The most annoying "Best of", "Greatest Hits" Compilations (key hits missing, live tracks, etc.)*

The "Foot in the door" Floyd best of that was with the Discovery campaign was not nearly as career spanning as it should have been. Echoes was a far better attempt at a compilation.

 

Really? Wow. That's terrible. Was the booklet art by Mr Brainwash/Thierry Guetta too? I don't even remember it, to be honest, and I don't own the CD anymore.

 

It always bothers me that FNM comps (the ones I've seen at least) invariably have the album mix of "Epic". I much prefer the single remix, and as that remix was the hit (their one massive hit that everyone knows, especially the people who would want a FNM comp), it really should be on comps like Who Cares A Lot and The Very Best Definitive Ultimate etc.

 

Ha. I remember being suspicious of the album at around the same age till I looked at the track list and saw "White Rabbit" and "Somebody to Love." Not that I took the title literally, but I thought it might be a compilation of their most uncommercial stuff.

 

Nope, you still need Outside Looking In for "Til I Hear It From You", unless you already own the Empire Records Soundtrack

 

how is the single mix different?

 

Not having "Listen To What The Man Said" on Wings Greatest was ridiculous. I'm sure someone here might explain it away but that was one of the biggest hits and the best songs.

 

More reverb (typical for a 1990 radio hit). Louder drums. Patton's vocals are mixed differently. The guitar solo is edited. The whole song packs more of a punch, at least to my ears:

 

Why don't people use the search function?? Would some kind gort please merge this thread with this fairly recent and exact same topic, thanks:
The most annoying "Best of", "Greatest Hits" or "The Collection" Compilations (key hits missing)* »

 

Diana Ross The RCA Years. This is actually my favourite Ross era but whoever compiled it didn't do a very good job. It should have consisted of all her singles for RCA as a starter for ten, in radio edit form, and then some select album tracks and Fight For It, which wasn't on CD at that point. As it was there were lots of singles missing, including top 40 entries, and what should have been a milestone release was a damp squib.

Great cover art though.

 

Love the live version of "Free Bird". Everytime I hear it, I always think of Michael Hayes, Terry Gordy, and Buddy Roberts (aka The Fabulous Freebirds) coming to the ring to do battle with the Von Erich brothers.

 

It's similar, but not the same. That thread is just about Hits albums missing hits. This thread is also about hits albums that include LIVE versions of Hits or new recordings of Hits or different versions of hits, like crappy radio edits.

 

See also: The Big Star Story. You can get all three of their albums on two CDs. Why would anyone bother with a comp?

 

While I also prefer Echoes, it does have an advantage of being able to include twice as many songs on 2CDs instead of just 1 disc. I do think though that A Foot in the Door did a pretty good job at narrowing down some of the most essential Floyd tracks for casual listeners, and even managed to include some very essential songs that Echoes missed out on ("Brain Damage"/"Eclipse," "Have a Cigar"). It did however have a few missteps by including "The Fletcher Memorial Home" from The Final Cut instead of perhaps something from the far-more essential albums The Piper at the Gates of Dawn ("Interstellar Overdrive") or Animals (although time constraints probably prevented this, and fan favourites like "Echoes" from making well-deserved appearances). Perhaps it is a matter of preference, but I also think that "Us and Them" (which receives quite a bit more airplay) should have been included over "The Great Gig in the Sky" (which likely made the cut due to time constraints). I could have done without "High Hopes," but I suppose the main reason for including something from The Division Bell was to span the 1967–1994 recording years.

Despite these complaints, the other songs that have been included make for an excellent showcase for first-time listeners who, if they have ever listened to a classic rock station, will recognize most of the songs: "Hey You," "The Happiest Days of Our Lives"/"Another Brick in the Wall," "Have a Cigar," "Wish You Were Here," "Time," "Money," "Comfortably Numb," "Learning to Fly," "Shine on You Crazy Diamond," "Brain Damage/Eclipse," and if they didn't already know "See Emily Play," they certainly should.

