Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Forum administrators, Interface administrators, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
116,612
edits
Greatest Hits Album: Difference between revisions
update link
m (Mass update links) |
Looney Toons (talk | contribs) (update link) |
||
| (9 intermediate revisions by 4 users not shown) | |||
Line 4:
To increase the possible appeal of the album, especially to people who already ''own'' the bulk of the artist's work (and thus likely to both be the biggest fans and already own all the hits), it is common to include remixes, alternate takes, live versions of popular songs, or completely new songs. Of course, this is likely to piss off the completists as they might be forced to pay full album price for a single song. The rise of digital music distribution has mollified this problem to a certain extent. Greatest Hits are good purchases for casual fans of artists that they otherwise have no urge to buy complete albums of.
The very concept of the "greatest hits album" is a double-edged sword, as while the album is likely to contain the most ''financially successful'' of the artist's songs, each individual fan has a greater love of certain B-Sides and [[Album Filler]] that won't appear on the disc (and greater bias against the [[Black Sheep Hit]] that ''will'' inevitably be included). In hoping to appeal to the greatest number of fans, the album will end up completely pleasing no one. Also, there's the simple fact that most bands and artists suffering from [[Sophomore Slump|Second Album Syndrome]] don't have enough hits in the can to truly justify an entire album thereof, and it may seem like they're scraping the bottom of the barrel as to what may qualify as a "hit".
Artists are of mixed feelings about these albums as well. Many artists resist releasing one for fear that once they do, their regular albums will begin to be ignored. Yet they are viewed as a necessary evil, as these provide an easy starting point for fans who are curious about a particular artist's work. Musicians and bands don't always get to decide when to release a greatest-hits album. If an artist is leaving the label and does not own his own back catalog, and if he is successful at all, the label ''will'' release a greatest-hits album - sometimes explicitly against the artist's wishes.
Sometimes the "Best of" title is used instead. This often reflects a less concentrated focus on chart hits - sometimes for legitimate reasons (e.g., album-oriented artists, influential artists with less commercial success or simply those whose career may not be best reflected solely by singles). Or it could be a poor excuse to cover up a lack of genuine hits. Sometimes neither title is used (e.g., [[Dire Straits]]' compilation, "Money for Nothing"). To add perceived weight a more scholarly phrase such as "Anthology" is often used. This can be justified where the artist has had a long career but is equally often just a pretentious affectation.
As suggested by The Brunching Shuttlecocks, an easy way to determine the actual neccesity of a Greatest Hits Album is to divide the number of songs on the album that actually charted, by the number of songs included on the album. Artists like [[The Beatles (band)|The Beatles]], [[Billy Joel]], [[Madonna]] and [[The Beach Boys]] will bat nearly 1.000, whereas groups who have released Greatest Hits albums
The ordering of songs can be either random or chronological (though for double-disk compilations, [[Distinct Double Album|it can get experimental]]).
{{examples}}
* Sony Music's ''[
** Universal had the ''20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection'' series around the beginning of the 2000's, which were budget greatest hits albums of the artist's big hits packaged in with an essay-style biography by a music critic. Later, they launched the more career-spanning 2-disc ''Gold'' series, to compete with ''The Essential''. They've also launched a second Greatest Hits line, ''Icon'', which is a one disc budget compilation like the ''20th Century Masters'', which they're still producing anyway.
* Several [[Hello! Project]] artists. Most of these include at least one new song.
** Morning Musume had two, as well as a singles collection (even though they're still releasing).
** Goto Maki.
Line 32:
** Tsukishima Kirari Starring Kusumi Koharu (Morning Musume).
** Melon Kinenbi.
* The [[Eagles]]' ''Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975)'' is the best-selling album in U.S. history (tied with [[Michael Jackson]]'s ''Thriller''), and third world-wide selling more than 42 million copies.
* [[Queen]]'s ''Greatest Hits'' is the best-selling album of all time in Britain, with their ''Greatest Hits II'' being number 8. Since then, Queen has released four more albums, including the double-platinum ''Absolute Greatest'' in 2009.
