Greatest Hit or Albums

Philly_Q

ICBM said:

I forgot to say too - I've always thought Bob Clearmountain was a mixing genius, but that Free album really is abysmal. I had it years ago, but thankfully I've now replaced everything on it with the full set of original albums (apart from Tons Of Sobs, which I seem to be missing) - and even then, you still need The Free Story for My Brother Jake and a couple of others.

I know it could get me into trouble in these parts - akin to saying Peter Green or BB King are boring - but I'm not sure I like Free enough to buy the original albums.  They're a bit too... low-energy for my liking.  The only one I've actually got is the last one, Heartbreaker.

ICBM

Philly_Q said:

I know it could get me into trouble in these parts - akin to saying Peter Green or BB King are boring - but I'm not sure I like Free enough to buy the original albums.  They're a bit too... low-energy for my liking.  The only one I've actually got is the last one, Heartbreaker.

Which is a great album, despite the lack of Andy Fraser and Paul Kossoff's somewhat 'variable' input.

You really should get Fire And Water though, even if you don't like All Right Now - but my favourite is probably Highway.

scrumhalf

Philly_Q said:

ICBM said:

I forgot to say too - I've always thought Bob Clearmountain was a mixing genius, but that Free album really is abysmal. I had it years ago, but thankfully I've now replaced everything on it with the full set of original albums (apart from Tons Of Sobs, which I seem to be missing) - and even then, you still need The Free Story for My Brother Jake and a couple of others.

I know it could get me into trouble in these parts - akin to saying Peter Green or BB King are boring - but I'm not sure I like Free enough to buy the original albums.  They're a bit too... low-energy for my liking.  The only one I've actually got is the last one, Heartbreaker.

Free played the notes brilliantly, and they played the spaces in between brilliantly as well. Too many bands forget about those.

prowla

I think I've got Abba's Greatest Hits and that's about it.

I'm not that much of a fan of compilations and generally prefer the album of the given time rather than discontiguous jumping about..

Oh, I have got The Best Of Kansas too; that's got three or four songs I like.

ICBM

prowla said:

I'm not that much of a fan of compilations and generally prefer the album of the given time rather than discontiguous jumping about.

One thing I'm actually not a fan of is compilations in non-chronological order. I know it sounds daft, since the songs were not on one original album anyway, but I generally find made-up running orders slightly fake, somehow - I know that includes both 12 Gold Bars and Elton John's Greatest Hits... although one of the great things about the Beatles Red and Blue is that they are - if not the track order of the albums they came from. (To this day, I still find it slightly odd that The Long And Winding Road is *not* the last track on Let It Be - I got so used to it being on the Blue album.)

The great thing about iTunes is that you can simply re-arrange the album into the correct order by selecting the 'year' column.

Philly_Q

Yes, I think it's best if compilations are in something like chronological order... which reminds me of yet another best-of I have got, Wishbone Ash's Distillation (not the greatest of titles).  It's a four-disc set released by Repertoire Records, with a very good selection of tracks, in chronological order, plus quite a few rarities - I probably wouldn't have bought it otherwise, as I do have all their albums.

Jfingers

What about when the artist themself disowns an album?

Dan Stuart of Green On Red actively dislikes the album 'The Killer Inside Me'

Chuck Prophet plays guitar on it, I've loved it for decades.

My owned best greatest hits are...

Get Stoned, introduced me to the Stones at just the right time.

Elvis 40 Greatest needs no introduction

Buddy Holly lives see above

Best of The Beach Boys

An early Bee Gees comp

a Monkees comp

a Quo comp as my late Dad was a big fan

a Creedence one as everyone should should love them.

there's probably a lot more, but those were the most influential.

Oh, and a Johnny Cash one.

Octahedron

It's becoming increasingly hard to buy anything other than greatest hits compilations in Australia.

Independent record stores are fizzling out.
High street retailers, mostly, have stopped selling CDs (Target, Kmart).
Those who do (JB HI FI) are dramatically reducing their range. Joe Satriani's new album, which entertainment stores (aforementioned JB HI FI) usually always stock couldn't even be ordered or pre-ordered: I have seen ONE copy of that album in a single store since it was released and that was over 4 months after release.

Therefore one must rely on imports and tbh then it starts to come down to a cost thing. 

Why would I pay $20 for a compilation when I could buy one of those 5 album sets for the same cost? $20 for a greatest hits comp on the high street or $20 for whole back catalog. 

Anyway. Here we are. 

Grumpyrocker

Many of my favourite tracks by artists I love aren't the ones that'll be on a greatest hits. And I like the album experience. I think the only "best of" album I have is a Black Sabbath one I got very early into getting into metal. 

