Q: Where to start with...? / A: Their Greatest Hits, actually.
aka: 'The Greatest Greatest Hits Thread'.
In the "where to start with The Beatles" thread, my answer was basically this: "There's no accepted 'best Beatles album', so with that many albums and that much variation, it's probably best you just get a greatest hits album and decide for yourself from there if you wanna dig deeper."
You may or may not agree with my Beatles findings, but I've found this thinking also works for:
*The Rolling Stones - '40 Greatest Licks' (although it seems 'Rolled Gold' might have edged it out)
*Prince - 'The Hits/The B-Sides'
*Queen - 'Greatest Hits I, II & III'
*The Cure - 'Greatest Hits'
There's surely no shame in getting a great overview album but there are some lame cash-ins out there. So what are the greatest Greatest Hits albums that actually serve as a great intro when a band has released more than a couple of great studio albums and it's a bit difficult trying to decide where to start?
Go!
- Relevant artist taggings:
- Prince »[x]
- The Cure »[x]
- The Rolling Stones »[x]
- The Beatles »[x]
- New Order »[x]
- Muse »[x]
- Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds »[x]
- The White Stripes »[x]
- Queen »[x]
- The Smiths »[x]
- Neil Young »[x]
- Supergrass »[x]
- Ash »[x]
- The Fall »[x]
- Nirvana »[x]
- Blur »[x]
- Little Pink Pollywog »[x]
- Pixies »[x]
- Stevie Wonder »[x]
- The Lemonheads »[x]
- Bruce Springsteen »[x]
- Pulp »[x]
- Mansun »[x]
- Radiohead »[x]
- Dinosaur Jr. »[x]
- Guided By Voices »[x]
- Billy Childish »[x]
- David Bowie »[x]
- Beastie Boys »[x]
- Super Furry Animals »[x]
- Pavement »[x]
- ABBA »[x]
- Crowded House »[x]
- Buzzcocks »[x]
- Mclusky »[x]
- R.E.M. »[x]
- The Velvet Underground »[x]
- Daft Punk »[x]
- Leonard Cohen »[x]
- My Life Story »[x]
- Manic Street Preachers »[x]
- Pet Shop Boys »[x]
- Nick Drake »[x]
- ZZ Top »[x]
- Squeeze »[x]
- Status Quo »[x]
- Elvis Presley »[x]
- Gang Starr »[x]
- The Ex »[x]
- Bis »[x]
- Nina Simone »[x]
- Diana Ross »[x]
- Echo and the Bunnymen »[x]
- Talking Heads »[x]
- Harvey Milk »[x]
- Cat Power »[x]
- Marvin Gaye »[x]
- The Charlatans »[x]
- Happy Mondays »[x]
- Bob Marley »[x]
- The Cardigans »[x]
- The Jam »[x]
- The Stone Roses »[x]
- Journey »[x]
- Rage Against The Machine »[x]
- Phil Collins »[x]
- Underworld »[x]
- The Flaming Lips »[x]
- Terror Danjah »[x]
- Yo La Tengo »[x]
- Girls Aloud »[x]
- Cheeky Girls »[x]
- Scouting For Girls »[x]
- Young Girls Wanted »[x]
- Bad Girls »[x]
- The Girls »[x]
- Now »[x]
- Operator Please »[x]
- Blondie »[x]
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Prince
The Cure
The Rolling Stones
The Beatles
New Order
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PS: Great overview live albums are eligible.
Is Muse's H.A.A.R.P. an example of one of these?
I like Hullaballo more.
However the hell you spell it
New Order
Singles and/or Substance.
Substance
Do NOT buy Singles, they butcher all the tracks with brutal edits
The Best of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
[peers into the future]
The White Stripes' Greatest Hits.
The Smiths
Singles
Also...
Funkadelic - 'Motor City Madness'
Neil Young - 'Decade'
Supergrass is 10
that Ash one
without a doubt supergrass
great shout
I disagree..
I think Supergrass' best songs tend to be more the album tracks, rather than the singles
50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong
is also a sensible choice.
Or 458489 A Sides
Just edges it I reckon.
Nirvana's 2002 one
got it when I was 12, was perfect then. Obviously the albums stand up as great works in their own right but that was just heaven at the time.
Blur's 2000 retrospective also did a superb job.
It only really features songs from Nevermind, In Utero & Unplugged though
+1 from Bleach and 1 from incesticide and You Know You're Right is disappointing.