* ''[[ABBA]] Gold'' is the third best selling album of all time in Britain.
* Anecdotal evidence in British Pop Music suggests when a band releases a greatest hits album, in most cases after three or four studio albums, it is to be taken taken as a sign that the band are about to split up. Examples include greatest hits albums by Atomic Kitten, Steps, S Club 7, Blue and Take That.
* Some bands refuse to release a greatest hits album, notably [[ACDC
** On the other hand, Metallica has ''S&M'', which as live albums go, doubles as a greatest hits collection complete with brand new songs
** And AC/DC has two soundtrack albums that double as compilations, ''[[Maximum Overdrive
* Cockney Rejects, Mrs. Miller, Alien Ant Farm, and Graveyard BBQ have had ''Greatest Hits'' as the title of their respective debut albums.
** The Cockney Rejects actually named their first three albums ''Greatest Hits,'' Volumes 1, 2 and 3.
* ''The Best of Young MC'' is notable for basically being his first album, with a different title, and three fewer songs - in other words, Young MC ran out of creativity 10/13 of the way through his first album, but it was deemed a greatest hits album was necessary.
* Creedence Clearwater Revival released two compilation albums in the late 70's after the band broke up, Chronicle (which was re-released in the early 90's) that contained all their big hits like Proud Mary, Bad Moon Rising, Down on the Corner, etc., and Chronicle II, which contained a lot of lesser known hits from the end of their career, as well as Album Filler.
Line 47:
* [[Shakira]] got her own Greatest Hits in Spanish after four albums... but only songs from the latter two made it, because the two first were [[Old Shame|commercial failures full of]] [[Executive Meddling]]...
* J-pop group Glay, after ''two'' Best Of albums (one of them double!), released a two-volume, two-disc-each compilation titled ''rare collectives'' compiling all the B-sides of their singles to date (most of which hadn't made into any album), plus some live recordings and a couple of version and cooperations with other artists.
* [[The Beatles (band)|The Beatles]] had several: first the Red (1962-1966) and Blue (1967-1970) albums (recently re-released), then ''20 Greatest Hits'' (which never made CD), the singles-only ''Past Masters'' (re-released with the 2009 remastered albums as it compiles everything that wasn't released on an album including important stuff like "I Want To Hold Your Hand" and "Hey Jude"), and finally 2000's ''1'', the best selling album of [[
** As early as 1966, their British label (Parlophone) released one of these: ''A Collection of Beatles Oldies''.
** [[John Lennon]] released one greatest hits album while he was alive, ''Shaved Fish''. That one was infamous for having short versions of songs that never charted. A fair percentage of his post-mortem releases are also greatest hits albums. "The John Lennon Collection" was a bit strange because half the songs on it were from ''Double Fantasy,'' and most of John's half of ''Double Fantasy'' was on that album.
** Paul McCartney has several. There is "[[Wings (
** Capitol Records released a greatest hits CD for George Harrison when he left for Warner Bros, which interestingly, contained songs from his days with [[The Beatles (band)|The Beatles]]. This annoyed Harrison, since all the other Beatles, Ringo included, had gotten a compilation devoted entirely to their output as solo artists.
** Ringo Starr has released a couple of these. His first, ''Blast from the Past'', is highly valued because it has a much higher hit ratio than the albums it collected from, as well as a few songs that up to then had been singles-only. He released one called ''Photograph'' in 2007, but it didn't get much publicity.
* A cursory look at Amazon.com reveals that [[Bruce Willis
* Famed J-rock duo B'z is a interesting case: They had released several "compilations" albums that, in practice, are like Greatest Hits albums since they compiled all their singles... but still hadn't released any ''official'' Greatest Hits Albums yet. To muddle the waters more, some of those compilations feature re-recordings of two of their signature songs, actualized for the year of release.
