Why no McCartney Best Of?

Not enough good material for a "Best Of" compilation to fill a CD...

 

I would like to see a cd box set called 'Paul McCartney - The Singles' and include every UK single. The first pressing should have a bonus Blu-Ray of the corresponding promo music video (proper aspect ratio etc)

 

Whatever....

 

14 year old girls on the forum....who knew????

 

Man the troll can't leave well enough alone. Keep trolling and spewing your nonsense "facts". Life is too short to waste it on turkeys. I'm done.

 

Getting 18 top 30 - albeit lower level - chart entries in 30 years is impressive for an artist in their 40s-70s. Of course he's not going to get dozens of top 20 hits.

 

The fact is true, the vast majority of his UK chart singles in the last 30 years reached the lower reaches of the charts with the exception of a handful of collaborations, many of which were rubbished on this very forum, and a couple of charity singles.

With the exception of the McCartney obsessives which populate this place, the vast majority of the music buying public couldn't name 90% of them, that is a fact, take off your Macca tinted spectacles and admit the truth, if there was a "best of" released it would barely register on the charts.

 

That's because of his age more than the quality of his music.

 

I'd rather them focus their attention on the Archive series, though I suppose a decent retrospective could do well.

 

There may be relatively few McCartney best-of collections ... but he's put out a couple of dozen live albums to make up for it.

 

Best of Paul McCartney:
Recent Renaissance? You Tell Me.

Studio
Only Love Remains
Press
Footprints
I know that you want her too
Little Willow
Run Devil Run
English Tea
Too Much Rain
Ever present past
You Tell Me
Mr. Bellamy
Best Love
My Valentine
Alligator
On my way to work
Appreciate
Road
Early days


Live
My Bave Face
This One
Distractions
Looking for changes
Hope for deliverance
World Tonight
Flaming Pie
From a lover to a friend
lonely road
Your loving flame
Fine Line
Jenny Wren
Dance tonight
That was me
Highway
Sing the changes
New

 

Nope. Eeeeert!
Start over. The very first song should have been "Oh Woman Oh Why".

 

a) This could totally be done by a well-curated Spotify playlist (assuming the holes in his online catalog are eventually filled), and b) most who want something more comprehensive than Wingspan probably already have a lot of the original albums. Anyone who's interested in his post-mid-80's output is probably a pretty big fan who has at least a few of those albums already. A 'best of' spanning '89 to New would certainly be an enjoyable listen, but anyone who'd listen to it already has those albums and can make their own playlist.

 

Because everything he does already is? Sorry, couldn't resist....

 

This rather misses the point. My original question was why have there been multiple, and recent, Best Of's from the other three ex-Beatles but not from McCartney. If chart success were the main criterion there probably wouldn't have been any. From what's been posted here I think two good points emerge. One, that the live albums have perhaps been intended to offer an alternative to studio compilations (though I should point out that Ringo has produced plenty of both), the other that a new compilation might cut into back catalog sales (thought the Lennon camp don't seem to worry about this). I do agree that the archive releases are more important.

 

The bigger challenge would be to put together a single disc "hits" collection for McCartney. To fit A 40+ career on one 80 minute CD you would have to be brutal, think like a record executive and simply appeal to the buyer who wants hits. I'll give it a try:

The Very, Very, Very Best of and Essential Hits of Paul McCartney

1. Maybe, I'm Amazed
2. Another Day
3. Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey
4. My Love
5. Live And Let Die
6. Jet
7. Band On The Run
8. Junior's Farm (DJ Edit)
9. Listen To What The Man Said
10. Silly Love Songs
11. Let 'Em In
12. Mull Of Kintyre
13. With A Little Luck
14. Coming Up
15. Tug Of War [single version]
16. Say Say Say
17. My Brave Face
18. Hope Of Deliverance
19. Young Boy
20. Fine Line
21. Dance Tonight
22. New

Total Running Time: 79:09.

 

I agree; it is an impressive tally for someone that late into their career. Great bands like the Talking Heads didn't get success like that.

 

I was thinking more of an 'All the Best' Vol. 2, i.e. a compilation which takes in the best songs from the late 80's to NEW. It would have to include the 'lost classic' 'My Valentine' and (my favorite off NEW) 'Alligator'. I'd be less keen to include the various 'hit' collaborations. There are plenty of good McCartney songs to choose from.

 

Now you're moving the goal posts, since your statement about the Top 30 was proven wrong.

 

NOBODY that age has chart success like that. To discredit it as inconsequential totally misses the point as it's something that simply has not been done before by anyone. And, if I may, if one is attempting to make a point by claiming that artist X wasn't successful because he hadn't achieved an arbitrary amount of success, and is then proven WRONG about said point, one really shouldn't backpedal by saying that they didn't meet they barely met the criteria -- they still met the criteria, period! It would be like someone saying that Wade Boggs never got 3,000 hits, and then when confronted with the fact that he got 3,010, saying "okay, he BARELY got 3,000!", when the far classier thing to do would be to just admit you're wrong.

 

OK. So a 2 LP single CD to complement that album. From Press To Play to New.

All The Best Volume 2

1. Dance Tonight
2. Fine Line
3. Press
4. Jenny Wren
5. Hope Of Deliverance
6. My Brave Face
7. Stranglehold
8. Figure Of Eight
9. Put It There
10. This One
11. Flaming Pie
12. The World Tonight
13. Young Boy
14. Calico Skies
15. Only Love Remains
16. Queenie Eye
17. Driving Rain
18. Lonely Road
19. Beautiful Night
20. Off The Ground
21. Ever Present Past
22. New
23. C'mon People
24. Nod Your Head

 

That was a promo package from 2005 - it wasn't available commercially...

 

One penny for 6 CDs! Then you need to by just three (3) more releases at regular club prices!

 

Because every great single he had was under the name Wings in the 70s?

 

This is a perfect analogy.