I know many dislike "Greatest Hits" albums, I think that if a band is good but and you want a good mix of some of their best, it is easy to just buy the collection. Some really good ones are "Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Greatest Hits," "Red Hot Chili Peppers:Greatest Hits," and Stone Temple Pilot's "Greatest Hits" album whose name escapes me. What are some of your favorites?

Edited for spelling (I need to start composing this in a word processor, I hate spelling errors in my posts.)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: St. Mike,

I only buy greatest hits albums if i only like a few of the bands songs. I have the smashing pumpkins greatest hits, Teenage Fanclubs greatest hits,sublime, because of the videos and i bought the nirvana one just for YKYR

I was really angry about what happened with Queen's greatest hits, instead of just making it two cds in one album it was sold seperately to create more profit. Not only that but they put "Bohemian Rhapsody" on one album and "We will Rock you" on the other so that you absolutely had to have both.

I LOVE greatest hits records, particularly when it's an artist whose songs I like but whose records are plentiful.

Of the ones mentioned, the Tom Petty, Smashing Pumpkins, and Teenage Fanclub collections are stellar. I love the Sony Essentials series: the Clash, Cheap Trick, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Bruce Springsteen, and (ahem) Journey discs rock hard.

Aimee Mann, Paul Kelly, and Warren Zevon are all top notch choices, storm_chaser!

I think your comment on boxed sets is spot-on...the loving packaging or repackaging of music is a joy. The recent Rhino box sets (including Nuggets 1 and 2 and the punk and 80's boxes jsut prove that...

I really love the Jam and Style Council box sets. I loved the Jam BEFORE the box, but the Style Council was a post-box discovery.

The recent Echo and the Bunnymen and Guided By Voices boxes were both cool, as was the most recent XTC box.

One of my favorite greatest hits discs is Our Town, the best of Deacon Blue. Although there's a cool double DB best-of out now, the first one's track listing hits the songs in an order that I'm very comfortable with.

The recent Uncle Tupelo best-of is also a pretty darn good record. A nice mix of "hits", album cuts, and rarities, as a good best-of should have on board.

Another thought for this thread: which artists SHOULD have greatest hits but don't? Or which artists deserve a box set but don't have one? And whose greatest hits sets are a big disappointment?

I'll let others reply...but I will point out that there's supposed to be a Pogues box out in 2005!!!!

I think that Metallica could use a "Greatest Hits" album. Just so that I can compress the two or three great albums they have into one album of pure energy.

I'm tempted to mention Tool, but what makes them so good is how well their albums move up and down, which would be lost in a GH album.

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Originally posted by philosopherEric:
Another thought for this thread: which artists SHOULD have greatest hits but don't?

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Sloan comes to mind......


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Originally posted by Mike:
What are some of your favorites?

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The original Byrds and Buffalo Springfield GH albums.

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Originally posted by flem_snopes:

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Originally posted by philosopherEric:
Another thought for this thread: which artists SHOULD have greatest hits but don't?

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Sloan comes to mind......

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Nice choice. They've got enough of a body of work to deserve one, and it would be a ripper if it included both singles and deeper album cuts. The double live record is a sort of greatest hits done live, but that's not the same.

One oddball greatest hits that comes to mind...the Gin Blossoms. For a band with a mere two studio records (not counting the regionally released Dusted) a greatest hits seems a little extravagant. I guess Sublime is the same way.

A really good one: Carry on Up The Charts, the Beautiful South best-of. The UK version, which has a slightly different track listing, also had a bonus disc of b-sides. There's been a more recent Beautiful South best-of (Solid Bronze) which added later tracks but wasn't as cohesive.

I expect a Fountains of Wayne best-of soon (three records is enough, right?) and a Ben Folds Five...

Old 97's probably could get a good one, and a good single-disc Echo and the Bunnymen would be pretty cool.

Lost in the mists of time...where's my Guadalcanal Diary best-of? Rhino Handmade has been reissuing the records with bonus tracks, but there's not a nice collection to be found!

quote:

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Originally posted by philosopherEric:
Another thought for this thread: which artists SHOULD have greatest hits but don't? Or which artists deserve a box set but don't have one? And whose greatest hits sets are a big disappointment?

I'll let others reply...but I will point out that there's supposed to be a Pogues box out in 2005!!!!

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A band that comes to mind would be the offspring, that would be a good greatest hits. They are definatly a greatest hits band, not enough good records, but enough solid yell along songs

[/QUOTE]The original Byrds and Buffalo Springfield GH albums.[/QUOTE].

I was under the impression that Buffallo Springfield already had a rather good expanded package available, but I could have misunderstood.

Yeah, Metallica is probably the only major band of the '80s who still hasn't released a Best Of. Even if they did release one (which is doubtful, all things considered), I for one wouldn't buy it, but I'm sure plenty of people would.

I own The Essential Bob Dylan. It's great, but its presence in my CD rack is a constant reminder that I don't own any of Bob's actual albums.

I also the "Best Of"s:

David Bowie
Guided By Voices

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Originally posted by Biggles:
Location: Australia

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Which reminds me, another good Best Of collection is the Lucksmiths' 2002 release, "Where Were We?"

Worth buying, if for nothing else than the essential "T-Shirt Weather" single.

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I loves my greatest hits CDs! Pop one in, pick a track number, and (if the artist is any good) you've got a juicy nugget of accessibility. Instant gratification rocks!

The ones I got:
Beastie Boys - The Sounds of Science
The Beatles - 1
The Chemical Brothers - Singles 93-03
Depeche Mode - The Singles 86-98
New Order - Substance
Sly & the Family Stone - The Essential Sly & the Family Stone
The Steve Miller Band - Greatest Hits 74-78

And as far as box sets go, I don't think you can do much better than Heart and Soul by Joy Division, since the compilers managed to come up with a surefire way to make sure there were no glaring omissions; namely, not omitting anything. This was actually the first of Joy Division release I ever bought (now I don't actually need to buy anything else*). Best $40 I ever spent.

The Cure's Join the Dots is another good box set, but I'm hesitant about putting a "B-Sides and Rarities" compilation on a list of "greatest hits" CDs.

kwakerjak

*whoops, forgot about Still

Suede´s greatest hits album wasn´t half bad. But their collection of odds and ends, mainly bsides, SciFi Lullabies was better. Greatest hits albums are generally akin to Now That´s What I Call Music...albums. A little bit too obvious. Generally I prefer album tracks to singles anyway.

Greatest Hits or Anthologies are best served with artists whose primary "good" output were singles.

That having been said.. it would be hard to pass up a title like Beatles "1" even though owning such a record is almost like taking heroin for the first time... you'll want the whole catalog soon thereafter.

Little Richard - The Georgia Peach
Chuck Berry - The Great 28
Elvis Presley - The Sun Sessions
Johnny Cash - Sun Hits
Hank Williams III - Jambalaya
Motorhead - No Remorse
Kinks - Kronikles

if you're going to stick to one album (or double albums in a couple of cases) by these greats (in the case of Elvis, the only ones worth it). Also pick any good compilation of the thousand or so great bluesmen.

I usually don't buy greatest hits CD's, but the ones that I felt were worth of buying are:

Bob Seger-Greatest Hits
Erasure-Pop! The First 20 Hits
Depeche Mode-The Singles 86>98
Beach Boys-Good Vibrations-30 Years(box set)
The Beatles 1(my dad bought it for me, I was surprised to find that I actually liked it.)