Top 10 Greatest Hits Albums

Rock Records Reviewed - Episode 41

This week I look at the top 10 classic rock Greatest Hits/compilation albums

[ricard]

Nice video, Adam. And nice to have included the Wings hits album. It's tremendous.

[stefanlacny]

Loved the idea for this particular show, Adam. Very pleased to see included The Beatles' Red Album and The Beach Boys' 20 Golden Greats, both albums which are filled with genius and always leave me with a warm glow inside.
I'd like to propose a few more which also have the same effect on me. The first is Cat Stevens Greatest Hits from 1975; next I'd replace Wings Greatest with 2001's Wingspan: Hits and History; then Steely Dan Greatest Hits from 1978 (vinyl double album); finishing with Fire Escape in the Sky: The Godlike Genius of Scott Walker. Now I know you'd say this isn't classic rock, but Scott defies classification and this album was vital in getting him reassessed and introduced to a new audience. It also encouraged him back into the studio again and we were later graced with Tilt, The Drift, Bisch Bosch and Soused - all filled with top quality, challenging, but ultimately rewarding work.

[Sammeep]

The three Queen greatest hits albums would have to do it for me.

[paulhedges]

The Red Album at No.3 but The Blue Album not in the top 10? I don't understand that at all... Have just ordered Creedence on vinyl on this recommendation though, so thanks. Another great edition - your knowledge of all of these topics is so clear and your passion for music is always highly contagious. I love the way you make me laugh by throwing in lines like a multi-layered musical onion and a sausage factory of hits. Also I never knew that Suffragette City wasn't a single. In addition to The Blue Album (I still can't believe that), I'd've added ELO and Snap by The Jam

[linjicakonikon]

Simon and Garfunkels Greatest Hits
Crosby Stills Nash and Young - So Far
Decade- Neil Young

[mutant_blues]

That was a great topic! At the first level it works as a suggestion to a "novice" listener who wants to be introduced to an artist. In this sense the collections of CCR or Jimi Hendrix are solid and representative of the artists. But how does a collection of songs from different periods of an artist work? How Queen Greatest Hits, for example, flows when it is called to include pop, hard rock, funk, progressive, "opera" songs. The album starts with "Bohemian" and continues with "Another one bites". I think that each song is more suited to the records where they come from. I mean if someone asked me to suggest a Queen album I would say "A Night at the Opera" or "Jazz", and not the Greatest Hits.

One band that I was never very interested in buying their albums is America, but I enjoy 1975's Greatest Hits.

I know there is a lot of work and research behind each video, but I would like to see a new video of you every week. Thank you, Greetings from Greece!

[palacerevolution]

Great topic, Adam. Before it started I was already asking myself if you'd include 'The Clash on Broadway" . Or "Meaty Beaty Big & Bouncy" by the Who; both albums of hits that have their own flow and identity. And I know you stick to rock, but the greatest ever compilation, maybe even one of the greatest albums, period, is "Star Time" by James Brown. Lennon's compilations are good too. "Supergrass turns 10"

[gavinsmith]

Great list and a great idea for a video.... I would have in that mix Elton John's Greatest Hits, Rod Stewart's Greatest Hits Vol 1, 12 Gold Bars Status Quo, The Beatles 67 -70 (Blue Album) and The Shadows 20 Golden Greats

[CB-xreg]

Totally agree with you about Wings albums. Apart from Band On The Run & Venus And Mars, which
I consider the 2 best Wings albums, their albums are quite patchy. Lots of short unfinished songs and some filler stuff too. I didn't buy anything after Wings At The Speed Of Sound and I didn't even keep that for very long. I think I'd have found room for an ELO greatest hits in the top 10. Have you done an ELO album review yet?

[magnuslauglo]

This is a great great topic, and Greatest Hits albums often get treated as less important or valuable by lots of fans (and some bands too), but they can be excellent introductions to a new band, or just compile the essential music for those bands who have terrific music but don't have consistent albums.

I'm surprised Chuck Berry didn't show up with his "Great 28" - he released albums of course, but I think of him very much as a singles based star and that captures lots of his best known material.

Some of my favorite Greatest Hits albums include ones by Roy Orbison, Bon Jovi, Billy Joel, and Bryan Adams. I'm not familiar with the Hendrix comp you mention but can attest to his "The Ultimate Experience". The Rolling Stones' The London Years qualifies as a box set so perhaps it falls outside the spirit of this list, but deserves mention.

