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

Ringo needed to make some publishing money off the Red & Blue albums, so it was either 'Octopus's Garden' or 'Don't Pass Me By'. I'd say they made the right choice.

 

Not really since it still left off the US #15 'Blue Morning Blue Day', while it did include the lower charting US #20 'Long Long Way To Go'.

However, removing that long live 'Hot Blooded' would have freed up enough room for both the studio 'Hot Blooded' and 'Blue Morning Blue Day' which would have made it a "perfect" collection including every US Top 20 hit they'd had up to the time of its release.

However if they wanted to keep it to 10 songs, they could have left off 'Juke Box Hero' (US #26) since it was the lowest charting hit they included on the album.

 

Fame and Fashion of course, I always get it wrong!

 

You just have the "Rudolph" song on the brain!

Hermy the elf did look a little like Bowie!

 

I never understood this complaint because:

1 - as released the CD was over 79 minutes long, so there was obviously no physical room left on the disc to include it.
2 - the liner notes clearly stated which two charts (1 US and 1 UK) they used to compile the album, and they stuck to it rigidly - what's wrong with that? If they had broken their own stated rule, that would have been worthy of criticism, but they didn't!
3 - which indisputable #1 would you have had them leave off to include that disputed #1 (PPM) instead? Remember that would mean you would want them to break their own stated rule if you give any answer to that question, other than "none".
4 - If I wanted them to break their own rule (I don't BTW) I suppose I'd bump the US #1 'Love Me Do' (as its not a very good song) but then its not my call to make, is it?

What they should have done is deleted the Red & Blue albums (rip off that they are in the CD era - 2CDs of material split over 4 CDs) and made a sequel to Beatles 1, that would include the "best of the rest" not worrying about chart positions, since many of their best songs were never singles. So start with PPM and SFF -the two biggest - and to my mind illogical - complains about "1", add another couple dozen classics (whether singles or not) and there you go. One CD isnt enough for all their best tracks anyway - but it IS enough to fit all the #1s from the two charts they used to compile it, and nothing more (unless you would have preferred they edit the songs to fit more songs on).

 

I totally agree with you. We are in the minority, here, though.

 

Don't forget that 1973 was Ringo's peak year as a solo artist. His Ringo album, released a few months after Red & Blue, remains the only solo album by any Beatle to yield two Billboard #1 singles.

And celebrity chef Anne Burrell.

 

To add: Crosby, Stills & Nash's box set has a live version of "Dark Star", but not the better, studio version. Argh! Thank you very little!

 

Dan Fogelberg Portrait...the ridiculous choice of Leader Of The Band-LIVE...should have been a bonus track.

 

That's a strange complaint since it:

1 - wasn't a greatest hits album
2 - was a box set which usually has at least a few alt versions of things anyway
3 - this particular box had about 90 minutes worth of unreleased tracks/alt versions including a good chunk of the songs from the first two - and biggest - albums (Suite Judy Blue Eyes, Guinevere, Almost Cut My Hair, Woodstock etc...)
4 - Nash who compiled the box said it was his intent to go with lots of unreleased/alt tracks for added value for longtime fans who already had most of the collective's albums already, and also to shed light on different facets of their careers together and apart as well as some roads not taken (such as some tracks from failed attempts to record a CSNY album in the mid-70s). Basically he said every track was selected for a very specific reason (mostly explained in the track by track liner notes - though ironically not in the case of this song which IIRC had just a sentence or two from Stills saying nothing more than he wouldn't reveal who inspired the song)

 

Ya think? Jim in Houston listed a few examples of live versions of songs used on best of/greatest hits albums instead of the studio versions. I listed another example. That "Dark Star" appears on a box set and not a single, greatest hits album from the 70's really doesn't fit the parameters of this thread, but I was replying to Jim in Houston regarding a live vs. studio song. That's all.

 

I may be repeating one that someone already mentioned but the original “Simon & Garfunkel Greatest Hits” .

4 live cuts where I would have preferred the studio versions.

Even worse the live song applause cross fades into the next studio song.
So if you just select just one of your favorite studio hits off the CD you’ll hear applause at the beginning on some songs.
They could have released the live tracks on a whole other live album to sell, but waited years to do so.

 

Yikes! That's just wrong!

 

Haven't read all 90 pages, but 'The Best of George Harrison' is more than 1/2 Beatles songs. Yeah, I know he wrote them, but I would've rather had all solo George.

Of course this one, like many others listed here, were later superseded by better Greatest/Best Of releases.

 

Red Hot Chili Peppers' Greatest Hits was a classic record company idiot move.

- Cancelling the new 16 track LP they'd recorded to include only two new tracks, "Fortune Faded" and "Save The Population", which are good although the former was not new to fans having made live appearances in 2001. At least a few of the new tracks got released later.
- Including the flops "Road Trippin'", "Universally Speaking" and non-single "Parallel Universe" yet omitting the hits "Can't Stop", "Aeroplane" and "Around The World".
- No attempt to license "Love Rollercoaster" from Geffen that was a hit in the UK and sustained their popularity after the diminishing popularity of "One Hot Minute"'s singles.
- Including an awful remix of "Higher Ground" and a mix of "Californication" from the wrong tape.
- A non-chronological tracklist that really doesn't flow.
- What is that cover?

 

George didn't much care for it either.

 

only thing i'll say is that I believe "universally speaking" was the bands most recent single when the hits release came out so maybe they were trying to get it a little more attention ?

I agree that its weird the 3 songs you mentioned were left off. also "the zephyr song" missing was crazy to me

 

I got this one from a street sale yesterday and felt the urge to post about it and check if someone had mentioned it before.
WHAT WERE THEY THINKING indeed? Starts out as a live compilation (which you wouldn't know if you didn't check the booklet) with 5 random studio tracks thrown in the middle, rounding it up with two more live tracks. I don't get what they were going for and the choice of material/versions is highly debatable. Not what I expected.

"Singles Collected" is strange as well. You get A sides and B sides of the IRS years. It doesn't flow.

 

Leaving off PPM from 1 was moronic on so many levels. Firstly, it WAS a UK number one single, anyone around at the time knows this. In addition, it was their breakthrough hit and a great groundbreaking single. Just as the albums now follow the British template worldwide (as they should) so the UK singles should have had priority over the U.S. Then any spare space on the disc, throw in a few U.S. number ones to pad it out.

 

"Let It Roll" included Beatles songs too, and inferior live versions at that.

 

Yes, but it was only 3 of the 19 songs and those 3 were from "The Concert for Bangladesh", which is at least from his solo years and was done by his band and not the Beatles.

 

This is true... but it is such an iconic live album.. Everyone seemed to own Simon & Garfunkels Greatest Hits in the 70's..

 

And an instrumental.. Let it Roll...Such a bizarre comp.

 

I agree and Part Lies only has one track from Monster... which had multiple songs that got loads of airplay

 

And...they cross fade into studio tracks — at least one somewhat rare.

Yes, I like Marwa Blues on the comp, but overall bizarre is right. Nothing from several albums, including 331/3.