I mean, I enjoyed it, but are greatest hits that important for bands with 3 studio albums?
as a 12 yr old with a CD player
yes, it was revelatory.
now, probably not, no.
Midlife is a better retrospective
than Blur's 'Best of' was. Admittedly that's a fans view, but it gives you a much understanding of what they're about than the greatest hits collection. Anyone listening the 2000 compilation would be well prepared for the Britpop albums, but would probably struggle with their more arty work which still makes up a fair amount of their back catalogue these days.
If someone just wanted one Blur album, then yeah, probably Blur: The Best of, but if the question's "where to start with" then I'd have to go with last year's.
This^
Pretty much sums up my experiences with Blur. The Best of was a great intro to them, but now that i'm a fan of all their albums i much prefer Midlife.
The Best Of could be amazing with only two substitutions:
Charmless Man -> Chemical World
Music is My Radar -> He Thought of Cars
Not that I dislike Music is My Radar (and frankly Charmless Man has some charms) but it was only a new track to be the 'seller' so clearly isn't 'best'. I was glad to see He Thought of Cars on the Midlife compilation. One of their greatest ever.
I totally misread the title...
and thought 'A' had a greatest hits out. Gutted.
^ massive this
Motown - Dancing in the Streets
Is a pretty solid collection to start with if you don't know any. I guess that counts. I'm tempted to say Stevie Wonder - Greatest Hits, but you're probably better off with Talking Book or something. Idaho.
I got some Tamla-Motown Gold 3-cd compilation a few years ago,
and that's got more-or-less all the famous stuff you'd want up to about 1970...
Blur
Pixies
Basically most of them
except Radiohead
The DVD
Of their greatest hits has all of the videos in chronological order. It's nice to watch.
Basically agree BUT
that cure greatest hits is bobbins, papers over the early stuff totally. But Standing On A Beach is the perfect introduction, so the point still stands!
Definitely Standing on a Beach over Greatest Hits
standing on a beach
is my favourite ever best of type thing although not enough tracks off faith on it. like faith for example.
Yeah, I also adviced the greatest hits of the Beatles in that thread
As for greatest greatest hits record: Motown 50
Lemonheads - The Atlantic Years
The Essential Bruce Springsteen is a killer 2-cd introduction to The Boss (chronologically sequenced too - from 'Blinded By The Light' to 'The Rising' period).
Also, being a casual fan, the Pulp and Mansun ones have pretty much all the Pulp and Mansun I'm ever going to need....
I think Dinosaur Jr's Ear Bleeding Country is a good 'best of'.
Have been caning this of late
having largely, and criminally, ignored them up till now. It's absolutely brilliant.
as a fan, have to say i disagree.
too much filler in the second half
Guided By Voices
Human Amusements at Hourly Rates, innit.
Very much this
Greatest hits are great for a band like GBV who not only have loads of albums but literally hundreds of songs on those albums.
Similarly
Archive From 1959: Billy Childish's GH from last year.
I recommend Crickets also.
This is a 2 disc best of all of the Fading Captain series.
Best of Bowie
or the Singles Collection.
Especially good for starting with as you can figure what era you're probably gonna like best with this chap.
Beastie Boys'
Anthology is a good 'un.
As I understand it...
Super Furry Animals' Songbook Vol. 1 is a good starting point?
I couldn't honestly say this for certain, but when I first started getting into them a lot of people told me to start there.
I can't wait for the White Stripes greatest hits. I also think Quarantine The Past is going to be pretty good for Pavement newbs.
entirely right re: SFA
ABBA Gold
Crowded House
Massively underrated in my book, though me & me brother will often have standup rows about it.
Recurring Dream couble-disc is superb. One of those that you listen to and think, "blimey, I didn't realise I knew so many of their songs".
The 2nd disc is a live disc too and captures some great moments and a few tracks that missed sic 1...essential just for Fingers Of Love.
...
'Recurring Dream couble-disc is superb. One of those that you listen to and think, "blimey, I didn't realise I knew so many of their songs".'
That's pretty much how they advertised it, along the lines of 'you know more of our songs than you think'
best 'best of' ever
in the sense that it's better than any of their albums. the 3 new tracks added for the best of are also golden.
FOUR SEASONS
PRIVATE UNIVERSE
R.E.M.'s 'And I Feel Fine... The Best of the I.R.S. Years 1982-1987'
gives an excellent overview of early R.E.M. for people unaware of anything pre-Losing My Religion.
