Jun 112009
In other words, “Go All the Way” and “Let’s Pretend.”
The subject line says it all. Thanks to Townsman Mwall for suggesting the topic. In the digital download age this is no longer an issue, but growing up, when vinyl was the main mode of music delivery, we sometimes shelled out for a Greatest Hits or Best of… album by an artist we really wished had made available their two to four worthwhile songs on a less-expensive double A-side single or EP.
What I ask of you is that you share actual purchases of this nature and not witty attempts at listing every possible 1-hit wonder with a Greatest Hits or Best of… album that you never bought or intended to buy. In other words, be real.
The first such album that came to mind for me is pictured above.
My 14-song Greatest Hits from Grand Funk Railroad has maybe four or five songs that, while not great, are at least enjoyable no harm boogie fun. The rest are mainly so dull that I don’t know why anybody is even trying to pretend that they were hits or the greatest of anything. How many albums did that band make to come up with a small handful of fun low rent rockers?
One of the big problems with GH albums is that they feel the need to be comprehensive, including later albums to the exclusion of some stronger third-line early singles. Take The Cars’ GH album, for instance. Sure they had some later hits that aren’t bad, but there are probably three stronger songs that charted on the first album that aren’t on the GH album because they had to make room for some late-period stuff. Same goes for Tom Petty’s GH CD. I know there are a couple of minor radio hits from his first two albums that are excluded to make room for crap like “The Great Wide Open.” This is not to say that the GH albums by either The Cars or Petty are on the level of the GH albums I hope to discuss here, but maybe it would have been better to flesh out GFR’s GH album with some stronger early material, if such material did exist.
1. Is there a difference between “Best of” and “Greatest Hits”?
2. I hate when a new song appears on the Greatest hits.
3. Springsteen’s Greatest Hits is a prime example of a comprehensive “greatest hits” collection that misses the mark completely.
4. How dare you use the Raspberries to illustrate the point. I know you did it on purpose and I can’t believe that I’m rising to the bait, but how DARE you?!?!
cdm: I think, originally, “Best Of” was a term meant to indicate that the record was comprised of a band’s “best” material, whether specific songs had charted (were “hits”) or not.
This thread’s headline is cockeyed.
I mean, I *get* the idea you’re after here: some bands don’t have enough good songs to fill an LP. But who looks for an EP first and then *settles* for the LP? Who walks around thinking, “Where is the greatest hits EP by this band??? There ISN’T ONE??? Ah well, I guess I’ll have to settle for the greatest hits *L*p instead.”
cdm, I would NEVER cook up an example just to get anyone’s goat! I don’t know WHAT would ever give you that idea.
Seriously, though, that was an accurate representation of my experience with purchasing that album. In the digital download age I would never have brought so many mediocre and lame songs into my home on one haul.
I own The Boss’ GH album and find it successful. It gives me a handful of those Born in the USA songs, most of which I like as much as his supposedly GREAT material. It’s easier to explain my mild appreciation for The Boss with a GH album than as I started out doing – buying a few of his real albums for the two songs I liked on each one.
Sat, the EP thing is obviously based on a tried-and-true RTH line of humor, but years ago I found a double A-side single of Them’s “Gloria” b/w “Here Comes the Night”: my two favorite songs by Them. A couple of years later I found an actual GH or Best of… album, and beside their version of “It’s All Over Now Baby Blue” (a major winner) the rest of the album didn’t justify my buying anything other than the double A-side single. Nowawadys we can go on iTunes and download the three great Them songs and be pleased as punch. Similarly, I recently downloaded the six or seven Paul Simon solo songs from his pre-Rhythm of the Saints albums that I really like. It was MUCH better than buying any of the Simon GH albums available and getting stuck with stuff from Hearts and Bones, or whatever that album was called, not to mention those Graceland songs that were ruined by radio overplay when that album came out.
yeah, i know, mod.
you know the deal: i always feel like it’s my duty to throw myself into the line of fire when said tried and true rth humor surfaces.
best double a sided single ever:
paperback writer / rain
or
hey jude / revolution
?
I was an early owner of a CD burner and owned a CD store, so I spent MANY hours creating “improved” Best Of CDs (or double CDs) to give to my friends (no I did not sell them)
I think songs are included or excluded based on royalties / label ownership, etc. that cause the “new” song to make it and the old song that has less “profit” gets left out (maybe a drummer who co-wrote who is no longer in the band, maybe a “payola” producer’s credit..these things are worked out better once an artist is successful)
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers have a strange Greatest Hits. It includes solo songs, but not duets (Stop Draggin My Heart Around) or co-writes (Jammin Me) that were HUGE hits.. it used to have a cover of Something In The Air, but later it was removed.
Springsteen’s GH I think was a ploy to (1) get fans to buy four new songs and (2) to give people who don’t own any Springsteen a chance to try out the most accessible stuff
Petty and Springsteen have of course gone on to make a more complete 2-disc set.
I love when a “Live Version” is substituted for the hit version when there is a permission and/or financial issue. Ozzy has Black Sabbath songs on his GH..but Live Versions.
