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Greatest Hits Album: Difference between revisions
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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]], [[Billy Joel]], [[Madonna]] and [[The Beach Boys]] will bat nearly 1.000, whereas groups who have released Greatest Hits albums unneccesarily (i.e., [[One
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.
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* [[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]] 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.
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** 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'' -- the cover of which incorporated the ''Changesonebowie'' cover photo -- arrived; it also included songs from 1983's ''Let's Dance'' and 1984's ''Tonight'' and instead of "Fame" (his first U.S. Number One) included the then-new rearrangement "Fame '90".
** 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 1982-93 and a 1997 live B-side added.
** 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).
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[[Category:Music Tropes]]
[[Category:Greatest Hits Album]]
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