Unfitting inclusions on compilations

I was recently looking at a CD entitled Got Them Hillbilly Blues, a collection which aims to document African-American singers who recorded material with a strong rockabilly/hillbilly bent in the 50's. It looked promising at first, until I noticed one of the artists was Joe "definitely not black" Clay.

...How could the compilers make a mistake like this in the age of the internet? Of course, now it's hard not to question the credibility of the label as a whole.

As another example, Shout Factory's The Only Doo-Wop Collection You'll Ever Need features The Gladiolas' version of "Little Darlin'", but labels it as The Diamonds.

Has anyone here come across comparable mistakes?

 

The original compilation album The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz from 1973 includes a Robert Johnson song, "Hellhound on My Trail." It's certainly important in the history of Delta blues, or in the roots of rock 'n' roll, but I never thought of it as jazz, or even related to jazz.

The 1987 revised edition of the Smithsonian box doesn't include this track.

 

A Christmas CD compilation from 1995 called Christmas of Hope, which has some tracks on it that were not always easy to find on CD at the time, contains a decidedly non-seasonal song -- "New Year's Day" by U2. The only thing "seasonal" about it is its title.

 

"Louie Louie" on the "Best of the Beach Boys" compilation.

 

I wish I'd kept a record of such. Would be entertaining.

My steel trap mind is getting rusty

 

To me, the inclusion of You're Only Human and The Night Is Still Young in Billy Joel's "Greatest Hits Volume II 1978 - 1985" was unfitting because they were both new songs at the time and not among his greatest hits (although according to Wikipedia both did later become hits).

 

Putting new songs on greatest-hits compilations is fairly common practice. Willie Nelson and Sly & The Family Stone have also done it.

 

I agree that it is not uncommon, but to me a "greatest hits" collection should be just that, a performer's/band's greatest hits up to that point. Any non-hit is an unfitting inclusion on a "greatest hits" collection.

 

There are loads of 80s compilations in the UK that are very bad at doing this sort of thing. Anything called 'New Romantic' will soon run out of steam. Once you've got Spandau Ballet, Duran Duran, Culture Club, Visage, Ultravox, Japan, Landscape and Classix Nouveaux you've basically run out of genuine new romantic acts so they squeeze on anything vaguely early or mid 80s; Thomas Dolby, The Psychedelic Furs (!), Dead or Alive, Bow Wow Wow, Erasure (who formed in 1986, not exactly the total height of the new romantic movement...), Talking Heads (????), PiL (???????????????) and Wax (those two new romantic icons Graham Gouldman and Andrew Gold).

And I get very anal about "Hits of the 80s" compilations that include tracks from 1979.

 

The first volume of Northern Soul Girls Rock! contains a cut by Judy Stone that's out-and-out country, "Hello Faithless."

I can understand that this three-volume series sometimes stretches the definition of Northern Soul to include pop and girl group numbers. But country music is taking it too far. Other than that, this series is pretty great, though.

 

Grateful Dead - Skeletons from the Closet. Why did it include "rosemary" and Bobby's solo tune "Mexicali Blues"? I would have swapped the Dark Star single edit for Rosemary, and replaced Mexicali Blues with the Europe '72 version of "Jack Straw. This IMO would have made it a perfect early compilation of GD music. Of course, it's a very dated comp. now, but as a 16 year old it got me on the bus.

 

"East St. Louis Toodle-oo" always seemed the odd duck on Steely Dan compilations, on which it's appeared more than once. Were Becker and Fagen trying to bump publishing revenue toward the heirs of Duke Ellington or Bubber Miley?

 

Dance remixes.

 

"Chushingura" on "The Worst of Jefferson Airplane".

 

Almost half the tracks of Queen's Greatest Hits III. It doesn't really help that it's labelled Queen+.

 

Another UK comp included Elton John's "Cold as Christmas" and "Snow Queen". To the best of my knowledge this is the only CD that included this B-side.

 

Some compilations have "Singles" in their titles, but not all were singles. The Cure's Staring at the Sea: The Singles has 4 album tracks. Great album regardless!

 

With the number of times Timbuk3's "The Future's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades" appears on 80s compilations you'd think it was one of the biggest hits and most important songs of the decade. It's not.

 

Any comp that substitutes live and /or alternate versions, or songs that werent even hits.
"Authorized Greatest Hits" by Cheap Trick is an example that commits all three.
"The Flame" and "I Cant Take It" are live versions. "If You Want My Love" and "Everything Works if You Let it" are alternate versions and while "Mandocello" and "Walk Away" are fine songs, they werent "hits" per say.

 

I agree although, as with everything, there can be exceptions. I thought that the Squeeze album, "Spot the Difference" was an entertaining take on the greatest hits concept, since it contained new studio recording of every track on the album, attempting for the most part to be as faithful to the originals as possible.

 

Ultimate Acoustic "40 laid back classics" (SonyMusicTV 2004) - disc 2 starts with the uncensored rawness of Working Class Hero & some of the other tracks are less laid back and more beautifully (or otherwise) bleak.

 

The LP was all singles. The four album tracks are bonuses on the CD.

 

and nobody seems to have told them that it's kind of a big deal that the famous version of The Sound Of Silence is electric.

 

Octopus' Garden on the Blue Album.

 

On the first Police singles comp, I never liked (and still don't) the slow remake of "Don't Stand So Close To Me'', especially since the album doesn't include the superior original recording.