Most frustrating greatest hits collections

I agree Joel, I did buy "War Greatest Hits" on United Artists vinyl to fill this gap.

 

Tim, In fairness to This is The Moody Blues, Tony Clarke remixed everything, gave them fresh crossfades that made them sound like they were meant to be crossfaded like that. He did that despite the unwritten rule on the 2 LP/Cd set. One track per side by Graeme Edge, John Lodge, Mike Pinder and Ray Thomas, and two tracks per side by Justin Hayward and it flowed great.

Plus it included a stereo remix of A Simple Game (that has as yet appeared remastered on any Moodies CD)

Brian

 

I love this song, but it was a real PITA to isolate from my vinyl This Is the Moody Blues for my "favorite things" series of CDs because of the crossfading. I spent lots of time, and lots of trial and error (a lot of error -- thank goodness for CD-RWs) to get this to disc without it sounding as if it came from a crossfade. And I didn't want to "fade in" the beginning; that was cheating as far as I was concerned. I could "fade out" the end a little bit because the song starts to fade before the next track starts.

I finally did it -- and the effort was worth it. It is very difficult if not impossible to tell that my version of "Simple Game" was originally from a crossfaded LP. At most, my version is maybe half a second shorter than the LP version.

 

I think the reason you don't see "A Simple Game" on any Moodies comp is because it is a Four Tops track licensed to Motown.

Great song, though.

 

They're talking about the Moody Blues' recording of it, NOT the Four Tops'.

 

I appears in the second volume of "The Best...And More". Also, it is on the original greatest hits on Avenue Gold as well as on the new greatest hits 2CD set. Problem is, the new set sounds very edgy. Ouch!

 

Oh, I wasn't aware that the Moodies did another version of the song.

 

It was originally the B-side to the 1968 British single of "Ride My See-Saw" (in mono), which is where the Four Tops encountered it; its only release in the US so far has been the stereo version on This Is the Moody Blues.

 

Tim,

It actually is found on Prelude (which is now OP in the US) as an import. Interestingly the song does fade up and the fade out is later. The song runs for 3:40. You might do a CD-R of the track on the import.

Brian

 

I agree with you on Billy Joel - I've felt this way for years. They did a good thing by restoring the album versions of songs on the box set collection of GH vol. 1-3. Too bad they couldn't have added "Honesty" as a bonus.

As for the Moody Blues - the 20th Century Millenium Masters discs are hardly definitive compilations. Most have a few of the big hits to entice buyers and are filled out with lesser known tracks.

 

Re: Re: Most frustrating greatest hits collections

"My Life" was totally chopped up on the first issue of GH Vol 1 & 2. Putting the album lengths on the remastered GH was a great idea. The songs are better for it.

 

Re: Re: Re: Most frustrating greatest hits collections

Bartels, I like your KISS Dynasty icon by the way. Anyone who has that can't be bad!