The Best and Worst "Best Of" And "Greatest Hits" Compilation albums of All time.

Has any of them ever included "Hypnotized?"

It was included on that 4-disk box set I mentioned but has never been compilation-ized otherwise, to my knowledge. Agreed, it's a fantastic song. Stevie Nicks has mentioned that they're going to go back into their older catalog to play some deep cuts on their upcoming tour, and I'd think that song would definitely rate consideration. Won't be the same without Bob Welch singing, of course, but Neil Finn should be able to do a credible job on it.
 
99% of all "best of" and "greatest hits" lps and cds stink. The only ones I really like are the ones I put together myself. Everyone has different favorites from any artist. I'd rather have my favorites on a cd than the favorites from some guy at the record company. (I will admit that the Eagles Greatest Hits was really well selected. Only 1 on that compilation that I disapprove of).
 
In my mind, the best compilations are those that present the true hit versions of the songs. Many times throughout pop music history, there are album versions of songs that actually weren't the real "hits". Radio, the purveyor of hits, often played special edits or pruned versions of album songs, and those versions shouldn't, IMHO, shouldn't find their way to "greatest hits" albums.

Now, if a compilation is to be made of just fan favorites, or representing albums, then using album versions is fine.

With that in mind, the recent Public Television set THE COMPLETE SINGLES of the Carpenters represents a truly perfect compilation. Not only do you get the a-side hits but the b-sides as well for variety.
There are releases for "Complete Singles Selections" for The 5th Dimension and for Melissa Manchester. They include all the A and B sides and I have listened to them many times. The former is a three disc set and the latter is a two disc set. I have been watching for other artist's complete singles that I have liked.
 
An online pal of mine once put together about 10 CDs of hit singles for his own use. What he did was seek out digital versions (from CD) of the original radio mono (or stereo, where applicable) versions, and he called it "Hits As We Heard Them." I was able to assist with a couple of instrumental tracks, and he thoroughly enjoyed the TJB's Dee Jay Sampler in mono that I sent him a needle drop of. I've seen many various artists compilations use the wrong versions, unless they happened to be one of those painstakingly programmed Rhino compilations from many years ago.
 
It drives me a little cuckoo when I hear a radio station or music service playing the wrong version of a song. Sometimes it's an album version when the hit single was very different, or it could even be one of those dreaded re-recorded songs like when an artist leaves a label and then re-records their old stuff for the new label to use. The first half of GORD'S GOLD is all re-recorded stuff from his old label.
 
With so much automation these days, it's not hard to imagine the song being clicked on from a list and thrown into rotation. And digital versions usually aren't clear about which version of a tune is on a particular CD, for example. Back in the old days, a 45 was a 45, and when you played it, you always knew which version it would be.
 
In my mind, the best compilations are those that present the true hit versions of the songs. Many times throughout pop music history, there are album versions of songs that actually weren't the real "hits". Radio, the purveyor of hits, often played special edits or pruned versions of album songs, and those versions shouldn't, IMHO, shouldn't find their way to "greatest hits" albums.

Yeah, but....

This gets really complicated. Especially in the 70s, a lot of hit music stations played the album versions of songs for what we now call "street cred".

And even among the stations that played the 45 or promo edits, their listeners, as they've matured, may have moved on to album rock and classic rock formats, so they've been hearing the album version most of their lives---not the single version that got played on top 40 for 16 weeks.

And if, when they heard the single on the radio all those years ago, they bought the album, and not the single---then THAT's the version they really know.

Personally, Harry---I'm with you---mostly. There are exceptions. I don't ever want to hear the 45 edit of Deodato's "Also Sprach Zarathustra" again. The Buffalo Springfield's "Bluebird" at 1:59 without the banjo and the final verse is another.

But there are some great lost nuggets that I wish were easier to come by (maybe as bonus tracks). James Taylor took another shot at "Country Road" after recording the SWEET BABY JAMES album and insisted that Warners issue the new version (with a choir and cold ending) as the single. It's the one I heard on KHJ---and it's the way James sings it in concert, but apart from one now-out-of print compilation, it's impossible to find. Fortunately, someone did and loaded it to YouTube:




Ditto the 45 version of Fleetwood Mac's "Over My Head", which starts cold instead of with the long fade in, and is mixed a lot hotter for radio:



....and for that matter, the 45 version of "Say You Love Me", which is also mixed hotter, and with the guitar mixed into the intro:




....and the 45 of Stevie Wonder's "You Are The Sunshine of My Life", which has horns the LP doesn't:

Stevie Wonder - You Are The Sunshine Of My Life

Heck, the Beatles' "Penny Lane" sounds incomplete to me unless it has the horn ending, which was only on promo copies that everyone pretty much stopped playing within a month 52 years ago:

Penny Lane (Capitol Records Mono US Promo Mix)


But is the intended audience for a greatest hits package clamoring for any of this? Do they even remember?


...and WHY is the software for this site putting in links where I don't ask for them ("album versions" and "classic rock", which it splits into "class ic rock" and then links to God-knows what for "class")???
 
James Taylor "Country Road" went to # 37 (Hot 100) & # 9 (AC Charts) in March 1971. Also Fleetwood Mac "Rhiannon (Will You Ever Win)" also was a remix 45 version (later on the 2007 reissued of the Fleetwood Mac 1975 "White").
 
No love for Bob Marley’s Legend? Billy Joel - Greatest Hits Vol. I and II? The Cars Greatest Hits? Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass Classics Vol. 1?
 
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