About "Greatest Hits/Best Of" albums

ultmetal wrote:

Aerosmith's Greatest Hits included the Shangri-Las cover "Remember (Walking in the Sand)", which I always thought was an odd inclusion. The song wasn't even a hit for the band. The record company would have been better off including "No Surprise" instead. What do I know? The thing sold over 11 million copies.

Here's a question. And obviously hard to answer...but. What do bands "generally" think of comps? From some of the history I've read, it seems many times it's the record label that produces these for various reasons. Sometimes because the band wouldn't or couldn't come up with an album. I would think a band would be against a comp album as it seems likely these would reduce sales of past albums. Why get the albums when you can just get the Greatest Hits with all the "best" songs?

T-Roy wrote:

ultmetal wrote:

Aerosmith's Greatest Hits included the Shangri-Las cover "Remember (Walking in the Sand)", which I always thought was an odd inclusion. The song wasn't even a hit for the band. The record company would have been better off including "No Surprise" instead. What do I know? The thing sold over 11 million copies.

Here's a question. And obviously hard to answer...but. What do bands "generally" think of comps? From some of the history I've read, it seems many times it's the record label that produces these for various reasons. Sometimes because the band wouldn't or couldn't come up with an album. I would think a band would be against a comp album as it seems likely these would reduce sales of past albums. Why get the albums when you can just get the Greatest Hits with all the "best" songs?

Most bands hate them because they have very little to no input into releasing them, but some artists like Alice Cooper and The Doors for example have scored multi platinum albums due to comp albums that for the most part that had little or no say in releasing but they have reaped the monetry rewards from them.

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

manny wrote:

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

I've been in the habit lately of purchasing collections by bands that I know I'll never take the time to go back and get the catalog...older bands like The Who, ELO, Styx, etc....but I always try to hold out for a packed, double-disc collection as opposed to a cheap 10-song teaser.

I can't speak for other bands on that list but you are missing out some great Who material!

Probably...but there's only so many hours in a day.

and what better way to spend some of the hours blasting out the Who

manny wrote:

T-Roy wrote:

ultmetal wrote:

Aerosmith's Greatest Hits included the Shangri-Las cover "Remember (Walking in the Sand)", which I always thought was an odd inclusion. The song wasn't even a hit for the band. The record company would have been better off including "No Surprise" instead. What do I know? The thing sold over 11 million copies.

Here's a question. And obviously hard to answer...but. What do bands "generally" think of comps? From some of the history I've read, it seems many times it's the record label that produces these for various reasons. Sometimes because the band wouldn't or couldn't come up with an album. I would think a band would be against a comp album as it seems likely these would reduce sales of past albums. Why get the albums when you can just get the Greatest Hits with all the "best" songs?

Most bands hate them because they have very little to no input into releasing them, but some artists like Alice Cooper and The Doors for example have scored multi platinum albums due to comp albums that for the most part that had little or no say in releasing but they have reaped the monetry rewards from them.

Interesting. I guess if they pan out like that....it is easy money.

What bugs me about "hits" albums is that in many cases, the band's catalog of studio albums eventually gets deleted by the record label and only the "hits" comps are left in print...

Fat Freddy wrote:

What bugs me about "hits" albums is that in many cases, the band's catalog of studio albums eventually gets deleted by the record label and only the "hits" comps are left in print...

Yeah, sometimes comps are the only way some bands get any material remastered at all. Dokken comes to mind. That 2-CD "Definitive Collection" is remastered, I believe...and because of that, their catalog will most likely not be remastered/reissued...

It all depends on how the catalog titles sell. If they move units the original albums stay in print, if they don't the Greatest Hits collections is all you'll find.

The labels will also use these collections as a way to gauge possible reaction toward reissuing the individual albums or putting out remastered versions, etc.

manny wrote:

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

manny wrote:

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

I've been in the habit lately of purchasing collections by bands that I know I'll never take the time to go back and get the catalog...older bands like The Who, ELO, Styx, etc....but I always try to hold out for a packed, double-disc collection as opposed to a cheap 10-song teaser.

I can't speak for other bands on that list but you are missing out some great Who material!

Probably...but there's only so many hours in a day.

and what better way to spend some of the hours blasting out the Who

Agreed. You need at least Quadrophenia, Who by Numbers, Who's Next, My Generation and Who Sell Out. That's the best of.

I have this one:



It makes me happy.

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

I have this one:



It makes me happy.

And that's a good one!

I have it too. 3 CDs I think.

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

I have this one:



It makes me happy.

Well, if you all you are going to have is a compilation, that is a damned good one.

ultmetal wrote:

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

I have this one:



It makes me happy.

And that's a good one!

I have it too. 3 CDs I think.

2 CDs...

If I want to listen to the Who, I'll just turn on the local classic rock station.

007 wrote:

If I want to listen to the Who, I'll just turn on the local classic rock station.

The problem with that...and with radio and greatest hits collections in general...is the "best" tracks are not necessarily the ones played on the radio. They may be the most "well known", but I've long been an admirer of deeper album cuts because often that's where the real meat is...plus album cuts haven't been overplayed by classic rock radio, so they still sound fresh.

When Megadeth released the album Capitol Punishment: The Megadeth Years, they included "Dread & The Fugitive Mind", which I believe they knew was also going to be released on "The World Needs A Hero". This is/was totally stupid. I knew that I would buy this greatest hits, due to "Kill The King" being included. The label or Megadeth could have included "Wake Up Dead", "Hook In Mouth", or just about anything for that matter. Dave hated Capitol at that point, so I'm surprised he would include something which he knew would be on a new label and a new album.

I generally avoid Best Of's. Sometimes there's enough bonus material to make it worthwhile even if I own all their albums (like Savatage releasing Japan Live on DVD with their Still the Orchestra Plays compilation).

