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

Too many to list, but here are some that come to mind:

Air Supply - Greatest Hits: Sweet Dreams and Every Woman In The World are the LP versions; the 45 versions were remixes

Chicago - Greatest Hits: Does not use the 45 version of Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is, which omitted the "street noises"

Patsy Cline - 12 Greatest Hits: The latest remaster uses the rerecording of Walking After Midnight, not the original hit version

Neil Diamond - 12 Greatest Hits: Does not use the 45 mix of Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show (this has never shown up on CD)

Duran Duran - Decade: Uses the LP mix of Rio rather than the 45 mix

Fleetwood Mac - Greatest Hits: Uses the LP versions of Rhiannon, Say You Love Me and Over My Head

Billy Joel - Greatest Hits: Does not use the 45 versions of Piano Man, Movin' Out or The Entertainer (all different mixes than the LP versions)

Madonna - The Immaculate Collection: Technically, the whole album can be considered incorrect since all tracks were remixed in Q Sound

Anne Murray - Greatest Hits: Uses the LP version of You Won't See Me

Night Ranger - Greatest Hits: Uses an incorrect version of When You Close Your Eyes with a different lead vocal

Barbra Streisand - Greatest Hits Vol. 2: Uses the LP version of The Way We Were; the 45 version was a different performance! (and has never appeared on CD)

Blondie - Best Of: Uses a different edit of Rapture; the long LP version was the 45 version

 

I've never heard the single version of Steppenwolf's Magic Carpet Ride on any CD except for this one: Dick Bartley Presents: On The Radio, Vol. 1

http://www.amazon.com/Dick-Bartley-...5097415?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1194223759&sr=1-1

 

Thanks for clearing that up for me

 

The live versions of "Feelin' Groovy" and "Homeward Bound" were used on Simon & Garfunkel's Greatest Hits album instead of the hit versions.

 

I mentioned that one about half-an-hour ago, Jared!

 

This greatest hits album was my first thought when I saw the thread.

 

i think "Sunshine" is the same recording, just with string overdubs (i hate the overdubs).

the redone "Poems, Prayers & Promises" is better than the original, though. same with "Leaving on a Jet Plane." "Eagle and the Hawk" i like about the same as the original (although, as above, those strings are kind of lame...)

 

thats my biggest peeve on greatest hit albums - where they use a live version instead of the hit single version. Am glad that most resist using a radio edit version, which usually results in the slashing of a guitar solo

 

Mad Dogs & Englishmen Deluxe Edition (2005) contained studio single versions of both The Letter and the B-side Space Captain.

http://www.amazon.com/Mad-Dogs-Engl...5097415?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1194224097&sr=1-1

 

Sorry. My eyesight isn't getting better with age.

 

The single versions of that stuff were not actually faked. They were done at United/Western with a small audience, who were encouraged to be active (unlike say, a Frank Sinatra session with an audience in the studio that had to be quiet). When the hit singles were placed on albums, they overdubbed more "atmosphere" to better match the actual Whisky recordings making up the rest of the albums.

AFAIK, the Rhino/Inglot ANTHOLOGY is the only compilation to not use the versions tampered with additional crowd noise, etc. That era's material is remixed on there, which allowed these songs to be issued in stereo without the added stuff, so that they better match the mono singles.

 

The live version of "Feelin' Groovy" was used on Simon & Garfunkel's Greatest Hits album instead of the actual hit song by Harpers's Bizarre.

 

Didn't Paul Anka record an entire album of re-recorded hits back in the 60s?

 

The ELO "All Over the World" hits compilation from (I believe) last year, used Jeff Lynne's 2000 re-recording of "Xanadu" rather than the original hit 1980 version with Olivia Newton John and ELO. I don't think that was really a mistake though, as in accidentally using the wrong version. I think they chose to use that version because it was an all-ELO version and they didn't want to feature what is basically an ONJ track with an ELO backing on an ELO compilation; I think that track is always on ONJ compilations and not ELO compilations. Plus, while I didn't even get that "All Over the World" CD, I do actually like the 2000 all-Jeff Lynne version of the song better.

 

LOL! I'm sorry too - I was feeling a bit proprietorial. It's rare that I'm usually first at threads like this. By the time I read them, all of the examples I can think of have usually already been mentioned.