The Velvet Underground
Now probably my favourite band but the first record of theirs I owned was The Very Best of.
You could argue that it would be easier to just dive into the first record. I could imagine that some people might be shocked and put off by the first two records.
The very best of let's you hear Heroin alongside more accessable stuff like Sweet Jane.
mcluskyism
a sides is good enough on it's own but if you have the b and c side discs you've won.
But Do Dallas is basically the best thing they ever did.
The only better song that's not on there is World Cup Drumming and I'm pretty sure they never put that on the best of.
There Ain't No Fool In Ferguson
and Undress For Success are on there. Both worth having.
They're not as good as pretty much any song on Do Dallas that isn't.
Picking up the A/B/C-sides edition of this on the day of release
for £7.99 is probably the best value musical purchase I'll ever make.
Intergalactic Sonic Sevens
by Ash covers everything really essential, even though a couple of the albums are very good in their own right. It's a bit like the Buzzcocks one, which is also the best place to start with them.
No, Past Masters Vol. 2 is where you start with the Beatles.
It's almost totally all amazingly good singles but nothing that's on any album so you still get to go and buy albums later to fill in the blanks.
Or if the early stuff is your thang Past Masters Vol 1, but the vol 2 has the real meat.
but most of volume 2 is on "1" so i'd start with that
but you're right about the singles though, i still shudder at the thought of a band releasing such brilliant albums not even containing the brilliant singles they also released!
Didn't George Martin often say
how much he regretted not having Strawberry Fields Forever/Penny Lane on Sgt Pepper and Hey Jude on The White Album?
Yeah but then you can still buy the albums and not have any crossover.
The Best Best Of
Is The Best of Leonard Cohen.
Daft Punk
Alive 2007.
Sex and Violins
by My Life Story
how about no
My Life Story were shit!
Outrageous!
Forever Delayed
Best of the Manics.
As much as I've never *quite* managed to get totally in to their albums, every track on their is brilliant. Makes you realise just how great they are as a band.
Stalinist collection
ignores whole bunches of their early stuff
and that Depeche Mode rip-off of a new track was utter shit too
Huh?
9 out of 20 of the songs are from their first three albums
Basically any band who's singles are more important/
better than their albums
New Order's Substance definitely.
Pet Shop Boy's Discography.
Also, I'd put the Carpenter's and Abba's Gold into this category (if you're partial to that sort of thing.)
I was gonna put ABBA in the OP
(with disclaimer brackets re: if you're partial to that sort of thing.)
But thought it might be so far from being a DiS thing that I bottled it.
Can anyone actually name an ABBA studio album?
I know I can't. I call it Elvis Presley syndrome.
ABBA Gold is probably my favourite too
but some their actual studio albums are equally as good as most bands' pure pop singles compilations. Arrival is brilliant
Way To Blue (An Introduction to Nick Drake)
is just about perfect
The guy's got 4 flawless studio albums, and ones not even available outside teh interweb
I think a best-of's a bit unnecessary.
Status Quo - 12 gold bars
The first ZZ Top greatest hits
Squeeze - Singles 45s and under
At the risk of being flayed for sacrilege ...
I've always rated Joy Division's Substance over both the studio albums
mind you
not really a best of/greatest hits comp, so it's a moot point really.
kinda this i think ^
Dubstar
Dubstar >>> dubstep
ELV1S
Gangstarr - Full Clip
is the best greatest hits album I own.
Even better now that he has passed.
The Ex's 30 is a great compilation.
Though mebbe I haven't heard enough of their other stuff to say.
Also Harvey Milk's 'The Singles'. I find I tend to like a lot of these early singles/rarities collections more than the actual albums, see also: Wooden Shjips.
Also love the Dischord boxset. Yeah, I know it's a label, but it really satiates my need for DC hardcore.
As theShipment says above, Full Clip is absolute dynamite as well.
Super Furry Animals
Echo & The Bunnymen
Talking Heads
especially the latter two - styles are different from album to album, you'll get a taste for the tracks you like
Hoodoo Gurus have got a pretty great singles collection,
if you like that kinda 80s Aussie pop/rock thing. And you do, y'know.
Nah, not really my scene.
You and your poison pen.
Legend
Bob Marley. Didn't everyone start there?
Yeah, but who actually buys/listens to those?
Aren't greatest hits comps for parents? Or for stocking stuffer gifts...for your parents?
No
Cat Power
The Greatest
Haha...JOKE!