My favorite of all would have to be the original Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits - ten songs from his five first albums. I think Dylan's albums are all quite inconsistent and he has so many albums it is hard to know where to start with him. So the "Best of" format serves him very well.

[deanjonasson]

Another interesting topic, Adam! I'm a big fan of Best Of's/Greatest Hits, especially when they add a bit of value to the package (stand-along singles or hit re-mixes). As you said, the best compilations flows well and, I would add, tell a story or create an interesting arc. For all these reasons, your picks (and those found in the Comments) were excellent. Note that in North America, the Beach Boy compilation ENDLESS SUMMER (from 1974) was the biggie: it went to #1 and was on the charts for 3 years. It also helped kick-start their reunion with Brian Wilson back in the studio. Thanks for your perspective on WINGS GREATEST HITS. I like the album very much but always wondered why "Helen Wheels" and "Listen to What the Man Said" were left off. Makes sense, I suppose, if McCartney was going for 'musical flow'.

I would add the following compilations (in no particular order) that I think are great:
* MEATY, BEATY, BIG & BOUNCY: great cover, excellent song selections up to TOMMY with the added bonus of "The Seeker". A portrait of the band when they were still a singles band;
* THIS IS THE MOODY BLUES: does the impossible in drawing from the "Classic Seven" albums and creating thematic flow. A stunning collection compiled by their producer, Tony Clarke who also included the excellent b-side "Simple Game" for added value;
* DECADE: Neil's hits, misses and buried classics with excellent song notes from the composer. This was the first glimpse of Young as a bit of a 'squirrel', piling up interesting songs for a rainy day. I agree that a 'Second Decade', "Third', etc. would have been an amazing series;
* RELICS OF THE INCREDIBLE STRING BAND: A strange & wondrous group with a very deep catalogue! Hearing "Back in the 1960's" and "A Very Cellular Song" totally turned me on to this band;
* DIRT, SILVER & GOLD: A generous 3-record compilation of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, starting with their psychedelic single "Buy For Me the Rain" and ending with historic tracks from their award-winning WILL THE CIRCLE BE UNBROKEN project. Gorgeous packaging by Dean Torrence;
* GREATEST HITS, ETC.: Paul Simon's first solo compilation that includes two excellent tracks recorded for the album;
* GREATEST HITS VOL. 2: Dylan's double compilation lifts from all of his guises (folkie, electric rebel, poet, country hick, etc.). The added bonuses are several live cuts ("Tomorrow's Such a Long Time" & "Quinn the Eskimo") as well as some re-recordings of strays from "Basement Tapes";
* CHICAGO IX: The first compilation by a band that had the habit of releasing multi-disk albums. Every song on this single disk garnered extensive play on either AM or FM radio in the late '60s, early '70s. Fun art with the band falling off of the scaffolding while they paint the cover!
* GREATEST HITS 1976-1986: This third compilation represents Elton John after his peak and so it does a valuable public service in gathering hits from his weaker albums plus a few stand-alone singles like "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" and "Mama Can't Buy You Love". Proof that even if his output slowed, his muse continued to flirt with him;
* THE BEST OF THE GUESS WHO: Here's my sentimental favourite as it was the first album I ever owned. A great survey of my hometown-band-made-good. Side One had all the Bachman-Cummings hits while Side Two drew from the expanded SHARE THE LAND line-up. Hard rockin' but melodic and catchy. Played this one until it was smooth!

Most of these collections have been made redundant by expanded CD reissues as well as box sets. So, hey Adam, maybe it's time to consider a show on the Top 10 Box Sets of Rock!


Thanks again for a great program.

[beestie]

I would include The Byrds greatest hits and The Bee Gees and Meaty Beaty The Who

[roxannewalsh]