* Despite the fact they never actually had a hit song, [[The Velvet Underground]] have two of these. [http://www.amazon.com/Best-Velvet-Underground-Words-Music/dp/B000001FR9/ref=sr_1_27?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1231629458&sr=1-27 One] is considered generally inferior due to picking almost all of their most conventional songs; [http://www.amazon.com/20th-Century-Masters-Millennium-Underground/dp/B00004YX3S/ref=pd_sim_m_16 the second] was more well-received.
* Progressive metal band [[
** They also use some [https://web.archive.org/web/20121113070957/http://www.dreamtheaterarg.com.ar/imagenes/discos/greatesthit.jpg clever red highlighting] to quite literally [[Getting Crap Past the Radar|sneak some crap past the radar]] as to their thoughts on the matter.
* An interesting case: the biggest hits of the [[Red Hot Chili Peppers]]' EMI years (which were not noted for being much of a success) were collected on an album after the success of ''Blood Sugar Sex Magik''; the result was entitled ''[[Lampshade Hanging|What Hits?]]''
* [[Jefferson Airplane]] called their first best-of release ''The Worst of Jefferson Airplane''.
Line 66:
* [[Bruce Springsteen]]'s first greatest hits album, although a huge seller, was widely criticized by hardcore fans for containing too many new songs (four of them), causing some huge hits like "I'm on Fire" and "Cover Me" to be excluded.
* [[Michael Jackson]] had several of these.
** ''HIStory - Past, Present and Future Book I'' (1995) drew criticism for the way it was compiled. It was a [[Distinct Double Album]], disc one consisting of greatest hits and disc two consisting of new material. This irked many people who wanted one but not both; casual fans didn't care about the new material, while hardcore fans already owned all the hits. The hits disc was reissued as a separate album in 2001, but people who want the other tracks (especially the singles from the second disc like "You Are Not Alone" and "Stranger in Moscow") still have to buy the full two-disc set. It's worth noting that Sony and Jackson's original plan was just to bring out a greatest hits set, but after the first round of child molestation allegations against him he came up with a ton of new material.
** ''Number Ones'' (2003) was his answer to [[The Beatles (band)|The Beatles]] and [[Elvis Presley]] all-#1-hits compilations, though the American version had to stretch beyond the U.S. and British charts to include songs from ''Invincible''. It also included a new song in "One More Chance" that flopped in the U.S. as Jackson was formally charged with child molestation just as the album hit shelves; it did make #1 in [
** ''The Ultimate Collection'' (2004) was a four-disc hits-and-rarities box set, plus a DVD of a 1992 concert.
** ''The Essential [[Michael Jackson]]'' (2005) was a two-disc set that spanned his entire career: the U.S. version featured ten songs from his Jackson 5/Jacksons days (including early solo work), four ''Off the Wall'' songs, seven ''Thriller'' songs (the album has nine songs total), eight ''Bad'' songs (out of eleven), seven ''Dangerous'' songs, and one each from ''HIStory'' and ''Invincible'' (which shows how badly his career eroded). A limited edition had a third disk with seven extra songs, four being from the not-so-shiny phase.
Line 83:
* While all the songs on [[Bjork]]'s 2002 "Greatest Hits" compilation were singles, the track listing was voted for by fans and omitted (amongst others) what was possibly her best-selling - and probably best-known - single in several countries, "It's Oh So Quiet".
** She omitted "It's Oh So Quiet" because she didn't feel that a cover song should be on her greatest hits compilation.
* [[
* ''The Best of Electribe 101 featuring Billie Ray Martin'' is a straight reissue of their debut (and only) album, ''Electribal Memories'', with the new title covering up the old one on the sleeve. Similarly ''The Best of Flowered Up'' is just their sole album, ''A Life With Brian'', plus one bonus track (albeit a 13-minute one that bumps up the playing time by nearly a third). And ''The Best of Betty Boo'' is her debut, ''Boomania'', in a different order with a couple of 12" mixes thrown in, because the record company didn't own, and couldn't be bothered to license, the rights to her second (and superior) album, ''Grrr... It's Betty Boo''.
* [["Weird Al" Yankovic]] didn't include much previously unavailable material on his "The Essential "Weird Al" Yankovic" two-disc set, only including a couple mixes of songs not on the original CDs (i.e. the extra-gory version of "The Night Santa Went Crazy" and the single release of UHF), but he did manage to nearly jam-pack each completely full.
