Herb Alpert (solo) Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass Maynard Ferguson Don Ellis Smithereens Tom Rush Pat Metheny
Dan Fogelberg. 5 discs of his greatest album tracks (+ all the singles), 1-2 discs of unreleased tracks ("Illinois River Song", "What In The World", etc.), acoustic demos (some are better than the final versions) and his demos for songs recorded by other artists, e.g. "The Lady Loves The River". And at least 1 disc featuring a classic Live performance, preferably The Summit, Houston, 1982. All remastered by Vic Anesini. Realistic? No!
Brian Eno had TWO career overview box sets of his own material , “Vocal” and “Instrumental”. It would be cool if they did a box set of all the things he produced over the years, although I bet that would be a licensing nightmare
The Rolling Stones. A multi-disc carrer-spanning boxed set with highlights and unreleased material would be an instant classic if it was done like The Who’s Maximum R’n’B box. Let’s say 6 discs - disc 1-3 covering the sixties and early seventies, disc 4-5 covering mid- to late seventies and early eighties. Disc 6 covering mid-eighties until today.
US - sorry. Comprehensive box set, the CD box set With the Lights Out was just left overs, I want alternate takes, isolated, 5.1, etc. For each set. The mastering on the 20th was awful. Although the Devonshire mixes, although Vig went crazy with compression, its rock so I'll let it slide. If he compressed it a little less, it was far better than Andy Wallace's mix. And the 20th of In Utero was bettered by Albini's version, to me. I picked up the DMM Anniversary, and Alternate LP. Speaking LP sets, there. But an entire career spanning set would be magnificent. Instead of the Courtney Love "I'm out of cash" lets stick You Know Your Right on a Hits album.
Rykodisc announced plans for a Paisley box set at one point. It never materialized. I don't know what happened. Rhino's Children of Nuggets box set "kind-of" works as a Paisley + collection (or more accurately, a box of music from the many bands, Paisley Undeground included, who were reviving 60s pop in the 80s).
The Legendary Pink Dots might hold the record for the most recorded albums (either them or Tangerine Dream). If they put out a box set with everything it would break the bank for even the richest of folk. Since the deaths of the members of Coil, the rights to the catalog have been all over the place, but a lot of of it is started to come together, so that could be a possibility in the future.
Of those mentioned I think Van Halen is the most obvious, there's nothing out there aside from the albums. Richie Havens I'd love to see but we still don't have some of his albums available on CD so what chance of a decent box set is there? Roky Erickson seems prime for a comprehensive box, his discography is a bit of a mess, would love to see it cleaned up and compiled.
Nine Inch Nails (to date, there hasn't been any compilations) Madonna (there is a TON of unreleased songs and demos) Depeche Mode (They have amazing b-sides, and those have never been collected in one place)
It's only a two-disc set, but Shout Factory's compilation I Have Always Been Here Before did a great job of collecting Roky's music from The Spades, 13th Floor Elevators and his solo recordings.
There are a couple of very important electronic artists whose careers are approaching their thirtieth anniversaries that are in dire need of properly curated and comprehensive anthologies, IMHO. Basic Channel (a.k.a. Rhythm & Sound, Maurizio, Phylyps, Cyrus, etc.). The enormously influential dub techno duo from Berlin, Germany recorded at least eight or nine albums worth of material under several different pseudonyms that can as be tough to find as their original releases. And plenty more tracks that only ever were released as vinyl B-sides. Aphex Twin. A similar issue, he recorded a lot of tracks for different labels under different aliases earlier in his career, it'd be great to finally have a single compilation that would gather these up under one roof. Also, I think I'd really like to see an anthology of Al Jourgensen's work. A big one to be sure, one that collects album tracks, rarities, live sets and demoes from Ministry, Revolting Cocks, Lard, Pailhead and the Hypo/Luxa productions for other artists he did with Ministry-bandmate Paul Barker. Of course, given the number of labels involved, a set like this would likely be a licensing nightmare and one that would never sell enough to recoup its costs.