A very good idea to give compilations a credit, because not always this is a cheap way to cash in on an artist. There are artists that made great music but were not so great in making albums - or albums just were not important for them.
10. Pink Floyd - Relics (I knew the band before they made their big LPs in the early 70s. They were almost a different band back then with their psychedelic singles etc. I love these songs and some others that were from their soundtrack albums or never released on LPs. I even rank this one higher than some of their late million sellers.)
9. Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits (the 1967 original, for the reason that this was my first ever LP)
8. Jimi Hendrix - Smash Hits
7.Fela Anikulapo Kuti - Fela, King of Afrobeat (Except for his live LP with Ginger Baker, most of his records were not released outside of Nigeria for a long time because of his odd format that was neither single nor LP but mostly a 12 to14 minute jam on either side of the record. This compilation sums up the best and most varied of them - a bit outside of "classic rock" but I can expect many classic rock fans can relate to this - also has his late great drummer Tony Allen on most tracks.)
6. Buzzcocks - Singles Going Steady (Punk brought back the singles for a short while and this band used this format of expression. They missed the US due to this and I think this was compiled for that market. It is a statement and does not sound like compilation at all.)
5. The Jam - Snap! (They were a song/singles band and they had a load of them and I think most of them were UK hits. Their albums - just like Police - were mostly filler around the hits. This compilation gives them the credit they deserve.)
4. Who - Meaty, Beaty, Big and Bouncy (The Who needed some time to become an album band, they made their name with the early singles and they released also good no-album tracks later. This one was compiled by Pete Townshend himself and for me was always a regular Who album and one of their best.)
3.. Beach Boys - Endless Summer (1974, 21 Track compilation - I am not sure if this may be the version in my country of the Beach Boys album you picked. Anyway, all your reasoning for your pick apply to this one as well. If it is Beach Boys then it is the hits to give you Fun Fun Fun.)
2. Chuck Berry - The Great Twenty-Eight (Another major artist who never made a "real" album. There are countless compilations and maybe the Chess records box is better than this, but this here is the single go-to album.)
1. James Brown - Star Time ("The hardest working man in show business" is part of the "soundtrack of my life". He was on the radio in the 60s, his music played at all parties of my youth, he was on TV and in movie soundtracks. He influenced nearly everyone I was listening to. And...I had not a single James Brown LP in my collection until this came out in 1991. His records were strange assemblies of a hit and then part2 of that hit and then some obscure instrumental and some filler - and often he released 2 or 3 or 4 in one year. I saw this box and read the track list and suddenly noticed that I knew about 70 percent of these tunes. I immediately bought it and it stayed open near the CD player for nearly a year. It is nothing to listen to from start to finish, it is 4 times 70 minutes, but I listened to it back and forth and across, 5 to 10 tracks at a time and it always blew me away. It also made me check a lot of other artists I knew but not listened to too often, Sly Stone, George Clinton as well as Otis, Prince and many more.)

Agree to CCR Chronicle, I like all their albums except the last one but this is the one to tell people why this band was so great.

[grooveyerbouti]

Difficult list to rank so in no particular order
Fleetwood Mac-CBS Peter Green
Changesbowie-first Bowie album I owned
The Rolling Stones-Rolled Gold
Queen-greatest hits
Prince-hits/b.sides
The Who-the collection
Blondie and Deborah Harry-the complete picture
Marianne Faithfull- Faithfull
Thin Lizzy-Dedication
T.Rex-the ultimate collection(although it's not)

[JohannesYtterstrom]

I can agree about The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Hendrix was a head of his time and just trying anything - Which is cool. However all these years later I can't say the "noisy" parts are very interesting. Back then? When people thought "What's this?" or "He is so edgy" it might have worked but for me today there are songs or more part of songs really I easily could skip. He had a very unique attitude in his voice and could play classic riffs and more emotional things when he wanted - That's what I want to hear. Just like Frank Zappa or King Crimson I think they could go too far so the music could just be non-musical at times.

Good show as always!

[nielsbie]

Anorher great topic, but very difficult.
1. 1 Beatles, but You Get a much Better collections of songs if You Buy 62-66and 67-70,
2. ELO s Greatest Hits,
3. The Best of Blondie.
4. Milestones, The Rolling Stones
5. Decade_ Neil Young
6. Queen Greatest Hits Volume one a great start to Queen. Before they Got to mainstream
7. Pretenders_ The singles
8, Shaved Fish_John Lennon great selections of songs and singles like Power To The People, Give Peace a chance
9. Deepest Purple_ Deep Purple
10. Inxs_ Greatest Hits

[Shah-of-the-Shinebox]

1. Their Greatest Hits 1971-1975 - The Eagles
2. Hot Rocks, 1964-1971 - The Rolling Stones
3. Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncey - The Who
4. Relics - Pink Floyd
5. Smash Hits - Jimi Hendrix
6. Wings Greatest - Paul McCartney and Wings
7. Chicago IX: Chicago Greatest Hits - Chicago
8. Decade - Neil Young
9. So Far - Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young
10. The Great Twenty Eight - Chuck Berry

[paulhedges]

'Listening to Mull of Kintyre a hundred times in a row'. See, now that explains a lot :o)

[neilbridgens]

Hi there from Cape Town, snap from the jam?