** Al also had ''The Food Album'' and ''The TV Album'', with his songs into those themes. Also, his Greatest Hits Volume 2 featured his Crash Test Dummies parody "Headline News", which had only been previously released as a single and the long-out-of-print "Al in the Box" compilation.
* Oddly, Chamillionaire managed to have a greatest hits collection '''before he released his debut studio album'''. This is because of the enormous number of mixtapes he released and appeared on before that.
* [[Type O Negative]] had two "best of" albums, one compiled by the band themselves, and another put together by their by-then former record label, both largely covering the same material. In line with the band's occasional use of [[Self-Deprecation]], the former was called ''The Least Worst of Type O Negative'', and started with a completely silent filler track from one of their albums ([[Don't Explain the Joke|the implication being that]] they considered ''39 seconds of silence'' to be among their best work).
* [[Cirque Du Soleil]] has released three such albums so far.
** ''Cirque du Soleil Collection'' (1996) covered ''Le Cirque Reinvente'' through ''Alegria''.
** ''Le Best of...'' (2004), a tie-in to the company's 20th anniversary, was an update of the previous album that dropped all the songs from shows that had closed and added ones from those that had since opened, up through ''Varekai''.
** ''25'' (2009) tied into the company's ''25th'' anniversary and featured a fresh tracklist over two CDs. With the exceptions of ''Pomp Duck and Circumstance'' (which Cirque only co-produced, rather than created in-house) and the [[The Beatles (band)|unique case]] of ''LOVE'', every live show through ''OVO'' was represented, even those that didn't yet have soundtrack albums (''[[Criss Angel Believe]]'', ''ZED'', and ''OVO''). The earliest shows' songs hadn't appeared on CD until this album. Even the mostly-forgotten dramatic film based on ''[[Alegria]]'' was represented with the remake of the title song that only appeared on its soundtrack album, making it the only song that appeared on all three compilations in some
* Subverted by ex-Beatle Pete Best, who named a nondescript solo album "Best of the Beatles" to confuse record buyers.
* [[Jean Michel Jarre]] had a whole number of these: ''The Essential'' (7" versions from 1976 to 1985), ''Musik aus Zeit und Raum'' (pretty much ditto), ''Images - The Best Of Jean Michel Jarre'' (partly edited, partly re-recorded, partly remixed live versions from 1976 to 1990 + a few unreleased tracks), ''The Essential Jean Michel Jarre'' (1976 to 2000 including some not really Greatest Hits, not released by Jarre himself but by Francis Dreyfus), ''Aero'' (mostly re-recorded material from 1976 to 1997 + a few new tracks).
* [[The Specials (
* [[Devo]] released two compilations at the same tine: ''Devo's Greatest Hits'' (a compilation of their better-known works) and ''Devo's Greatest Misses'' (a compilation of their weirder stuff).
* [[Jethro Tull]] have plenty. The most notable are: ''Living In The Past'', a double-album selection of singles, B-sides, outtakes, live tracks from a Carnegie Hall concert, and assorted album tracks. The more conventional ''M.U.: The Best Of Jethro Tull'' and ''Repeat: The Best Of Jethro Tull'' followed in 1974 and 1977 respectively. ''Original Masters'' was released in 1985, filling in for a break in action between 1985 and 1987. The band released ''The Best Of Jethro Tull-The Anniversary Collection'', a two-CD collection with remastered hits across their career up to that point, in 1993. 1998 saw a short compilation, ''Through The Years'', an odd assortment of album tracks and live recordings. ''The Very Best Of Jethro Tull'', a single-disc, career-length selection hand-picked by bandleader Ian Anderson, was released in 2001. Finally, the [[Exactly What It Says
* Starting with 1995's ''Best of the Beast'', [[
** A particularly [[Scrappy]] example is the ''Edward The Great'' compilation. Despite the commendable cover artwork it adds to the Maiden library, the album is severely unbalanced: a full half of the ''Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son'' album is included, yet not a single cut with original singer Di'Anno's voice made it onto the compilation.
