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

A second Substance for the later albums would be great, but a record company would never release a New Order comp without it having Blue Monday on it (they could have got away with it actually by putting Blue Monday '88 on it I guess). But this is a common problem.
There has been a lot of cases where there has been an extensive singles collection released by a group, Substance New Order being a great example, which could have then been followed up by a sister compilation detailing a groups next few years, but rarely does it happen. U2 did it with their first two Best Ofs, albeit with some omissions (A Celebration) and Remixes (in the cases of their 1990-2000 comp) but then blew it by released U218 which rebooted the whole thing, added newer tracks, omitted even more older singles and pretty much messed the whole thing up. A 2000-2010 compilation would have been a much nicer, cleaner release, but then they wouldn't have been getting as many people buying it.

 

I never knew that the US version was different to the UK version. It is actually a better companion to Substance as there is only one track which is exactly the same on it.

 

10cc

Where's Worst Band in the World? A lot of album tracks would have gone a long way, the list is decent but it's missing some of the best ones.

 

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers' 1993 Greatest Hits CD skips everything from their 1987 album, Let Me Up (I've Had Enough) and the same year's live album Pack Up the Plantation. It would be a pleasure to include their live cover version of The Byrds' 1967 hit, "So You Want to Be a Rock 'n Roll Star."

~Ben

 

It's funny that you bring up U2, they and New Order are usually what I consider my all time favorite bands.

The problem I see with U2 releasing a 2000-2010 collection was the lack of output. They had only 11 actual singles from the period, of course they could have added some album tracks to pad it out (which they did on the previous collections anyway). I think they are just now at a point where a third collection would make sense, covering 2004-2014. I may be wrong but I had heard that the original plan was three hits albums, the 2 decade best of's then follow it up with the blended collection (18 singles) for casual fans. It's speculation of course but I wouldn't be surprised if we soon see reissues of 1980-1990, 2000-2010 (something I read was in the plans already when they reissued a few titles last year) , and a new collection to cover How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb - Songs Of Innocence or Experience.

I also agree with you on the fact that they should have included those single only tracks with their previous releases.

 

The greatest hits also omits Change of Heart, which just missed the Billboard Top 20 in early 1983.

 

and he contained an instrumental... who puts an instrumental on a greatest hits album?

 

One of my favorite groups is Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, but their Greatest Hits leaves off "Jammin' Me", one of my favorite late 80's hits from them. This song seems to be completely forgotten even by the group themselves!

 

Here is a strange reversal, the original 1974 Neil Diamond "Greatest Hits" vinyl had live versions of I think "Sweet Caroline" and one other song, while the CD has the correct songs. Come to think of it, he should pretty much own this thread, since every compilation seemingly has rerecorded and/or live versions of his hits.

 

Dusty Springfield's "Golden Hits" is missing "Stay Awhile" in the UK and "Some of Your Lovin'" in the US (Don't get me started on the 10 track version...).

 

Sure, but "greatest hits" albums still need to concentrate on songs that actually were hits. In the 70s, that meant singles that got big play on AM top 40 stations...

 

That's one I could never understand. "I remember "Change Of Heart" being quite popular and in heavy rotation on MTV. Maybe Tom Petty never liked it. Who knows?

 

Not sure of every single case, but in many of these cases (obviously, more likely with the later-released compilations), I believe it is because he was on different labels at different times during his hit-making years, and the "other" labels wouldn't let the "compilation releasing" label use the hit versions of the songs that were on the "other" labels (I know he was on at least three labels - Bang, Uni/MCA, and Columbia).

 

Well, judging by the Paul Zollo book with extensive first-person interviews with Petty, he didn't love it, although I happen to think it's a much better song than the first single off Long After Dark, You Got Lucky--which had a comparable chart performance to Change of Heart, but a much longer afterlife.

 

If you want the single mixes you have to shell out for The Casablanca Singles box set but, in my opinion, it's worth it. Some of the single mixes are shockingly different than their album versions, especially Detroit Rock City and Strutter '78.

 

Not to mention Vol. 3 includes 409, which was already on Vol. 2!

 

Classic Yes, including subpar live recordings of Roundabout and All Good People in lieu of the classic original studio versions.

 

The John Lennon Collection, WAY TO MANY Double Fantasy tracks, remove I'm Losing You, Beautiful Boy, and Dear Yoko, and replace them with: Mother, Woman is the ****** of the World, and Nobody Told Me.

 

Those tracks were not included on the original lp version of Classic Yes. Some pressings included them as a bonus single included with the lp. When Classic Yes was released on compact disc, they added the bonus single tracks to the Classic Yes compilation since the compact disc length allowed it. I believe they are unused live tracks from the concerts that were recorded for the Yesshows lp.

 

That was EMI/Capitol getting the rights to the Double Fantasy songs.

 

Yeah, like The Clash....

 

When Prince left "Batdance" off The Hits/B-Sides, I didn't mind because Batman had been such a dumb project to begin with.

But when Oasis left "D'You Know What I Mean?" - also a #1 hit - off Stop the Clocks, I felt that was just screwing the fans. It was the lead single from the fastest selling album in UK history. Noel doesn't get to pretend it never happened.

 

The first John Lennon Collection came out in 1982 (I bought it then) --- Nobody Told Me wasn't out then; it didn't appear until 1984.

(they very well could have released it in the CD age, including additional (and possibly) later tracks to fill out the expanded space on a CD; I don't know the answer to that)

That label thing pops up again here -- the John Lennon Collection (1982 version) was released on Geffen Records. Guess what label Double Fantasy came out on? And if you know that answer, then you know why so many Double Fantasy tracks appear on the John Lennon Collection.

 

Geffen in the US, EMI in other places, it was a joint venture.