I take your point, though this particular example doesn't bother me too much.
What did get my goat recently was the unnecessary variations of Springsteen's Seeger Sessions on sale: normal version, DualDisc version, CD+DVD version, and then a couple of months later, the slightly expanded "American Land" version. It was often difficult to tease out what the actual difference between the original versions was (especially if buying online).
And then the American Land version... I know I CHOSE to buy it, but as Bruce sings, "that captain worked every last dollar outta me".

I have already confessed elsewhere on this site to having a special place in my heart for the vinyl version of this album. As I don't currently have a turntable, and I do long to hear some of the tracks on the first LP again, I suspect I may give in to the temptation soon.

Sorry.

Not tempted on this occasion, but this is the man who has four different versions of 'My Aim is True' spread around the house. Beginning to feel slightly miffed about the whole thing but did it stop me parting with the folding?

Of course not.

On another (but related) subject, a quick check on iTunes reveals ten (yes ten) copies of Al Green's 'Let's Stay Together' from various compilations and stuff. There will be at least as many copies of 'Rescue Me' by Fontella Bass as well.

Is it just me?

I've banned myself from buying any compilation with "The Message" by Grandmaster Flash on it. I've got it on ten CD's; iTunes shows at least thirteen.

WHICH SONG APPEARS ON THE LARGEST NUMBER OF COMPILATIONS?

I'm going to guess that it's an old tune in a minority genre. How about Desmond Dekker's "OO7 (Shanty Town)"?
This could be the pointless distraction from my work that I've been looking for...

I'd guess a good contender would be a track on Trojan as they have what seems like hundreds of compilations involving many of the same tracks.

My wife may be the record company's ideal target audience:-

1) Take That's big comeback and they release "Never Forget - The Ultimate Collection" which she immediately wants, never mind that there's nothing new on it. I went to the CD shelf and found her copy of their Greatest Hits from when they originally split up which she'd forgotten that she'd got.

2) Last Christmas (bit of a clue there...) when they did "Twenty Five" by George Michael. I pointed out that she'd already got the best of Wham and his previous (pretty comprehensive) compilation "Ladies And Gentlemen" and that he's actually not done anything of note since, so why bother getting this one. Someone else got it for her and whenever she's played it in the car, she skips the more useless recent tracks.

3) any number of 70s disco compilations - I could probably go through them and count up how many times we've got "Disco Inferno".

There seems to be this fashion of re-issuing old greatest hits albums from a particular period. The current issue has an advert featuring "Bee Gees Greatest" from about 1981 - you could argue that this is probably a good one to get as they've not really done anything essential since then. But who would want Abba's Greatest Hits from 1976 when you can get Abba Gold ?

Also makes me wonder who's released the most different greatest hits albums ? The one that immediately springs to mind is Simon & Garfunkel - you can get "Greatest Hits", "The Simon & Garfunkel Collection", "The Definitive", "The Essential" and "Tales from New York, the Best of". That's actually as many compilations as original albums isn't it ?

There seems to be a new Nina Simone greatest hits album every time she's used on a new advert, which is roughly once a week.
This of course is where iTunes (etc) comes into its own, allowing us to mop up the few new/extra/previously unreleased tracks that the companies are using as bait.

In my opinion best Rolling Stones compilation is The London Years, 3 cd collection. Very little filler.