar vein there are the Beyond series, relating to Nashville and Mississippi. The former (subtitled The Twisted Heart of Country Music) runs to 3 volumes: Beyond Nashville, Further Beyond Nashville and Way Beyond Nashville. The first 2 are doubles. As is the Mississippi one, Beyond Mississippi: The Blues That Left Town. They are fun.
A couple come to mind:
Strictly Breaks. An 11-CD collection of songs that have been used as samples in hip-hop records. Mostly soul and R&B as you’d expect but also some wildly eclectic selections ranging from David Axelrod to Seals & Crofts.
What It Is! Funky Soul & Rare Grooves. Four CD’s of late Sixties and Seventies, er, funk and soul. Some of my favourite deep cut songs in probably my desert island music genre.
Honourable mention to the “Dirty Laundry” country soul comps on Ace records.
I think this topic was mentioned in a previous thread in terms of the “greatest” compilation albums, but I am as ever all up for a collection of curiosities (like Nuggets or Rubble) or a well-distilled greatest hits. For example, The Kink Kronikles (1972) is a peculiar selection without the early hits, intended for Americans who had missed out on the 1960s, but is a satisfying listen; The Velvet Underground’s “Coca Cola” album was my introduction to the band. And on the other hand, there was a series of double CD albums called “The Trip” that let Jarvis Cocker and Saint Etienne play their DJ sets with entertaining results.
That sounds a bit like the (extensive) series of Late Night Tales, wherein an artist or band curate a playlist of their choice, including the odd otherwise unavailable track from their own repertoire. Very mixed fare: I have the ones by Jon Hopkins, Nils Frahm and Olafur Arnalds, respectively.
I have the one by Bonobo. It’s excellent. ‘Didn’t I?’ by Daranodo going straight into ‘Baltmore’ by Nina Simone.
I have just checked my Big List and I have 1424 various artist compilations. From NME tapes/cds through Nice Enough to Eat, Fill your Head with Rock, Nuggets to an expanding “Now Yearbooks”. (Inc Mojo, Word, Uncut freebies). All genres, all styles.
As a general point the 90s were a golden age of CD comps and box sets. I do have so much stuff I will never (now want to) listen to. But I have so many fantastic comprehensive sets. Blues, R&B, garage rock, psych, soul, reggae,pop.
And many, many fantastic single artist collections.
Licensing allowed so many brilliant collections. 20s, 30s, 40s , 50s out of copyright or the likes of Rhino with great notes and packaging.
A golden era which streaming won’t replicate despite its ease and abundance.
Curated, as they used to say.
Ones I hold dear:
Easy Rider – soundtrack
The Guitar Album
Fruity
Jazz on a Summer’s Day
Music of the Baroque
Most of the NME tapes especially Dancin’ Master (brilliant edit of “B Movie” which I’ve never found anywhere else), and Neon West.
I forgot “Big Western Movie Themes on MFP. The first album I had. My parents gave it to me because I loved the theme from The Good, Bad, Ugly etc. Brilliant.
Some charity shop classics are classic for a reason, and Big Western Movie Themes is up there with the best.
Similarly, No Parlez is good record which sold shed loads. I saw two copies in one shop on Saturday.
This beauty.
I recognise that cover! We had that one at home.
I think we all did. I lost mine in a house move in the late ’80s, but bought three boxes of LPs in a charity sale a few years ago and there was a copy in there (along with four Kenny G albums).
I saw two copies in Cromer last weekend.
Are chart compilations allowed? My older sister had this one, but I played it until it wore out. Found another copy a few years ago which cost me the grand total of £1.
Of course. I had a great K Tel rock n roll compilation.