Oh I have a Thin Lizzy one because it also features some of Phil's solo stuff too.

Reverend

Philly_Q said:

RandallFlagg said:

OK then than so what's your favourite Greatest Hits album?

Can I count the Beatles Red and Blue albums?  I'm not a massive Beatles fan, but those two albums are brilliantly put together.

Status Quo's 12 Gold Bars - I don't even own it (my brother had a copy), but that's a great compilation of hits by a band whose albums I'm never likely to buy.

You're missing out with Quo. IT's got some great songs on it but many of their best songs are not there. Oh Baby, Gerundula, Is There A Better Way etc.

Sesh

I like a good compilation. If I'm delving into an artist blind then I'd rather hear them at their best. If I like them then I'll probably buy more albums. Take Zappa, I bought Strictly Commercial back in the nineties, and ever since I've bought more of his albums. I have about 40 now. I doubt I'd have bought so many without that early primer of what to expect. I've done similar things with Pixies, Dylan, Dinosaur Jr, Pavement, Leonard Cohen, Warren Zevon and others. There's plenty of artists of whom I've bought a best of and come to the conclusion that that's enough. There's some big names there too, like Led Zep. There's many in the buy more albums camp too, but I don't have a bottomless wallet so they will wait. Maybe only 10% is in the latter category. 

If I'm buying into a band based on one song, then it's 50:50 whether I go album of best of, depending on if I feel that I willike more of their back catalogue or not. 
 Once I like a band I tend to want all their albums. If the bring out a best of with extra tracks I'll probably want it, so have bought best ofs by REM, Flaming Lips. 

When I buy a new album I'll give it a couple of listens but they all end up ripped to a mp3 and more often than not it is nearly 10k songs on random. As much as I appreciate some songs belong in a cycle, if they don't stand up in isolation they are little more than filler. 

ICBM

Sesh said:

If I'm buying into a band based on one song, then it's 50:50 whether I go album of best of, depending on if I feel that I willike more of their back catalogue or not.

Unless I know a band have a classic album, more often than not I'll get a best-of first - especially as a lot are found randomly in charity shops, so then it's a great way to tell if I like a band or not, whereas a single album (*especially* if it's ended up in a charity shop!) could be misleading. Hence most of the vast list above...

Sesh said:

 Once I like a band I tend to want all their albums. If the bring out a best of with extra tracks I'll probably want it, so have bought best ofs by REM, Flaming Lips.

Likewise. In addition to that list, I have many more - often just for one or two songs from a band I love.

duotone

Albums 100%

I think the only ‘greatest hits’ albums I own were presents gifted to me.

Grunfeld

What @darthed1981 said:  playlists.

There are so many bands who have a few good songs on each album.

I don't know if there's an official best of Placebo but mine's better cos it's all the stuff I like and none of the songs I don't.

Best of Metric, Oli version.  Perfect -- well, for me.

etc.

roberty

Reverend said:

Everybody knows that Madonna's best material was before she went solo.

This but unironically

https://youtu.be/a61wX9caKt4

guitars4you

Some valid comments above

I think it is sometimes about the artist and how much 'genuine' interest you have in them - serious or passing - Take Abba, Buddy Holly and Beach Boys - I have the greatest hits from all 3 - Bag full of hits and for easy listening then hard to beat, but do I have time or inclination to listen to other offerings, via albums, then a firm no - Could say the same for other Greatest Hits albums I have - Tony Bennett, Frank Sinatra, Herb Alpert, Carpenters

Then sometimes a Greatest Hit album is a great  option for a 'gathering' - Last weekend I was at a BBQ with a few mates and they wanted some back ground sounds - I'm a Bob Marley fan, but would they want to listen to 'obscure' tracks - In this instance and with summer on us, then Bob's Greatest Hits is awesome for the summer party vibe 

Then take a band like the Rolling Stones with nigh on 60 years of material - Some fans will buy everything - Some will buy only the 'classic albums' like Stick Fingers and Exile on Main St, but with so much material, both good, bad and mediocre, it is a hell of a lot of material to plough thru' - In which case the Greatest Hits gives you access to many hi-lights, including the odd 'hit' from an album that should be best left alone

Not so much now as Spofify/Apple changes our buying/listening habits - But in the past I dare say most of my GH albums would have been purchased as part of a 3 for £10 or 5 for £20 from HMV when they had such sales 

english_bob

Philly_Q said:

Here's a really bad greatest hits album.  The Best of Free: All Right Now (1991).  Remixed by Bob Clearmountain. 
I don't normally notice much difference with remasters and remixes, but this one sounds really shit.

That album is one of the few I still consider a guilty pleasure. It's fascinating for so many reasons, and it's definitely the tiniest and most obscure hill I'm prepared to die on.

