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

It was a recent re-recording in a stripped down arrangement, not a demo. Some find the Ezrin-produced original a bit overblown, including perhaps Peter himself. Every live recording I've heard since 1990 is much more similar to the Shaking The Tree version than the 1977 original. As for me, I enjoy both...And the version on Robert Fripp's Exposure LP as well.

 

There was an odd CD out several years back called "Juggernauts: The Best Of Insane Clown Posse" - sure, okay, but the tracklist spans about four albums. (If I remember, every song is either from "The Great Milenko", "The Amazing Jeckel Brothers" or "Bizaar"/"Bizzar". Everything else is ignored completely.)

Probably worth noting that ICP had nothing to do with compiling this CD (and didn't want to have to promote it, either).

 

What I thought was neat is that on "Play-The Videos' they used the what I think is the Fripp 'I Don't Remember', kinda of a cool oddity!

 

All of Paul McCartney's compilations are flawed. They are all great listens, but all are missing their share of essential hits.

 

James Taylor's Classic Songs is a great-sounding CD but not sure some of the That's Why I'm Here tracks really should have been included. Whereas I think the track listing on Greatest Hits holds up pretty well considering it was also not very far removed from the period covered.

 

Steve Miller Band's GH: a tossed salad of Fly Like An Eagle & Book of Dreams. With The Joker thrown in.
Aeromsith's GH: edited version of Sweet Emotion, etc.
Wings Greatest: covered too long a time span and tried to cover 2 different markets.

 

I just noticed on the Wikipedia page for Steve Miller Band's Greatest Hits album that Steve Hoffman did the remastering.

 

I listened to their greatest hits album for the first time recently, and found that very annoying that the intro was lopped off.

 

Well those all (bar This Boy) did chart on Billboard. There were also some charted covers in the States within this time period, but I get why they wanted to avoid including cover$ on these comp$. Strangely Rubber Soul is far too over represented (and that's coming from someone who considers Rubber Soul their best album)

Shock Me was prepared during the same remixing sessions as all the songs intended for Double Platinum, but was used as the B-Side to the Strutter '78 single instead.

I remember reading back in the day that Eric Carr said he didn't want to re-record those vocals, and he actually phoned Peter Criss to apologize, since he felt bad about it.

Well it wasnt actually recorded for that purpose. It was Sting's weird idea for the band to record an album of Police self covers, since he wanted to keep his new self written songs for himself, now that he had established himself as a solo star. They got as far as recording two before throwing in the towel and Don't Stand was probably considered to have the better potential of the two for a hit. Plus I seem to remember that era being when a Greatest Hits album with at least one new song (to also be released as a single) began to be the expected norm. Too bad it elbowed off the original version though.

 

But wouldn't that edit have been the actual single version - y'know - the hit.

 

The DCC doesn't have this flaw, but the other versions do, and it's sacrilege: Jet Airliner without the guitar solo entry.

 

GH was the only version I knew when they re-recorded it and made a funny video for it in the early 90s, so I thought the new version had added an entirely new intro! Anyway, there is other editing on Greatest Hits as well. Same Old Song and Dance ends up being quite short in its edited (single?) version.

 

I must take issue with that statement. The live "Freebird" is the greatest thing Skynyrd ever committed to tape, and is justifiably on a "Best of" collection. The studio version would have been at home on a "greatest hits".

 

I've always felt that certain 'best-of' albums are inadequate or incomplete, I don't know about anybody else?

For example, while it isn't a 'bad' record, I was unimpressed that The Beatles 'Blue Album' (1967-1970) didn't have the track Helter Skelter, especially given its one of the bands most influential songs.

 

I never thought of the Red and Blue compilations as missing anything in particular, apart from a couple of George tracks maybe on the Red one.

Helter Skelter wouldn't have fit, I don't think. Definitely influential, but works better as a deep cut I reckon. Might scare the masses a bit.

 

Bad Company's "10 From 6" has always grated on me. It completely ignores 'Burnin' Sky' which is an incredible track which negates the album title making it "10 from 5."

 

I dislike the kind that substitute a big hit single for a live version.

 

The Red Album should be redone to include "Got To Get You Into My LIfe(a top ten hit in 1976)">

 

Ozzy Osbourne’s The Ozzman Cometh is good for what it offers, but as a compilation it frustrates by not delivering the quick fix. An Ozzy Greatest should hit you with the studio versions of: Crazy Train, I Don’t Know, Mr. Crowley, Flying High, Over the Mountain, etc. right off the bat (no pun intended).

 

I'm sure some joker who didn't like the album rated it a negative 4 out of whatever.

 

I'm not a big fan of Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits, Vol. 2. I know that Dylan himself chose the tracks, but it really feels like someone just randomly chose a bunch of tracks that didn't go on Greatest Hits, Vol. 1. The bonus tracks are nice, though.

Bruce Springsteen's Greatest Hits album technically lives up to its name, but that doesn't make it any better of a listen. There was always much more to Springsteen than the (sometimes shallow) hits suggested. Again, the bonus tracks are decent.

 

A Foot In The Door from Pink Floyd. Pointless, uncomprehensive, poorly sequenced, badly edited, just a complete train wreck.

 

Blue Oyster Cult - Career of Evil: The Metal Years. What were they thinking?! For years I only had that plus On Flame with Rock n Roll and I had to sequence a custom compilation (cassette) for the car by putting studio songs in chronological order using those two collections.
That’s how I like my Greatest/Best of albums.

 

There are a ton of wonky hits compilations on streaming services, when it comes to older artists (folks like Doris Day, or Jelly Roll Morton, etc.), where apparently there are a bunch of tracks that either have gone into public domain or that have fuzzy ownership. They have generic titles, generic cover art, etc., and they're usually licensed from companies you've never heard of, often where the company name is just a couple random capital letters--(c) 2012 RBU etc.

Often enough, those wonky compilations are the only way to find specific tracks, and you might need to add a bunch of them to your library to compile a track list that you want, where you wind up with a bunch of duplicate tracks, too. It's a mess.

 

what?

other than Obla Di that was the ultimate pairing and my gate way drug at 12 when it came out


compilations where they tack on some in sequential later track and mess up the flow of the record

James Taylor Essential vs James Taylor Greatest Hits

butcher jobs with too many live cuts of great cannon songs
here's looking at you - THe Who - 30 years of R&B

not cracking the vault when known stuff is out there - when the box is title "complete"