I don't think anyone mentioned Donovan's Greatest Hits, which is absolutely stellar from start to finish. Especially great for the kids in here who think Neutral Milk Hotel invented freaky psychedelic folk-rock.

quote:

Originally posted by ericg75:
I don't think anyone mentioned Donovan's Greatest Hits, which is absolutely stellar from start to finish. Especially great for the kids in here who think Neutral Milk Hotel invented freaky psychedelic folk-rock.

Damn straight.

Another good greatest hits disc is Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' best of. Even though it leaves out some stuff I wish was on it ("People Ain't No Good" for instance), it's a relatively good mix of his best output. It also doesn't fall into the trappings of alot of greatest hits albums such as sticking a crappy new or previously unreleased song on or a subpar live version of one of the hits.

quote:

Originally posted by ericg75:
I don't think anyone mentioned Donovan's Greatest Hits, which is absolutely stellar from start to finish. Especially great for the kids in here who think Neutral Milk Hotel invented freaky psychedelic folk-rock.

I got a copy of this right around the time of this post, and I must agree that it is excellent. The Neutral Milk Hotel reference isn't too far off. I had always written him off because Dylan made him look like such a wannabe in the film "Don't Look Back".

I definitely concur with Eric, Donovans greatest hits (the australian import) is one of the best packages I'ver ever heard. It was remastered with "super bit mapping" whatever that means, but its the purely best sounding album that I own. Other comps that rock are townes van zandt 'legend' and the pet shop boys 'pop art'.

On the other hand I'm not a huge fan of G hits because certain people should simply not be anthologized. For example anything purpotratin to be a greatest hits package of the byrds, dylan, pink floyd, david bowie etc. will always remain vastly inferior to the albums.

I was especially pissed abou the way that Bowies recent greatest hits were handled, they were released in literally 25+ different versions around the world with different track listings and bonus cuts. A collectors nightmare! A money grubbing record companies bad deed for the year.

I enjoyed Soul Asylum's greatest Hits, I also thought the Smashing Pumpkins greatest hits was good, Manson's Greatest Hits was missing a few great songs though...no Coma White...

quote:

Originally posted by and the results are in.....were undecide:
I definitely concur with Eric, Donovans greatest hits (the australian import) is one of the best packages I'ver ever heard. It was remastered with "super bit mapping" whatever that means, but its the purely best sounding album that I own. Other comps that rock are townes van zandt 'legend' and the pet shop boys 'pop art'.

On the other hand I'm not a huge fan of G hits because certain people should simply not be anthologized. For example anything purpotratin to be a greatest hits package of the byrds, dylan, pink floyd, david bowie etc. will always remain vastly inferior to the albums.

I was especially pissed abou the way that Bowies recent greatest hits were handled, they were released in literally 25+ different versions around the world with different track listings and bonus cuts. A collectors nightmare! A money grubbing record companies bad deed for the year.

Bowie's tough because he had so many phases in his career. I'm a huge fan of his early stuff through Aladdin Sane, but not so much of his stuff after that. On the other hand, there may be people who like his late 70's Berlin stuff and maybe aren't to keen on his earlier stuff. Unfortunately, on the greatest hits disc, you get all of it.

Artists who only had one phase in their career, like the aforementioned Smashing Pumpkins (okay they had two...regular Billy Corgan and bald goth Billy Corgan) tend to be a lot more anthologizable (is that a word?)

Regarding the Donovan disc, I looked on Amazon, and they're selling a remastered edition now that has bonus tracks and a different tracklist than the one I have. Mine kicks off with "Epistle to Dippy" and ends with "Catch the Wind", which I think is a superior tracklist to the remastered edition which starts with "Mellow Yellow". The flow is way better than the new edition.

I used to hold a lot of credence with Bruce McCulloch's old adage about Greatest Hits albums being for "housewives and little girls".

My opinion on this topic has done a 180 though, as I've gotten older. I don't mind at all now buying an Anthology of an artist or a band instead of multiple albums, in some cases.

Particularly because so many artists (if this were the 50's) would only be able to come up with a really good 45 (a-side and b-side) and that's about it. We're seeing this played out with the rise of downloading one-off tracks from Itunes and elsewhere.

There's also an instance of an artist like Neil Young. I have the recently released "Greatest Hits" -- I think it's a super Anthology. But I also am patiently awaiting Warner/Reprise to remaster many of the 70's albums as well so I can have them sitting right there with "Greatest Hits".

In short: 'Greatest Hits or 'Anthologies' do serve a good purpose.

The long-promised Neil Young boxed set(s) will be worth the wait, I'd say.

I thought the newest Neil greatest hits seemed a little skimpy. I still like Decade a whole lot, but it doesn't cover any of the recent stuff.

