Greatest Hits albums that don't have the actual hit versions on them?

Should I mention "Help!" before anybody else? (Commonly issued stereo version has the wrong vocal.)

Hall & Oates - "I Can't Go For That (No Can Do)" is usually reissued in its longer, weaker album mix.

Then there's that Simon & Garfunkel hits compilation with all those lame live renditions segued into studio tracks. Annoyed the hell out of me to the point that I compiled the unfettered hit versions onto a spool for our radio station library.

 

They put the wrong Dreamboat Annie on Heart's greatest ( they put the reprise), and while not a "hit", they used the wrong mix of Running With The Devil on Van Halen's Best Of.

 

The 45 version of She Bop is on the 12 Deadly Cyns CD.

 

I'm not sure if Junior's Farm radio edit was the actual US hit (now on Wingspan).

 

I remember the first issue of "Paul Revere And The Raiders's Greatest Hits"
on Columbia Lp had a "live" version of "Louie,Louie".

Not the studio recording that was released on Jerden Records.

 

The Beach Boys Endless Summer Capitol LP and CD version is blundered but the DCC version fixed it up.

 

The Rolling Stones 3 CD "London Years" SACD hybrid has an underdub of "Ruby Tuesday".

 

Billy Preston's "That's The Way God Planned It" always turns up on greatest hits comps as a live version, not the studio hit track. .
Dave

 

On Amy Grant's Greatest Hits 1986-2004's main CD, they used an edit of the Heart In Motion LP version instead of one of the 45 mixes, but on the bonus disc that came with A&M CDs of the comp, they used the Body and Soul 45 mix used in the music video.

 

Would the alternative versions on Donovan's Greatest Hits count? 'Catch The Wind' and 'Colours', though re-recorded were inferior, but for "legal reasons"...

 

For years, ever since the 1969 "Greatest Hits" album, the Monkees' "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You" appeared on compilation after compilation without the prominent handclaps featured on the original hit single.

 

Also on ABKCO, The Dee Dee Sharp compilation has a different of version of "Slow Twistin'" with her taking the lead and Chubby Checker doing the backup. The Chubby Checker comp has the hit version with the roles reversed.

 

John Lennon - Shaved Fish.

A snippet of Give Peace A Chance and Happy Xmas (War Is Over) has an ending ruined with that horrible segue of the 1972 concert version of Give Peace A Chance.

What was ol' Johnny thinking?

 

Yep.

 

Carolina in my Mind (IIRC) was re-done for James Taylor's Greatest Hits.

 

A few other comps that use re-recorded versions are John Denver's "Greatest Hits" ("Sunshine On My Shoulders" is one of them), Kate Bush's "The Whole Story (she re-recorded the vocals to "Wuthering Heights") and Gordon Lightfoot's "Gord's Gold".

 

I wasn't very familiar with England Dan & John Ford Coley's hits when I was chosen to master thier greatest hits album for CD.

And I judiciously went through their catalog to locate the best sounding source material I could find for the project/release.

When I finally thought I had the best sounding AND appropriate versions for my re-compilation of the album, I A-B'd my best sounding sources with the original (for vinyl) release.

I was floored. So many of my songs/sources WERE NOT the same as the ones on the tape source for vinyl. AND, I then found/felt that the compiled for vinyl tape's sources sounded (mostly) darned good. What I had compiled from afresh were different takes, mixes, whathaveyou.

I was a bit dismayed having spent so much time, much of it for nothing...except that I was now assured that :

1), the exactly same releases were used for the CD as those on the vinyl,

2), I found the best sounding sources available (I DID end up using some of what I found NOT from the assembled tape used for vinyl), and

3), this tape assembled for vinyl MIGHT have been mixed ( I think it was) off the master multi-tacks SPECIFICLLY for the vinyl release. AND

4), I DON'T think it was an eq'd for vinyl tape, but a master, mixed specifically for the release, which HAPPENED to be for vinyl, and so,

5)it was really fine for the CD release!!!

You never know...you never know...

 

The only real problem for me being that I genuinely much prefer the album versions of the two songs for which Steve substituted the single versions.

Not that it bothers me that greatly: I don't remember the last time I listened to a Beach Boys Greatest Hits compilation. Actually, yes I do. I was lent a radio promo of the most recent one, with the stereo remix of "Please Let Me Wonder" at slightly the wrong speed. I didn't buy it.

Tangent over. As you were, folks.

 

Help Me Rhonda...there are two versions....

 

The same with Be True To Your School. What Capitol used on their CD of Endless Summer for these 2 tracks are the album versions and Steve substituted them with the single versions on the DCC gold disc.

 

Do those Johnny Rivers comps also fit this thread? Seems like all of them use the Whiskey A Go Go performances, but was that the case with the original single versions? I'm talking about songs like Midnight Special, Seventh Son and Secret Agent Man.

 

I'm thinking the first singles from Howard Jone's debut album don't match the greatest hits versions.


You can also extend this to those hits that came from the uk and didn't even appear on singles or the records. Frankie Goes To Hollywood has tunes that I remember from the radio that didn't appear.


And, you got those versions that were for the videos and don't match anything else. The Who's Imminent Front and Athena were definitely mixed differently. I'm not even sure what the hits were, the video edit, the radio edit, the club edit. Aaagh!

 

Yes, the Whisky a Go Go performances are the correct versions. BTW, they are not live recordings but studio recordings overdubbed with canned applause, just like Jimmy Reed At Carnegie Hall consists of high quality remakes of his greatest hits made back when he was still at the top of his game.