* [[
* [[Reba McEntire]], one of the greatest stars in [[Country Music]] history, has released three conventional "Greatest Hits" albums and a three-disc showstopper entitled ''Reba: 50 Greatest Hits''. And that's just for starters. She's also released CDs containing only her #1 singles, and then there was the mandatory "Millennium Collection." This is fully justified, as she has had no less than '''eighty''' Top 40 singles during her career, ''thirty'' of which peaked at #1.
* [[The Residents]] subverted this with ''Our Finest Flowers''. Rather than releasing a standard greatest hits album, they took a long-standing tradition of messing around with existing music, and applied it to their own. The result was an album full of brand new songs that consisted of mashed-up songs from previous albums. [[Word of God]] tells us that this happened because a Resident vomited on a track listing for a greatest hits album that was being planned.
** Played relatively straight with their later compilation ''Petting Zoo'': The only things approaching "hits" the band has to begin with are their covers of [[Hank Williams|"Kaw-Liga"]] and [[The Rolling Stones|"Satisfaction"]], neither of which were included, but the album did attempt to showcase the band's more accessible moments in reverse chronological order. They even pulled a variation on the practice of including new songs as fan bait - the first two tracks served as a preview of ''Demons Dance Alone'', which came out later that same year.
* [[Van Halen]] released one before reuniting with David Lee Roth (''Best Of Volume I'') and another reuniting with Sammy Hagar (''Best of Both Worlds'', which was double to be more comprehensive... but had a random tracklisting that frequently alternates Sammy and Dave).
* [[Oasis]] had two, one with an active band and songs picked by Noel Gallagher (which explains why all but four tracks are [[First Installment Wins|from the first two albums]] or B-sides of those songs, and [[Creator Backlash|the third album has no tracks]]), and another after disbanding, with the singles per se.
* [[Yes]] have 7 "official" greatest hits albums, many of them dedicated to a specific stint on a label. Three or four of them are double-disc comilations, some of which are repackagings. Many of them were released after their last studio album, 2000's ''Magnification'', by Rhino Records, who owns their Atlantic Records recordings. That's not to count the boxed sets and "friends of Yes" best -ofs, or the unofficial collections.
* The 1974 [[Supergroup|Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young]] album ''So Far'' consists of songs from the ''two'' studio LP's they'd recorded to that point (1969's ''Crosby, Stills & Nash'' and 1970's ''Déjà Vu''), plus the breakout single ''Ohio'' and its B-side ''Find the Cost of Freedom''. Sounds like a totally unnecessary endeavor, right? But it bats a respectable .454 on the Brunching Shuttlecocks metric (5 of the 11 songs on it hit the top 40), and fans were so eager for CSNY that ''So Far'' reached #1 on the charts and sold its way into Gold Record status.
* Cracker had the two-disc ''Garage D'or'' - the first disc had most of their singles, while the second was b-sides, compilation tracks, and unreleased material, rounded out with live versions of a few fan favorites. Later on there would also be an unusual case of dueling Greatest Hits albums: The band had recorded ''Greatest Hits Redux'', an album of studio re-recordings of their hits that they planned to release on an independent label, then they found out about Virgin, their old label, planning to release ''Get On With It: The Best Of Cracker'' without their involvement. They brazenly put the re-recorded versions out earlier than planned to compete with the regular greatest hits album.
* [[The Corrs]] have ''three'' ''and'' a complete collection [[Boxed Set]] of all 5 albums which released in 2011. Although once you start adding the high quality live albums and unplugged albums which have their own specific songs it looks far more reasonable. A buyer also gets more value for money from each subsequent release. The first was made after their 3rd album was released and has 18 songs. The second ''Dreams'' contained 21 songs and was released after their 4th and 5th albums were released as well as several unplugged and live albums. ''The Works'' was released as a three CD set with 56 tracks.