I like that Cracker put out “Greatest Hits Redux” (re-recordings of their biggest radio hits) the same DAY as Virgin Records putting out a non-approved-by-the-band Best Of CD (Cracker added their great FU song to Virgin Records ” It Ain’t Gonna Suck Itself” just for good measure
or…
strawberry fields / penny lane?
I remember being directed to Lisa Loeb’s Wikipedia entry by a blog that had noticed this line:
“Her greatest hits album, The Very Best of Lisa Loeb, was released in January 2006, as a cassingle.”
I <3 Wikipedia.
I bought the Raspberries album pictured here, and I didn’t even understand why the one or two good songs were any good.
http://www.amazon.com/Best-Taco/dp/B00003W84W
Seals & Croft’s GH. I bought it for “Summer Breeze.” The rest is sub-par James Taylorish dreck. I traded it in before I had a CD burner. I may still have that song on a mixxtape somewheres.
Here’s my gripe with “Greatest Hits: or “Best Ofs”:
http://www.amazon.com/Let-Roll-Songs-George-Harrison/dp/B0026NWBY2
This seems wrong on so many levels.
1). The title. “The Songs of George Harrison”? When I first heard about it, I thought it was tribute album. Why didn’t they call it “The Best of George”.
2.) Given the title, then why does it have George-penned hits like “Got My Mind Set On You” and “If Not For You”? Oh yeah. I forgot. This CD features the “songs of George Harrison”.
3.) Where is “You”? “Crackerbox Palace”? Nothing from Gone Troppo? I’ll admit, Troppo isn’t a great album, but they could put that tune from Time Bandits on there. We can always quibble about track listing, but c’mon?
4.) I can only assume that the The Beatles cuts are from the Bangladesh Concert. “Here’s some Beatles songs that aren’t actually The Beatles…”
5.) The cover. “Hey! We can just stick a picture of George on the cover taken during The White Album era. Nobody will know…Meanwhile, we can dress a guy up to look like Ace Frehley, but it will certaonly NOT be Ace…wait…” (I digress).
Maybe my gripes aren’t legit, but I’m tired of buying the same stuff over and over over.
And I think a lot of repackaging smells of publishing and finding a way to make an extra buck. I recently bought the AC/DC Bonfire box. I admire the fact that AC/DC has not released 800 greatest hits albums shilled out consumers, but why, oh why, does this set contain Back In Black? I understand that Back In Black is the tribute to Bon, but wasn’t there any more Bon material in the vaults? I’m convinced that Back In Black was included for the sole purpose of cutting songwriter Brian Johnson in on the royalities of this release.
TB
jeangray, I had that Summer Breeze 45 when I was a kid. I really loved that song when I was 10. For some reason I don’t seem to miss it at all.
Jeez, I was wondering if there will ever be a George Harrison comp that I could buy to put next to my copies of Working Class Hero, Wingspan & the copy of Ringo that I bought for $2 when I saw latelydavid’s post.
Do you remember The Best of George Harrison LP, the one w/him in the silly hat in front of a lemon yellow Deuce Coupe? That actually had the Beatles versions of songs such as Taxman, Something, My Guitar Gently Weeps, which didn’t send a good message about the quality of George’s solo stuff. Even Ringo’s Blast From The Past was comprised of his solo material.
I think George made some nice, consistent albums. This collection is probably going to be a revelation to someone. I just get tired of the way they present the material.
What about that Rolling Stones collection that came out a few years ago that used the picture of the band from 1981, but cut Bill Wyman completely out of the picture? “Wyman doesn’t exist…”
TB
I got sidetracked after learning about that new George Harrison comp, but I just don’t understand the hatin’ about the Animals Greatest Hits, as well as Mr. Mod’s comments re: Them. The Amimals Greatest Hits was one of the 1st albums I got when I was a lad back in ’78 for $1 & it was a pretty solid album. My favorite song is “I’m Mad”, a John Lee Hooker cover w/great guitar and Alan Price organ playing.
As for Them, I also had a copy of that 45 that Mr. Mod had. It was an “Oldies” coupling of their 2 biggest hits. Them had other great songs beside the ones that Mr. Mod mentioned, such as “I Can Only Give You Everything”, “Could You, Would You”, “Mystic Eyes”. I have a 2-CD comp that came out in the late 90s which is pretty solid. Also, my friend Barrence has done covers of Them songs on his albums & live.
Finally, on an unrelated note, any thoughts, Mr. Mod, about the upcoming Red Sox-Phillies series?
DUH, how could I forget the AWESOME “I Can Give You Everything”?!?!? Yes, Them had another handful of very good songs. I overstated the disappointment I had for that collection I used to own. Now I feel like I need to reacquire it.