But You Are Free is like a mini-best of. Covers pretty much all styles.
I just a post about this on my blog
<shameless plug>
My top 10 compilations of all time:
http://wirelesscranium.blogspot.com/2008/04/art-of-great-compilation-cd-part-2-of-2.html
What makes a great compilation:
http://wirelesscranium.blogspot.com/2008/04/art-of-great-compilation-cd-part-1-of-2.html
</shameless plug>
The Cardigans one is solid.
Also, if it counts, that Phil Spector compilation that you always see in HMV for about £3 (not the Christmas one, the other one).
melting pot
by the charlatans, there is loads of rubbish on all of their albums but the odd gem...although probably not much love for them on here
Plenty of love for The Charlatans here.
Melting Pot > Forever.
Happy Mondays
If you've got Pills & Thrills then you've got most of the best stuff and pickings get a bit slim beyond there, but there's some stuff worth having.
Loads (& Loads More) >>> Greatest Hits >>> Platinum Collection
You need to get bummed.
The Jam
Compact Snap...Got it on now, amazing
But the worst is
When the production value differs so much from one track to the next i.e. songs early in their career sound crappy and they're alongside songs later in their career that sound more polished and produced.
Speaking of which I'm surprised no one has said The Beatles' Love soundtrack. I think it's great. All mashed up and remastered.
I like greatest hits compilations with artists I have only a passing interest:
Billy Holiday
Nina Simone
Diana Ross
heh. black female soul / blues / r'n b singers! men too:
marvin gaye
otis redding
the best greatest hits album I ever bought was The Clean Anthology: I'd never heard of them before that, bought it on a whim.
Ditto whoever said: 50,000 Fall Fans...
But not Bowie, for crying out loud! Jesus, you've got to have 'em all!! Each and every one of them-even the bad ones!-or you're dead to me.
Bis
We are Bis from Glasgow, Scotland
The Stone Roses
I might contest this.
No sure.
If you get the Stone Roses' debut and the Second Coming in that order then you're pretty much done. Get the Complete on top if you fancy topping things off.
I was thinking more about acts who've put out something like 3/4+ good studio albums.
although
Also worth it if bands have had notable tracks on EPs, one-off singles etc (The Smiths, The Clash, Manics spring to mind). Stone Roses had Fools Gold, Elephant Stone and some others, so fair enough.
But then you can download it all these days anyway, etc etc
Journey
gimme some luurrrrrrve
GIMME SOOOOOME SKIN
If we aint got that
then we aint got jack
And we ain't got nothing, nothing
It still hurts that I bought that dreadful album. Eurrrgh
the RATM live album is all i own by them
it's fucking brilliant. the production is a bit muddy and the songs are faster than the studio versions but that makes them all sound a shit load more energetic.
bands who will (in the future) have a disgustingly good Best Of...
Sigur Ros
Phil Collins
fuck yeah
...
http://www.hollow-hill.com/sabina/images/serious-cat.jpg
The Fall/Pixies/Underworld/Terror Danjah/EL-B
The Flaming Lips could do with one really, its only been a million albums or something.
so wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong
with Underworld (Pixies, too, but I'll let that one go for now)
Yo La Tengo - Prisoners of Love
Blondie
How the hell did we get this far without giving 'em their due mention?
Greatest Hits suck
That's like a step above listening to a soundtrack or compilation. If it's not a studio album it need to be a live album or a continuous mix.
I presume that means
you think singles suck too?
oh dear
Such an asshole.
You've clearly never experienced a great afrobeat comp.
I have a friend like you
I don't know why we're friends.
The Lightning Seeds
SOLID GOLD from start to finish.
Madness
also, 'Th Best Of Simon and Garfunkel' is actually fine. I like them but ive never realy felt the need or urge to delve any deeper.
Talking Heads - Sand In The Vaseline
is a really mint best of. Has loads of live tracks as well. Used to listen to it a lot as a kid.
Shades of Alan Partridge, though
Tim "Whats your favorite band"
Alan "The Beatles"
Tim "Really, I love the Beatles, whats your favorite album"
Alan "Hmm tricky one, i'd say....... the best of the Beatles"
:ahem:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Best
Les Savy Fav - Inches
their only essential album
Wire 'On Returning' is a great comp
But the first 3 albums are essential anyway
A Tribe Called Quest 'Anthology'
sums up their career brilliantly as well
Agree,
its a good point to jump off from.