It was early in the whole remaster/reissue era, so it must have seemed like a good idea to someone at Island/PolyGram to have Bob Clearmountain really go to town on it- triggered drum samples, digital reverb, some serious re-editing, remixing and general sacrilege- (I'd love to know whose idea it was, and why Clearmountain took the job) before labels figured out what people really wanted was exactly what they heard the first time, only a little bit louder, more defined and in a format they still had a player for. 

But I wasn't around in the 70s, I was a teenager in the 90s, so it was the Free album I heard first, and the one I learned to love their music from. I must have listened to it dozens of times, if not hundreds (and bought it on cassette, vinyl and CD) before I found out why everyone else hated it so much.

Thing is, having heard it in that context, I don't think everything Bob Clearmountain did to those songs was wrong. Listen to his version of "The Hunter" next to the original and tell me it isn't better without piano and Hammond and rhythm guitar chuntering away (although the sampled snare is... it's bad.). Tell me the guitar lick he cut out of "Come Together In The Morning" (2:11-2:26) really made the song better, or that "The Stealer" needs loud guitar handling noise all over the intro. Some of the big structural edits make the arrangements better. Bringing some of the percussion elements up in the mix (eg. tambourine on "Wishing Well" under the solo) and generally making the mixes less sludgy improves them IMO. Tell me the extra "wetness" doesn't add something to the trancey-ness of a song like "Be My Friend".

I get it. Anyone who knew Free from the 70s who heard the Bob Clearmountain mixes in 1991 probably puked in their mouth a bit and flung the tape out of the car window, and people who came to Free after that might not have found them through this album (many, many more Free compilations are available), so don't have the same reasons for feeling positive towards it. I fully accept that it's like being the parent who thinks their ugly baby is beautiful, but that's my Free "best of", I still prefer some of those versions of the songs to the original mixes and nobody's going to change my mind now.

Philly_Q said:

but I'm not sure I like Free enough to buy the original albums.  They're a bit too... low-energy for my liking.  

Compared to contemporaneous "heavy" bands like Deep Purple or Led Zeppelin, yes. But I think in some ways it's more accurate to think of Free as a blues and soul band with everything turned up to eleven rather than a rock band. 

Here's Johnnie Taylor, recording for Stax around the same time as Free came along, playing a song that would fit perfectly on to one Free's early albums:

Philly_Q

english_bob said:

Philly_Q said:

but I'm not sure I like Free enough to buy the original albums.  They're a bit too... low-energy for my liking.  

Compared to contemporaneous "heavy" bands like Deep Purple or Led Zeppelin, yes. But I think in some ways it's more accurate to think of Free as a blues and soul band with everything turned up to eleven rather than a rock band. 

I'm never here to claim I'm right about anything (except when I am   )

In this case, I won't even claim to be right.  Yes, they're more of a blues/soul band than a rock band, and that's probably why they're not really for me.  @scrumhalf also made a point earlier that the spaces between the notes are as important as the notes.  He's right too, but I'd be quite happy for them to fill those spaces.

Well argued about the Bob Clearmountain remixes.

english_bob

Philly_Q said:

Well argued about the Bob Clearmountain remixes.

"Good job defending the indefensible".

Redlester

I think this thread is in danger of of dating some of us as being' of a certain age', but the fact is that now- with streaming, Youtube and the like- it's not a case of either/or, since we have access to everything. 

I give two answers to this question:

From the pre-Spotify Premium me: I have a few Greatest hits, but in my collection it's mainly deep dives into performers I really like. 

Post-Spotify premium me: I can deep dive into loads of stuff old and new, including things I could never find or afford first time around. But it's amazing for so many groups just how few songs are actually worth bothering with. hence the need for a Greatest hits.


I do think that unless a specific performer grabs your attention, or if they're genuinely, consistently captivating across a number of albums, then pop music is very much like poetry. What I mean is that for the average performer (read poet), there's a lot of crap which is for completists only. But if they're very lucky then between a handful to a dozen pieces will enter the popular consciousness and be fondly remembered.

And then there are a select- no less lucky- who see a far greater number of their works widely loved and shared. 

By the way, the Clearmountain mixes of Free are fucking terrible, and don't forget that BM was/ is THE mixer's mixer!!! 
Major booboo, that one. 

The thing about Free was they almost epitomised that very 'dry', earnest, in your face early 70's rock sound. God, I love that style of recording. I think it's long overdue a comeback. You can almost picture them in a great sounding room, all beige carpet and walls, baffles everywhere, just hammering it. The whole of the Fire and Water album is almost sonic genius. That meant when they did add reverb- say to a guitar solo- it had even more depth and impact. 

I could rhapsodise about this stuff all day...