If anything, I probably have more complaints about the track listing for Echoes than I did for A Foot in the Door. Four of their fourteen studio albums are ignored completely (arguably the most criminal omission being anything from Atom Heart Mother). A lot of their radio staples are not included: "Brain Damage"/"Eclipse," "Have a Cigar," "Welcome to the Machine," "Young Lust," "Run Like Hell," "Mother," and "On the Turning Away," to name a few, and "Sheep" seems like it was only included because it took up less disc space than "Dogs" or "Pigs (Three Different Ones)." Including 3 songs from The Division Bell was unnecessary, and while I recognize the gesture of having the Syd Barrett era well-represented, "Bike" and "Jugband Blues" probably didn't need to be there (or could have been substituted with more non-album tracks from that era).

 

Is that version on CD?

 

It was on the US promo CD single in 1990 (as well as the 45). I'm not sure if it's been on a compilation... I don't have it on CD.

 

In fact, it looks like it was a bonus track on the 2015 Deluxe Edition of The Real Thing (track 2 on disc 2: "Radio Remix Edit"):
http://www.discogs.com/Faith-No-More-The-Real-Thing/release/7107033

 

"Call Me the Breeze" obviously had its fans, both within the band (it made the set list for Skynyrd's live album) and among the public. But personally, I think it's a boring boogie-by-numbers song -- I certainly wouldn't substitute it for anything that made it on to Gold and Platinum. Nor would I call it a hit -- it was a b-side that got little if any airplay, at least in the New York City area (which I acknowledge is not the epicenter of the band's fan base, so maybe the song got more radio play elsewhere).

On the other hand, a Matty-compiled Gold and Platinum would have replaced one or two of the album's lesser songs -- for me, "Whisky Rock-a-Roller," "On The Hunt" and "Down South Jukin'" -- with an additional track or two from Second Helping, notably "Curtis Loew." I'll add that while I'm not normally a fan of including live versions on compilations, the three live tracks included on G&P are just as good, if not better, than their studio versions, so no complaints from me in this case.

 

You hop in a muscle car and go for a "drive" out in some hilly country and you will find it's not boring at all. It accentuates the ride

 

I share most of your concerns. "High Hopes" of course has long been recognized as not only the best song post-Waters, but also as being as good as anything the band has ever released (it's also quite popular on the radio) so that one's understandable. Conversely, I can do without "Welcome to the Machine" (and if you put that AND Have a Cigar on the tracklisting, there's pretty much the entire WYWH album...). "Dogs" and "Sheep" were both considered but obviously, the band went for "Sheep" because it takes up less time.

For me the real criminal omission is the lack of anything from Obscured by Clouds. Short songs, some of them (Childhoods End, Free Four) quite popular and surely good enough to introduce to a PF novice?!

 

I probably won't have the opportunity to try that anytime soon, but I can test whether the song enhances the experience of sitting in traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike in a small Japanese subcompact.

 

All those budget-line compilations that go up to 10 songs. It's really like wasting money on the way back out of the convenient store just because you want to hear a certain song on the way back home.
With more patience and common sense you can pick something more comprehensive for 4 bucks (if you're lucky) on Amazon.

 

They probably shoulda dropped the two cuts from the most recent LP ("Let 'Em In" and "Silly Love Songs") to include "Listen What the Man Said" and the live version of "Maybe I'm Amazed."

Or just padded out the record to two LPs . . .

 

A) "London Town" was the most recent LP before "Wings Greatest", so "With a Little Luck" would've been the most logical "drop" by that reasoning;

B) Drop "Silly Love Songs", a #1 US and #2 UK???

Oh, and the live "Maybe" also came out after "Speed of Sound", so it was more "recent" than "SLS" or "Let 'Em In".

Since "Maybe" was both more "recent" and less successful than the 2 "SOS" songs, I see no logical reason it should be included over them.

And "Mull" was also more "recent" than the 2 "SOS" songs.

Of course, of all these songs, "Mull" sold the worst in the US, but it was such a huge hit elsewhere that it had to be included. Also, it was a non-album track, which made it more appealing.

I'd pick "Jet" as the song most vulnerable track. Just another "album track" and it didn't chart as high as the other album tracks.

So drop "Jet" to include "Listen"!

 

(Referring to THE WORST OF JEFFERSON AIRPLANE.) Imagine if you'd been given the Frank Zappa compilation titled THE **** OF THE MOTHERS....