Most frustrating greatest hits collections

My LP had the disco mix of Copacabana.

 

Same with my 2 LP set of Greatest Hits of Barry Manilow.

 

It can't, which is why it's on there (twice, actually -- the studio version and a live acoustic version).

You're probably talking about Vital Idol, which was more of a remix album than a greatest hits.

Ryan

 

IMO, any "hits" collection for the Beatles will come up short because the best approach is to simply get ALL the British albums. Nothing short of this will do.

It's my understanding that those two collections were released to stave off a bootleg Beatles collection called "Alpha & Omega" so it probably was rushed to the marketplace w/out much thought as far as track listing.

 

I too always thought that the Harper's Bazaar version was S&G until I bought Parsley, Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme earlier this year. I much prefer S&G's version.

 

I agree. It's hard to capture all the great songs by the Beatles in a double album as there are too many of them.

 

Re: Re: Re: Most frustrating greatest hits collections

To be fair, I'm not sure that Chaka had enough hits to make up a second volume (unless you were to include Rufus stuff), but the record company *did* indicate that "Epiphany" was "volume 1." I wonder what they had in mind for volume 2?




Actually Jeff they probably could do a second hits package. There was plenty they left off of volume one. If I were to put this together, it would include these songs:


Clouds
We Can Work It Out
Got To Be There
Love Of A Lifetime
Tight Fit
This Is My Night
Love You All My Lifetime
Tearin' It Up
I Feel For You(12" version)

And maybe fill out the rest either with new material(like they did on the other hits package) or license these songs for this compilation.


Do You Love What You Feel(US Disco Mix, never been on CD!! Why I don't know!!! Excellent, and rare version of this track.)
My Funny Valentine(from Waiting To Exhale)
Any Love
What's Going On(from Standing In The Shadows Of Motown)

 

I have yet to see a Columbia (CBS, Sony, whatever) Ramsey Lewis compilation that has both "Sun Goddess" and "Tequila Mockingbird" on it. There was an LP compilation in a jazz series that had these cuts, but this was never issued on CD. Methinks they don't want to kill off sales of either of the albums these songs came from. And mainly, those are the two tracks I really want to have!

Also, did AC/DC ever have their own compilation? I ended up buying all of the Bon Scott era CDs (only the studio albums, no live version) and making my own. It's been one of my favorites.

 

There is no AC/DC greatest hits album, unless you count the pretty bad "Who Made Who" soundtrack, which has one new song, two new instrumentals, a couple great tracks and some mild stinkers from Fly On The Wall. Some people claim that Live in its one/two disc varieties are good hits collections, but frankly, I think those discs are terrible, and I'm a HUGE fan.
I frequently recommend exactly what you've done, Rudy...great!

--MK

 

I somehow ended up with one of the live CDs...can't say I cared for it either! I'm not a huge AC/DC fan...but a very amused one.

 

Well, I've always been glad they're around - their 2-disc sets (such as Coasters and Drifters) are the best around. But they frequently screw up their single-disc sets by leaving something off that should have been included on any GH set. Examples:

Hank Ballard & the Midnighters: Rhino left off "The Hoochie Cootchie Coo," one of the great feel-good records of the early 60's (it charted).

Del Shannon: Rhino left off "So Long Baby," the wildest thing Del ever recorded. It charted as well - and the only reason it was probably left off is because Rhino for some stupid reason would never exceed 20 songs on a single-disc GH collection.

Then when they put out a rather crappy-sounding Freddie Cannon GH collection and also left off some good tracks, I complained to them. In some cases I didn't buy the Rhino discs and went with imports - they HAD all the tracks I was looking for (on one disc).

 

This one didn't bother me all that much, now the Best of that covered 1990 - 2000 did.

I didn't particularly care for the remixes on it. There were also a few omissions I was surprised at (Walk On, The Fly).

The sound quality didn't bother me as much on the first set as it did the second set. I didn't think the first one sounded flat. I'll have to take a listen to "Pride" again, I never really noticed the overdubs.

Overall, U2 needs a far better greatest hits representation that what's out there right now.

 

Badfinger.

Two attempts from Apple/Capitol and both fall short IMO.

And no "Timeless" on either one.


The Eagles.

