“Greatest Hits” comps that don’t really represent the artist/band properly

So which artist/bands have “Greatest Hits” comps that don’t really represent the true essence of their sound (for lack of a better term) ?

I was thinking that Prog bands like Yes or ELP most likely qualify.
Do you know any others?

 

This seems to be the most common complaint about the new Acetone compilation from Light in the Attic. I hadn’t heard Acetone before, but I really like the LITA record. Apparently there’s a whole other “noisier” side to the band (which I absolutely intend to check out), whereas this comp focuses on songs with a “Candy Says” type of vibe.

 

Association- because it doesn't have "Pandora's Golden Heebie Jeebies"

 

Pink Floyd - A Collection of Great Dance Songs

pink floyd songs to dance to - Bing

 

Any Grateful Dead Greatest Hits

 

Abba Greatest Hits (1976), with the park bench cover photo, has a bunch of songs that were not hits, nor in some cases even released as singles. Their total lack of reappearance on compilations The Singles, Abba Gold or More Abba Gold decades later confirms this. A slightly more accurately titled Greatest Hits Vol 2 did follow.

 

Abba Gold is fantastic

 

I would say all of them, but I really hate greatest hits albums.

 

"Best of the Beatles" doesn't have any of the Beatles' songs that we have come to know and love.

 

I'm not familiar with that title but if it was released in the 1960's then it would not have been a complete comp.

 

Older compilations are often a problem, especially when an artist or a band had an important back catalogue on two record companies that never merged.

Wasn't "Forty Licks" the first Stones compilation that combined the two eras?

By the way, to answer the thread starter, I really enjoyed "Classic Yes". It was a fine introduction the band.

 

Eh, it was a lame attempt at a joke. Pete Best put out an album with that name, attempting to cash in on the Beatles' success with a deliberately misleading title.

 

40 Licks was issued by Virgin / Grrr by Interscope . Both labels fall under Universal Music Group

 

Dare I say...Bob Marley's "Legend"? Very incomplete with some very odd choices.

Of course, it's good music (overplayed to death now though) but it gives a very limited scope of his music IMO.

I know many people who ONLY know "Legend" and don't bother to look any further. It's a shame.

 

The Association (2) - Greatest Hits (From The Original Master Tapes)

Impeccable song selection. CD sound? Eeep!

IMO LEGEND was strictly a marketing move; it worked out fantastically of course, especially if it spurred people on to investigate his studio output. But LEGEND itself is a safe, non-threatening peek into his catalog that only begins to represent the depth of his art. The real reward of course lies in between the overfamiliar cuts that might terrify a college student who thinks he's the hippest guy around blasting "One Love" out the window of his Prius.

 

Like greatest hits comps for a quick fix overview of a band.

 

I've bought a few Beatles compilations that were issued by countries other than the U.S. and the U.K., as interesting artifacts rather than as listening experiences. Some of them, like Por Siempre Beatles, aren't really "hits" collections, just attempts to gather odds and ends into one place - basically rough drafts of Past Masters. But Australia's The Essential Beatles is an odd duck. I believe most of the tracks were indeed hits in Australia, but the selection still comes across as bizarre and haphazard, with no real cohesion:

Love Me Do
Boys
Long Tall Sally
Honey Don't
P.S. I Love You
Baby You're A Rich Man
All My Loving
Yesterday
Penny Lane
Magical Mystery Tour
Norwegian Wood
With A Little Help From My Friends
All You Need Is Love
Something
Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da
Let It Be

Not to mention a hideous cover:


The single-disc version of Turn It On Again: The Hits by Genesis is a decent overview of the band's hit singles, but the band had a lot of facets beyond the hits (which were more pop- and ballad-oriented than their catalog as a whole). The 2-CD version has a little more balance to it, representing more of the five- and four-man lineups. I wish it had included the single version of "Watcher of the Skies" and, what the heck, its B-side "Willow Farm," so that we'd at least get a taste of Supper. Instead, Foxtrot is unrepresented on the collection.

Yes, I believe Forty Licks was the first Stones comp to include both eras. Hard to be comprehensive on two CDs but it's a good introduction to the group. I bought the deluxe Grrr! because it appears to be the most authoritative collection of theirs.

Classic Yes is not a bad starting point but it isn't really an overview of the band's 1970s work; it only has one track that originated during the Alan White period; everything else on the collection is from 1971-1972. A very fertile period for the band, but not a representative snapshot of their career.

 

Nirvana's black compilation is half-assed. Only worth it for "You Know You're Right" (seeing the light of day on this release) and the "Blew" EP version of "Been a Son" used for the first time on a widely available CD. Other than that - very basic. Too basic.

 

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

 

That is THE thread on the forum to look at for this type of topic.

 

Interesting that the search engine actually works on this forum...

 

I'm not a huge fan of Radiohead: The Best Of. It's just thrown together and the song sequencing is strange.
But, like a lot of "Best of" collections that are put out after an artist leaves a label, this is par for the course.

 

Well, the point of this thread is more about bands whose “hits” don’t reflect what the band was really about overall. A good example being someone like Emerson Lake & Palmer.
If you only know them for their hits/singles, you might assume they are primarily an acoustic guitar-driven act (thanks to the popular Lake ballads).

 

In that vein, I'm thinking... Chicago?

Their various comps scarcely clue you in on the musically adventurous and indulgent side of the band, which I think is a significant part of their legend.