For bands I am not familiar with, I have sometimes ended up buying a compilation and then regretted it. If the band is good, I will end up buying their studio albums, reducing the compilation into a coaster (they rarely have much value second hand). If the band isn't all that, then the compilation is useless anyway. Sampling online has made a lot of compilation CD's useless anyway in that regard.

There are times though when original albums are tough to find, and the only one you can find is a comp, like now with Marshall Law I'm thinking of getting their Power Crazy compilation just because it's readily available. Or when the "best of" simply holds nearly everything the band has ever produced, ie. if they only ever recorded two 40 minute LP's, and you can find a 70 minute compilation for cheap. It's still not the same thing, but maybe the price difference helps.

Diamond Head's Best Of is pretty good. http://www.metal-archives.com/reviews/Diamond_Head/The_Best_Of/2076/#reviewAnchor121944

I also have Best of the Beast 2CD (Iron Maiden), which has some Dianno era demos and of course Virus and Afraid to Shoot Strangers Live.

I have best of Whitesnake, Blue Oyster Cult, Bon Jovi, Boston, Uriah Heep, etc etc all sort of useless now. I like that King Diamond/Mercyful Fate "A Dangerous Meeting" comp though, but maybe it's just because that's pretty much the only KD/MF I have ever heard in my life, and I own nothing else by them.

Iced Earth made their Days of Purgatory interesting by re-recording the old songs with Matt Barlow on vocals.

EDIT: the Bruce Dickinson comp was pretty good. Silver Wings and Broken are really awesome exclusive tracks.

As a young Judas Priest fan, I found this gift from an aunt a little confusing.



At the time (British Steel era) I didn't know a single song from this 'Best of' (It's Rocka Roller/Sad Wings stuff which I hadn't heard at the time)

I think that I had an Accept 'Best of' that was all really old stuff too.

ZombieHavoc wrote:

One weird "best of" is the Van Halen "Best of Both Worlds".

I have no need to buy this, not even for the then new songs, but according to the tracklist on Amazon it's kind of weird. It's 2 discs, and it looks like it is just randomly ordered. It starts with "Eruption", and that's fine. Then goes directly to the 3 new Hagar songs. Weird. Then it goes back to a DLR song, "Ain't Talkn' Bout Love"...from there it bounces back and forth between DLR and SH tracks. In no sort of chronological order. Tracks 8-11 look like this:

8. Dreams
9. Hot for Teacher
10. Poundcake
11. And the Cradle Will Rock

So random to me.

Yes, that is a prime example of "what were they thinking". I guess the idea was to ping pong DLR and Sammy tracks. The end result was a total mess. It does not flow and is a complete mess. The only cool thing about it is the packaging, other than that, nothing here to see folks.

I loved any band's Greatest Hits albums when I was a teenager when I couldn't afford to buy discographies

and

ultmetal wrote:

Aerosmith's Greatest Hits included the Shangri-Las cover "Remember (Walking in the Sand)", which I always thought was an odd inclusion. The song wasn't even a hit for the band. The record company would have been better off including "No Surprise" instead. What do I know? The thing sold over 11 million copies.

From the time it was released until at LEAST 1985, on Q-107 FM, I NEVER heard anything from that "Night In The Ruts" LP except for  "Remember (Walking in the Sand)" a lot over the years.
So maybe it was only a regional hit in some places?
and yes, "No Surprise" is one of my fave tunes too.

On the VH Best of Both Worlds, the original intended plan was to split the eras--Dave on disc 1, Hagar on disc 2 with new tracks. Problem was Dave was being difficult about the organization and time had run out so the tracks were scattered.

IMO that has to be the single weirdest best of I've ever heard. There's nothing good about the track list. Eruption should go right into You Really Got Me; instead it goes into one of the new songs which suck (and let's not forget that Mike played nada on those new songs). Both eras of VH are radically different and independent of each other. Even Eddie's mindset at the time of 1984 was to evolve into something different. Once you start mixing those eras together, you get oil fighting with water, and the surface tensions is more than noticeable.

Lari wrote:

EDIT: the Bruce Dickinson comp was pretty good. Silver Wings and Broken are really awesome exclusive tracks.

The two disc version of that has some pretty cool rare and unreleased stuff on it, including the original version of Bring Your Daughter to the Slaughter.

Boris2008 wrote:

As a young Judas Priest fan, I found this gift from an aunt a little confusing.



At the time (British Steel era) I didn't know a single song from this 'Best of' (It's Rocka Roller/Sad Wings stuff which I hadn't heard at the time)

Yeah, Gull Records owned the rights to those first two albums, and they pushed out compilation after compilation, all basically featuring the same songs. The more albums Priest would make, the more ridiculous it became to have yet another "Best Of" released by Gull again featuring the same tracks off of the first two records.

I have two of them. "Genocide" and "Dying to Meet You".

^^A little OT but with all the money Priest has why haven't they purchased the rights for those albums from Gull? I don't understand the business terribly well but my only guess is that Gull refuses to give them up because the revenue they might generate...?

corplhicks wrote:

^^A little OT but with all the money Priest has why haven't they purchased the rights for those albums from Gull? I don't understand the business terribly well but my only guess is that Gull refuses to give them up because the revenue they might generate...?

Yeah, it'd make sense to get them and put out proper compilation albums. But I think there's already enough bad blood. I don't think they want to give them a penny. I know in Metal Works, Priest just used live versions of the older songs so they wouldn't have to pay Gull.

http://www.judaspriest.com/disc/default.asp

Scroll to the bottom and it says:

Spoiler:

^^Bad blood indeed. Only thing to do now is wait for Gull to fold, I guess.