 

An example that I've asked about and have read about on the forum in the past is the "Edizione D'Oro" Four Seasons set that features the stereo mix of "Dawn (Go Away)" which has some wonky differences in the beginning of the song with some different vocals. But this was, I presume, not due to a screw-up but was a result of whatever they had to work with when they did a stereo mix of the song. But I'm not sure on that one, as I don't know much about the Four Seasons stereo mixes and whatnot. But when I started a thread about the stereo "Dawn" a little while back, Mr. Hoffman asked someone to post a sample of the stereo mix, and I thought while it obviously had too much weird stuff going on in the beginning to stand up to the mono mix, it was interesting to hear. Now if I can only find the CD of that album!

 

Weren't the hit versions of Maybe I'm Amazed and Coming Up the live versions? Did they ever appear on a hits collection?

 

Another Beach Boys example: When they put out all of the 70's and 80's stuff on Epic/Caribou on CD, they also issued the 1981 "Ten Years of Harmony", the US version of that CD set presumably sourced all of the tracks from the corresponding US CD issues of the individual albums. Since the "MIU Album" CD included a couple of incorrect (and totally previously unreleased) mixes/versions of songs, most notably "Come Go With Me" (which actually became a hit when it was pulled off of the "Ten Years of Harmony" album in 1981 as a single), the US version of the "Ten Years of Harmony" CD used those incorrect mixes/versions as well. I think the US version also used a couple of album mixes instead of single mixes (i.e. "California Saga"), whereas the European version of the CD set, which is the only version I have, used the correct mixes.

 

The live version of "Maybe I'm Amazed" has never appeared on any hits compilations as far as I know. But, even though the original studio version is of course one of his most well-known solo tracks despite not being a single, Paul still seems to remember and note when doing hits compilations that it was not a "hit single", thus it was included on the "History" disc of the "Wingspan" collection instead of the "hits" disc.

As for "Coming Up", the live version apparently was the "hit" version in the US, while the studio version was "hit" version in the UK. So, for both the 1987 "All the Best" set and the 2001 "Wingspan" set, the US version used the live version while the UK version used the studio version.

 

Yes, but those are Stereo remixes. The only place I've ever found the Mono single mix is on an Australian EMI comp called The Most Of Joe Cocker....

 

This mix is actually the "We Live For Love ’85" remix from the "We Belong" 12" Maxi Single. The original LP mix has never been issued on CD since you didn't use it on that MFSL disc; urggh.. (j/k!)

I believe Peter Gabriel's Shaking The Tree was remixed, and Robert Palmer Best Of's are a nightmare since he rerecorded a lot of songs.

Newer compilations by Oasis and Garbage are remixed --albeit more subtly-- and some tracks on U2's Best Of 1990-2000 were remixed, some credited, some not (namely Mysterious Ways inexplicably has an alternate vocal/lyric for one line.)

The Eurythmics Ultimate Collection includes a number of new edits of the remastered album tracks to recreate some of the singles, but none of them are quite correct. Same goes for The Essential Michael Jackson.

I'll post more as I think of them.

 

The liner notes for Billy Idol's Greatest Hits CD practically boast that it doesn't include the hit "live" version of "Mony Mony," which was only a #1 single.

 

Jan & Dean's Greatest Hits, Vol. II (issued I believe on vinyl in 1966):

"DEAD MAN'S CURVE": The stereo mix without (!!!) the car crash effects on the mono 'hit' single mix....it only took me about 40 years to finally hear them on the "All The Hits" cd, remixed effectively by our Ron Furmanek, and Kevin Reeves, on the 1996 EMI double cd.

Back in the day, on the East Coast, you had to be a lucky kid to hear the original mono single 'hit' on the radio: it never charted on New York City's two main stations, WABC (which played and charted briefly the flip side, "THE NEW GIRL IN SCHOOL") and WMCA (nada/zippo for either side...!!!!). That's what happened when the record company promoted one side (TNGIS), and the artists wanted the other side (DMC). I can't speak for Boston, or points south like Philly,D.C.- have to believe it got airplay in those cities, plus charted.

Meanwhile, in LA, the radio stations wouldn't play TNGIS, knowing Jan & Dean wanted to drive down "DEAD MAN"S CURVE"..... .

The lack of airplay and chart activity for "DEAD MAN'S CURVE" in NYC kept Jan & Dean out of the national Top 5 (#8 peak on Billboard, #9 on Cashbox)- too bad. Still, DMC has to be one of the greatest- if not the greatest- hot rod classics in pop music history.

 

I'm not sure if the version I have is 'correct' per-se, but it's definitely the studio version, Mono, and sounds great