The upcoming Red Sox-Phils series will be very interesting. The Bosox have kicked our asses over the years. They’ve got that lineup full of “professional hitters,” the kind this year’s Phils team seems to be trying to emulate. We’ve got the solid if ugly Blanton going tonight against Lester or Dice-K (I forget who’s going first). For years the Phils couldn’t hit Asian pitchers, but I think that’s changing. I think Lester is going to shut down the Phillies. I’m going to be at Saturday’s game. We’ve got the rookie Antonio Bastardo (great stuff, poor command in his first two major league appearances/gutsy wins) and then a more-proven rookie J.A. Happ up against Beckett on Sunday. For some reason I think Beckett’s going to be hammered. To date the Phils have played poorly at home. I have no idea how this series will play out, but the Phils have got three mentally tough pitchers and Ibanez (aka Jesus Christ). The Red Sox have Lowell, a longtime Phillies killer and the kind of player who’s hard not to like even when killing your team.
The thing I’m most going to be keeping an eye on when I’m at Saturday’s game is how many bandwagon-jumping Philadelphians will have given up wearing their stone-washed Red Sox hat and rooting to return to rooting for their hometown team. I don’t know which Philly fans will bum me out more: the phonies who stuck with the Nation or the phonies who’ve bailed and now jumped onto the Phils’ bandwagon.
First time seeing/reading about that Harrison collection, too. While my “Best of” Solo George wouldn’t be quite like that either, it could be worse, TB. Like Diskojoe says, for the longest time there was just that Best Of that was mostly Beatles songs and helped contribute to the idea that Harrison’s solo career was a total dud, and the Dark Horse greatest hits CD that only had access to part of his solo material, I believe.
I guess the ideal Harrison compilation would be like the Wingspan collection. For anybody who hasn’t seen that, Wingspan was sort of like a “Greatest Hits” album for the first half and a “Best Of” album for the second, I guess in the mold of Prince’s Hits/B-Sides collection. The second disc still had plenty of songs missing that would have been must haves if I had been choosing them, but there were some deeper, lesser known things I was happy to see on there that maybe people who only knew “Jet” would probably be hearing for the first time.
Anyway, I think there are some forgotten quality songs on Harrison’s solo albums as well, so I’d be interested in seeing what you’d put on a Best Of for him.
Mod: Does Ibanez have any Rock equivalents? Talented but older guy, brought in with both hype and skepticism to an existing band and blew away all realistic expectations? I’m thinking his performance would be like if the Paul Rodgers-led Queen had somehow resulted in three or four new hit singles and maybe a new Flash Gordon soundtrack.
One thing is for sure: Raul’s hyperbaric chamber has done a lot more for him than Michael Jackson’s ever did.
Good question about the Ibanez equivalent, Alexmagic. Let me think about that. I don’t follow Wilco enough to understand the ramifications of Oats’ guy, Nels Cline (?), as I saw he quoted and responed to in another thread with no indication of the intial question until I saw your post here.
I think this George Harrison collection reeks of a return investment on Terra Firma’s EMI buyout. I’m sure that company needs to make some cash from a dead Beatle.
Speaking of greatest hits collections, who has more? A few of us used to share a joke that finding a Who hits compilation was a matter of picking a favorite cover (I know of at least four). Shopping my favorite recco sto the other day, I marvelled at the various Blondie hits there are. Most of the time, you’ve got your standard greatest hits or best of that was reissued for the CD market (The Byrds, Bob Dylan, etc). Then there is usually an updated collection. So many. It’s a wonder there isn’t one AC/DC hits collection out there. Don’t get me started on the country people (Willie, Merle Haggard, etc.). I don’t think those guys have real albums out anymore.
TB
My Nels Cline example perhaps requires some elaboration.
After Jay Bennett was fired, Tweedy became the de facto lead guitarist. He’s got more of skronky style as guitarist but slowly the Wilco fans get used to it.
Then, after the release of A Ghost is Born, the Wilco lineup gets retooled again. Listed in the new lineup is one Nels Cline, who we learn is a 49-year-old experimental-jazz-type guitarist who’s worked with Thurston Moore and Mike Watt. “Do Wilco really need another guitar player? Can this guy do things that Tweedy can’t?”
And then seeing Cline on his first Wilco tour changes everything.
He does the skronk thing too, but with a dexterity and sense of drama that I’d never seen before. He’s almost got that Hendrix quality of doing things with the guitar that don’t seem physically possible.
That clip I linked to is from the song “Handshake Drugs,” which is usually one of his showcase songs at a Wilco show. The version on A Ghost is Born is terrible: dribbly, unfocused, sluggish shit. But when Cline gets to do his thing, the song becomes a monster, and the rest of the band has to bring the rock to match him.
Basically, he saves Wilco from disappearing into the black hole of boring, pretentious post-rock. Which is not quite Ibanez. But Cline’s older than the rest of Wilco, joined them at their commercial apex, helped them stay excellent, and became a fan favorite. That’s comparable, right?
Mr. Mod, the too-busy-to-post Blue Meanie, against all odds, DOES have a visceral hatred for Mike Lowell. I have tried reasoning with her, since he is actually commands respect as a fine teammate, a former Yankee prospect, and a fellow who lost a ball to cancer, but she still refers to him as an A-hole.
It’s similar to my mom’s distaste for Scott Brosius in the 90’s. The best reason she came up with was “he looked like a doofus”.