Why can't just one compilation (or box set for that matter) give us "Get You In The Mood" which was a b-side only to" Take It Easy?"


Paul McCartney & Wings.

Wingspan. Hey now a bunch of these songs aren't Wings.

There's a lot more exciting stuff that was to come out on the "Cold Cuts" collection than what we get here.

Oh yeah, no-noise of course.

 

Agreed. "Ass" should have at least been represented by "Apple of My Eye."

As for Paulie & Wingspan, I think that the compilation considers "Wings" as pretty much Paul & Linda. Denny Laine was around (though not entirely) through "Pipes of Peace" and he might even on a "Broad Street" track. If you go with that theory, it's chronologically correct seeing as "Broad Street" is the latest album the comp pulls from. However, I guess that theory doesn't really hold seeing as there is material from "McCartney" and "Ram" on it.

McCartney could use a nice thorough collection. One that's not no-noised!

 

Yes and to make room they dropped Don't Ask Me Why! So it's a trade off. It seemed that Billy Joel's GH 1&2 had to stop at the round number of 25. No Keeping the Faith, Sometimes a Fantasy.

I may add Police Every Breath You Take the Classics. An upgrade to Singles remastered with bonus tracks, an opportunity squandered by adding a remix to Message In A Bottle (which adds nothing to the original) but not adding Synchronicity II, Demolition Man, and So Lonely. At least they did add the original Don't Stand So Close to Me. Why not the remake of De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da as a bonus track. You have to buy the DTS version to get it and lose the remake of DSSCTM!

And I too, felt that Born On The Bayou should have been on Chronicle. It is prime CCR, a classic. Yes it did come out on Vol. 2, but Fantasy in true fashion blew that release as well by omitting Bootleg!

Brian

 

What pisses me off is when greatest hits CDs are released with NO single edits. What's the point? If that's the case, I can make my own compilation from the individual album CDs. That tells me the record company was too damn lazy to find the correct single edits/mixes.

 

It's odd isn't it ... sometime 7" edits are a curse, other times they trim away excess.

I wish there was a Police Greates Hits that gave us the 7" edit of "Message In A Bottle". As edits go, this just nails the song for me.

 

Here ya go:

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&uid=CASS70306181246&sql=Atnen97bkkrjt

 

Single vs. album versions are a personal preference, I think. Since I was never a big radio listener nor a singles buyer, I usually expect the compilation to have the full-length version on it. Since I collect A&M to an extent, I do see the value in having compilations of single versions as well...I feel there's room for both, and in fact, it would not bother me to buy two different compilations if one were singles versions and the other had full-length versions. I don't always buy compilations to get single versions--it's usually because I want the specific songs without having to buy entire albums.

It also depends on the type of music. Hold the flames (and atomic bomb photos ), but I also used to collect 12" disco singles. When Rhino had a series of CDs for the disco era, I bought a large number of them all at one time. (A local retailer was getting rid of their CD department...anyone in Detroit remember when Hudson's briefly had a CD department in the early 90's?) Got home and found almost all of the tracks to be single versions...a major letdown for someone who collected the extended mixes and was hoping for, at the very least, album-length versions. (Still good to have some of these songs, which still elude me on 12" these days.) Ditto a midline KC & The Sunshine Band comp that Rhino issued...all single versions, it clocked in at about a half hour. A couple years later, a much better version with more tracks and full-length versions was released.

 

I'll drink to that.

 

Stevie Nicks' "Timespace" includes inferior 1991 remixes of several songs, and a couple of her top 40 hits (Nightbird and After The Glitter Fades) were left off.

 

All of 'em. I think greatest hits\best of's are totally pointless. Most of the titles covered are weak due to them being more commercialised.

 

That's the first Badfinger comp which is no-noised to death. I've just made my own using Steve's CDs and the "Ass" Apple LP I have.

 

Gene Pitney Anthology: 1961-1968 Rhino left off "If I Didn't Have a Dime," one of his best. Must've been a licensing issue...

 

It's annoying to me when they give you a live version of a hit or fan favorite. As a recent example, in THE PAUL SIMON COLLECTION, "American Tune" and "Duncan" are on the "Limited-Edition Live Bonus Disc".

Jim W.