* [[Faith No More]] had a few after the band split, with the most recent, done to promote their reunion, mixing all names used for such compilations for parody's sake: ''The Very Best Definitive Ultimate Greatest Hits Collection''.
* [[Elvis Costello]] has ''The Best Of Elvis Costello And The Attractions'' from 1985, the double ''Girls Girls Girls'' in 1987, Rykodisc's ''The Very Best Of Elvis Costello And The Attractions'' double-disc from 1994, ''Extreme Honey'' in 1997 (which compiles his Warner Brothers years (
* [[Starflyer 59]]'s greatest-hits album ''Easy Come, Easy Go'' almost seemed lazy in its track choices. It featured exactly three songs from each of the band's five prior
* [[Jars of Clay]]'s ''Furthermore'' was practically a greatest-hits collection, but it was completely new recordings. Disc one featured stripped-down acoustic versions of the songs, and disc two featured live versions. Five years later, they ended up releasing a more conventional ''Greatest Hits''.
* [[David Bowie]] has had ''many'' compilations assembled over the course of his career.
** For years, the best-known compilations were ''Changesonebowie'' (1976) and ''Changestwobowie'' (1981). When a rerelease program of Bowie's 1969-80 catalog was initiated in 1990, ''Changesbowie''
** 1989's ''Sound + Vision'' box set covered his career from 1969-1980 and originally included a Video CD (later CD-Rom) of three live numbers and the "Ashes to Ashes" video on top of its three audio CDs. A 2003 reissue turned it into a four-CD set with material from
** 1993's ''The Singles Collection'' [
** Three best-ofs available separately or as ''The Platinum Collection'' specifically focus on 1969-74 (mostly his [[Glam Rock]] period), 1975-79 (blue-eyed [[Soul]] and [[Kraut Rock]] periods), and 1980-87 ([[New Wave]] and pop rock periods plus soundtrack work). The last one is notable for bringing together single versions of his movie theme songs from this period, which at five manage to total more than the number of tracks from his studio albums ''Tonight'' and ''Never Let Me Down'' (four) that are included.
** 2002's ''Best of Bowie'' had [
* [[Brad Paisley]] fought against the release of one for several years, because he thought that it was unfair to make an album composed of something that the fans already have. The label finally compromised and let him release a two-disc set which features his greatest hits on one disc and an assortment of live tracks on the other.
* Country music artist Phil Vassar did an interesting variation. Since he had several hits as a songwriter before he had any as a singer (and some for at least a year after his singing career began), his Greatest Hits includes both his own songs and his versions of some of his pre-fame songs (namely "I'm Alright" by Jo Dee Messina, "My Next Thirty Years" and "For a Little While" by [[Tim McGraw]] and "Little Red Rodeo" by Collin Raye).
* Mary Chapin Carpenter mixed hers up; ''Party Doll'' is a mix of live hits, studio versions, and a few of her personal favorites.
* Ladytron released "Best of 00-10" which has two exclusive tracks, Ace of Hz and Little Black Angel (a cover of Death in June).
* [[
* [[Kiss]] is a big believer in this. Eleven Greatest Hits (inc. 2 Japanese-only releases), nine live albums, and 5 box sets. Not bad for a band who's only had 6 top-20 songs.
* [[Motley Crue]] loves this as well. They have released five greatest hits albums as well as three box sets.
Line 133:
* J-pop singer Nana Tanimura released her debut album four years after her first single, having released ''seven' more singles following, two of which were double a-sides. Her debut album wound up being a best-of with a number of b-sides tossed in for good measure.
* [[Camper Van Beethoven]] have ''[[Long Title|Popular Songs of Great Enduring Strength and Beauty]]'', which covers their career up until their initial breakup; Since reuniting, they've had two more proper albums, but presumably only one of those would count anyway, because the other was a [[Cover Album]] of [[Fleetwood Mac]]'s ''Tusk''. The band couldn't license anything from ''Key Lime Pie'' and ''Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart'', the two albums they released while on Virgin, so the album uses brand new re-recordings of four of it's songs.
