Inadvertent Masterpieces: Compilations that are brilliant in their own right.

Yeah, I wish it wasn't so badly distorted on Masterpieces though. The UK 45 sounds perfect. I think the piano version of Spanish Is The Loving Tongue is only on CD on Masterpieces too.

 

I think Hatful of Hollow is, by far, the best Smiths album. Really their only great album.

 

Sly & The Family Stone's Greatest Hits. I love their albums but this coheres so well. And Anthology — which is pretty much the same but includes tracks recorded after GH came out — is almost as good.

 

I'm not sure if I can count Taking Liberties - yeah, it's a compilation, but it's all non-album material. There's two different kinds of compilations - I can see Taking Liberties getting included on a "best albums ever" list, while Dylan's first Greatest Hits - although a fantastic compilation - wouldn't, since all those tracks bar "Positively Fourth Street" came from albums.

Sticking with Dylan, Biograph is somewhere in the middle there. It wouldn't be fair to put it on a "best albums ever" list because of how many classic album tracks are on it, but it also can't just be classified a "greatest hits" because of how many rare and unreleased tracks are on it.

There are a few choices I'm trying to go over for my own vote for this list. The Kinks and the Animals are bands that need a perfect compilation and don't have one. Every single comp is missing one track or another! I'll think this over and report back.

 

I actually was going to post this one, but I didn't want to hog the thread and post too many.

But I will add, in a totally different style!

Pet Shop Boys - Discography

 

I feel about Louder Than Bombs the way you feel about Hatful Of Hollow.

 

My top 2... mainly for the sequencing and flow from one track to the next. And they sound great, too.


Paul Simon, Greatest Hits Etc.



Stevie Wonder, Original Musiquarium I

 

That old Sly & the Family Stone Greatest Hits is absolute perfection! I have the Anthology too, but the Greatest Hits is pure joy. Again, one of the best. A fantastic gatefold sleeve too.

 

Blue Brazil Vol. 2
Mojo Presents The Quiet Revolution
Ethiopiques Vol 4
David Bowie All Saints Collected Instrumentals

 

Light in the Attic comps:
“I Am the Center”
“Kankyo Ongaku”

 

Elton John - Greatest Hits (Vol 1).
Distils the best of his early career into one very cohesive album. I’m always surprised at how well this album holds together as I usually avoid / loathe greatest hits type albums!

 

Yeah, there are basically two general kinds of comps: those that collect previously uncollected stuff and those that aspire to present an artists best work.

The former is where you wonderful accidents like Singles Going Steady and Taking Liberties.

The latter give you Legend and ChangesOne Bowie.

They don't have much in common apart from serindipitously sounding amazing when everything gets played together.

 

I have a Canadian 45 of George Jackson that’s just great.

 

The Rolling Stones - Hot Rocks
The Rolling Stones - More Hot Rocks & Fazed Cookies

 

I agree with Biography and Kinks Kronikles.

I would pick Girls Girls Girls by Elvis Costello over Taking Liberties as the latter, while it contains a lot of good songs, is simply an assemblage of tracks not found on the North American albums while the former is a compilation not really of greatest hits but a chance to hear some of his material in a new context. E.C. claimed there was a reasoning in the sequencing but it escapes me although it works. Interesting that the vinyl and cassette editions all differed.

I think Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy by the Who is excellently compiled.

 

Zombies - A & B sides, all pre Odessey stuff.

(actually called Rock Roots)

 

Mine's the UK one. It's not an easy record to find. It seems to be obtainable relatively cheaply on eBay, but I've only seen one copy ever, which I have. Luckily it's in near mint condition. I really should work out how to do needledrops. I have hundreds of 45s. I could possibly compile something worthy of this thread!

By the way, this is a great thread.

 

If we're talking various artists comps as well, I'd include Nuggets — possibly the most influential compilation ever made — as well as a personal fave, Samba Soul 70, which is a damn-near perfect collection of late '60s/early '70s Brazilian music.

 

Echo and the Bunnymen- Songs to Learn and Sing
The elephant in the room is the Eagles Greatest Hits

 

How has nobody mentioned Snap! by the Jam!? Easily the single greatest greatest hits album of all time!!

I know I forgot about it, but that's because I'm stupid. What's your excuse!?

 

“Into the Afterlife” is another nice one

The Zombies / Neil MacArthur / Rod Argent & Chris White (2) - Into The Afterlife

 

Probably because I'm in the UK and we didn't get those until much later, I'll go for the double Rolled Gold, which was my first Stones album. All the singles along with essential album tracks from Come On to Brown Sugar. Another chronological compilation that flows very well.

 

How on earth did I forget this, and another chronological one that works so well.

 

1.The Drifters / Their Greatest Recordings-The Early Years (1971)

2.The Clovers / Their Greatest Recordings- The Early Years (1971)

3.The Coasters / Their Greatest Recordings - The Early Years (1971)

4.Ricky Nelson / Legendary Masters (1971)...2LP set & remains definitive

5.Fats Domino / Legendary Masters (1971)...2 LP set & remains the perfect overview all at the correct speed

6.Jan And Dean / Legendary Masters (1971)...2LPs & remains the perfect overview

7.Bo Diddley / Got My Own Bag Of Tricks (1972)...24 of Bo's best

8.Everything You Always Wanted To Hear From Dion And The Belmonts (1972)...as the title states, 2 LP set of everything from the fast as lighting "I Wonder Why" all way to Dions post Presley hard rock "The Wanderer" & "Runaround Sue"

8.Jerry Lee Lewis / Rockin Up A Storm (1974)...2LPs & 28 tracks of The Killer & his pumping piano's finest Sun sides, this is as close to a perfect Jerry Lee record as you can get

9.The Best Of Charlie Rich (1972)...the best of Charlie's pre-middle road country Columbia sides & proof why Bobby Dylan has always held the man in the highest regard

10.Fleetwood Mac's Greatest Hits (1971)...often thought of as one of the finest sounding pieces of wax ever released & a perfect overview of the Green era

11.Fairport Chronicles (1976)...2LP comp of the early Fairport family of musicians

12.The Yardbirds / Shapes Of Things (1977)...Still THE Yardbirds compilation to own, 2LPs of hits & rareties with guitar so sharp you could cut yourself on it

13.Temptations / Anthology (1973)...a exhaustive 3 LP set of why they were unsurpassed over the long haul & final proof that the Temps along the Stones were the only 2 bands that could balance the business of sex & politics equally

The 1970s were a great decade for Best Of compilations & these 13 were some of the best