Forgot to add Skinny Puppy's singles collection and, The Smiths singles. I think those are good collections as well

Squeeze's "Singles 45s & Under" is quite good, especially for anyone who likes Elvis Costello-ish power-pop.

I inadvertently started a new version of this thread elsewhere, so I guess I'm reviving this one.

I agree, the "Squeeze" album is totally essential--anyone who claims to enjoy pop music needs to hear it.

The same could be said of "Recurring Dream" by Crowded House..it contains three "new" tracks, two of which are actually pretty good, but the 16 older tracks are inarguably brilliant pop. This is probably the best starting point for this band, as their four albums are pretty different from one another and this offers 4 tracks from each.

"Human Amusements At Hourly Rates" is Guided By Voices' best album, as far as I'm concerned..every GBV album contains a couple gems that make the other tracks seem weak and half-baked, and this rounds up all the gems in one place. 32 tracks if I remember correctly.

"INXS: Greatest Hits" borders on being a guilty pleasure for me, but it's a sentimental favorite. The older version is preferable to the newer one, as the sequencing makes more sense.

Thank you, kind sir. Wasn't there a Cure greatest hits that you enjoyed?

I still have a thing for that "album is a picture of the artist at the time" mentality but a couple of greatest hits I like:

The Pretenders - The Singles

Prince - The Hits/B-Sides

Joan Armatrading - Classics - Volume 21

2 Pac - Greatest Hits (I forgot to add it the first time)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: juanboy,

An oddity in the greatest hits population is Sly Stone's first "best of" (1970), or what have you. it actually runs together perfectly as an album and sums up his early period rather efficiently. some complain that it leaves off post-Stand! albums and the disparate good songs scattered throughout his dismal mid-late 70s funk scrap heap, but imagine placing a latter-day single like "Family affair" next to something like "everyday people"; it doesnt seem to juxtapose favorably, etc.

but give that thing a spin and you'll notice it plays better than nearly any other single-artist comp...

quote:

Bowie's tough because he had so many phases in his career. I'm a huge fan of his early stuff through Aladdin Sane, but not so much of his stuff after that. On the other hand, there may be people who like his late 70's Berlin stuff and maybe aren't to keen on his earlier stuff. Unfortunately, on the greatest hits disc, you get all of it.

this got me thinking...
bowie's 80s stuff and onward usually gets a bad rap, usually because he came up with two or three good songs and decided to build a comparatively dull album around them. would anyone who knows late-Bowie care to create a nice tracklist that sums up his post-Monsters good stuff? around 14-17 tracks, with good singles and album cuts? that would great if anyone can do that.

quote:

Originally posted by SanchoPanza!!!:
Would anyone who knows late-Bowie care to create a nice tracklist that sums up his post-Monsters good stuff? around 14-17 tracks, with good singles and album cuts? that would great if anyone can do that.

I'll give it a shot:

1. Modern Love - Let's Dance
2. China Girl - Let's Dance
3. Let's Dance - Let's Dance
4. Blue Jean - Tonight
5. Never Let Me Down - Never Let Me Down
6. Under the God (with Tin Machine) - Tin Machine
7. The Heart's Filthy Lesson - Outside
8. Hallo Spaceboy - Outside
9. I'm Afraid of Americans - Earthling
10. Thursday's Child - Hours
11. Something in the Air - Hours
12. Seven - Hours
13. The Pretty Things are Going to Hell - Hours
14. Cactus - Heathen
15. New Killer Star - Reality

I'm a Bowie fan, but his new stuff is very spotty. Truth be told, I think "Let's Dance" and "Hours" are the only post-"Scary Monsters" albums worth owning. "Under the God" and "The Heart's Filthy Lesson" are pretty good singles though.

ah thanks for that tracklist. i'll go search for this stuff pretty soon.

always wanted to give the man's later work some time, but that's a lot of sifting for small returns i suppose.

quote:

Originally posted by philosopherEric:
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.

Yeah the Essentail Clash and Bob Dylan are pretty good. The Essentail Ramones is pretty good too. I also have the Ultimate Who, And the Smiths greatest hits, and Sabbaths greatest hits too.

I'm (really) late on this one, but bored at work.

What about Siouxsie and the Banshees' singles collections (Once Upon a Time and Twice Upon a Time)? Those are what got me into them back when I was 12 or so, and now I love them.

Squeeze was mentioned, but I have to concur that that is one rock solid pop album.

Another one I think is worth mentioning is Everything! by Tones on Tail, mainly because not only is it great, it actually contains everything they recorded on two discs.

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Originally posted by pianofaerie: solid brass. ring it!:

Another one I think is worth mentioning is Everything! by Tones on Tail, mainly because not only is it great, it actually contains everything they recorded on two discs.

Except that their best song, and biggest hit, "Go!" is only offered in shitty "club remix" form.