* [[Marilyn Manson]]'s ''Lest We Forget: The Best Of'', which covers the first ten years of their career. Songs were generally mixed louder than on the albums (although not to the point of the [[Loudness War]]), and [[Fading Into the Next Song]] was occasionally used where it wasn't originally. There were a couple of non-album singles ("The Long Hard Road Out Of Hell" and "Tainted Love") and a newly recorded cover of [[Depeche Mode]]'s "Personal Jesus", but charting single "I Don't Like The Drugs (But The Drugs Like Me)" was absent. At the time they called it a "farewell album", but after a gap of a few years they kept releasing music.
* [[The Police]]'s first greatest hits album, ''Every Breath You Take: The Classics'', got a little bit of a mixed reception for having a few of their hits absent and including a new, drastically different version of "Don't Stand So Close To Me" instead of the original. It got deleted and replaced with the similarly titled ''Every Breath You Take: The Singles'', which was almost identical but included the original "Don't Stand So Close To Me", relegating "Don't Stand So Close To Me 86" to the end of the album alongside [[The Not-Remix]] of "Message In A Bottle". There's been a few more greatest hits albums since, including a two cd collection called ''[[Self-Titled Album|The Police]]'', and ''The Very Best Of Sting And The Police'', which of course mixed Sting solo hits in with his Police material. The original version of that last one featured a remix of "Roxanne" by Puff Daddy (probably to capitalize on Puff Daddy [[Sampled Up|sampling up]] "Every Breath You Take" the previous year), while a later reissue ditched the remix and added more previously released songs - three by Sting and one by The Police.
* The Cult have two official best of albums, ''Pure Cult'' and ''High Octane Cult'', but both are pretty much identical in terms of song selection. The only difference is that ''High Octane Cult'' adds two new songs and "Star", the only single they'd released in the three years between the two compilations. "Star" would later show up on a re-release of ''Pure Cult'', but those two new tracks wouldn't.
* [[Ministry]]'s ''Greatest Fits'' and ''Rantology'': One includes the original or single versions of most of it's songs and also features "What About Us?" (originally from ''[[
* Duck Sauce subverts this by naming their first (and only) EP, ''Greatest Hits''.
* Similarly, Reggie And The Full Effect called their debut ''Greatest Hits 1984-1987''. Part of the joke is also that the album was released in 1999 - the band didn't even ''exist'' in 1984.
* [[Silverchair]]'s ''The Best Of, Volume 1'', which was put out without the band's approval once they left Sony, and thus only covers the first three albums. It came in a couple of different editions - one included a separate disc of b-sides and rarities, while the other crammed the hits and most of those same non-album tracks onto the same cd.
* [[
* [[Green Day]]'s ''International Superhits'', which covered their singles from 1994 to 2000 - presumably their two pre-major label albums weren't counted because of licensing issues, but those didn't have any proper singles anyway. The album has every song they released as a single during this period in chronological order, and also starts off with a pair of token new songs.
* As a band with many popular non-album singles (as well as hits that ''do'' appear on their albums, but not in the version that became popular), it's no surprise [[New Order]] has a small clutch of greatest hits collections. The first, ''Substance 1987'' - the band's best selling album - contains all of the A and B sides to the group's 12" singles up to 1987 (including the new songs "True Faith" and "1963"). 1994's ''(the best of) New Order'' adds in songs from their two-post ''Substance'' albums and their UK #1 single "World in Motion", but also contained remixes and new re-recordings of some of their songs in place of the popular versions. 2002's ''International'' adds in songs from the one album the band made post-''Best Of'', but it was only released in a few countries. 2005's ''Singles'' contains all of the band's 7" single A-sides (which were either more or less popular than the 12" versions, depending on the single). Lastly, 2011's ''Total'' contains the most popular songs from both New Order and its predecessor [[Joy Division]], but the record was only begrudgingly put together by the then-newly reunited band because [[Executive Meddling|their record label wanted to cash in]] on the aforementioned reunion and as such, it isn't well liked by the band's fans.
Line 148:
[[Category:Music Tropes]]
[[Category:Greatest Hits Album]]
| |||