Entertainment For Lively Minds
The Very Best Ultimate Essential Collection of Greatest Hits
Following the earlier "Bands that were critically panned but we love..." thread my trip to HMV today involved searching for collections from forgotten 80's artistes. I came away with:
Ultimate Prince £ 5
The Best of Nick Heyward and Haircut 100 £5
Darryl Hall and John Oates The Essential Collection £ 10
The Very Best of Japan £ 4
Human League Greatest Hits £ 4
£ 28 well spent. I find myself drawn to collections like this as it is the best way to remember old or discover new. Since finding this site I have added Steely Dan, Mamas and Papas and The Beatles greatest hits among others to my modest music collection. So the inevitable question is this. What are the best "Best Of's"? Bearing in mind my very narrow field of reference I hand over to you to open my mind and make my next trip to HMV a more expansive if not expensive experience.
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Where do I start...?
I also like a good 'greatest hits' - ones that spring immediately to mind are:
'The Very Best of Ultravox' (plain black cover, bonus DVD of all the videos).
'Killing Moon: the Very Best of Echo and the Bunnymen' (one of these new-ish Music Club releases, 2CDs for about £8-£10).
'The Sound of the Smiths' (again, the double CD version must have a substantial amount of their entire output).
Richard Thompson's 'Action Packed: The Best of the Capitol Years' (I love this stage of his career).
R.E.M.'s 'And I Feel Fine: The Best of the I.R.S. Years' (again, particularly good in its 2CD version - the usual suspects on disc 1, band favourites and rarities on disc 2).
'Heaven & Hell: The Very Best of the Mekons' (again, well themed - the 'heaven' disc is weighted towards the tuneful, rocking songs, while the 'hell' disc unleashes the punk beast a bit more).
Not sure if this is a controversial choice, and I tend to go back to the albums myself - but 'The Best of Radiohead' is an extraordinary selection of tracks, again in its 2CD version.
I suspect I could go on - but these are the ones I first thought of.
Domo arigato gozaimas!
As an afficionado of all things 'Nipponese' via 'Sarf Lahdarn', I can say that of the myriad compilations of Japan's stuff this is the best (released a coupla years hence, green cover, red font?) - if you fancy trying some of the more 'protean' early stuff then try the Assemblage compo.
Obviously, Best Ofs suit those artistes whose albums you might initially be a bit risk-averse too - for me, bands who singles I very much like but couldn't quite risk the full fat expenditure and investment-of-listening-time of their albums - classic example for me would be the Manic Street Preachers : always in the mood for 'Design For Life' or 'La Tristesse Durera', but "Intense Humming Of Evil" or "South Yorkshire Mass Murderer" - err, maybe tomorrow Jack!
Therefore, Best Ofs of the following artists are just the right quality and quantity : New Order (if you disnae have it, try the early compilation Substance), Smiths, aforementioned Manics, Killing Joke, and INXS. C'mon, they did some great singles!
BR
FT
I play these a lot...
The Essential Hall & Oates
isn't that a roxsymoron?
No
It's a CD
How about...
... Squeeze - 45s and Under and Georgie Fame's 20 Beat Classics.
Oooh
Yes they're going on the list
There are also another couple
of decent double cd comps on the music club label, forget the titles, but they are by The Beat and Prefab Sprout, think you can get the two for a tenner and have got a good selection of tracks on them
Best of UB40
Better than one might immediately think.
Abba Gold..
everything on one CD. Great tunes.
Steve Winwood..
Keep on Running features greatest hits from Winwood, Traffic, and the Spencer Davis Group in one handy package (including unfortunately the US version of Gimme Some Lovin'with "extra production" by Jimmy Miller: anybody know how things like that come to be decided?).
Whoever it was who pointed me in the direction of Splittsville..
Their Best Of is a snorter. As is a Jayhawks compilation I listen to. I really should move on to some proper albums for both bands.
Pretenders
Can't remember the actual title - b and w cover. All great except the UB40 collab and one other that I can't recall.
That'd be
Pretenders: The Singles
I agree with your assesment. I saw a Chissie Hynde documentary one time and she said she fought unsuccessfully to have the UB40 collaboration not be included on that compilation.
..even though...
...she teamed up with them again for "Breakfast In Bed" shortly after The Pretenders Singles came out....
...BTW isn't "Back on the Chain Gang" just one of the best songs ever recorded?
the latest Pretenders album
comes with a remastered greatest hits disc. Haven't heard it yet but will be picking it up from the library this week.
as usual
try this
http://open.spotify.com/album/0esXfi4AMqswGP20UEvQS5
not exactly a *best of* in terms of hits or best known tunes but a genuinely good collection of some of his best work
John Martyn
.. XTC's Fossil Fuel..
..is utterly awesome... I actually preferred XTC before I started checking out their albums which, Apple Venus 1 excepted, are patchy. Stick to this compiltaion...
The Linda Thompson
compilation 'Dreams Fly Away' is very good. As is 'Anthology' Emmy Lou Harris. There are loads of Stones comps, but I reckon 'Rolled Gold' is the best one. There is a great Ella Fitzgerald 'Best Of...' too. Happy hunting!
Great Best Of's....
A few more that are excellent best of's....
Eurythmics Greatest Hits
The Best Of The Doors
Queen Greatest Hits
Prince - The Hits / The B-Sides
The Best Of Heaven 17
i.e. all groups that had cracking singles, but often the albums had too much filler.
...all good choices but...
...I never got why the Prince compilation left out Girls and Boys, Mountains, Paisley Park, Eye Wish U Heaven in favour of some of his early stuff which to these ears sounds like the soundtrack to an aerobics video... and his b-sides really weren't much cop were they? I agree that the other acts often peddle filler and a "best of" is the best entry point, but for me Prince made 5 killer albums (from Purple Rain through to Lovesexy) which would be a far better addition to any record collection than Hits / B Sides...
This is wonderful too...
yep
got that from the library along with a Dusty double, a Motown triple, the Best of the Sugababes (oh yes), and Richard Thompson's 1000 yrs of music - a different kind of 'best of'.
Devoto and Devo too
I got very strong compilations of Magazine and Devo as digital downloads from Amazon for a few quid each.
Joni Mitchell
Hits and Misses.
Some great ideas
thank you all. Some I already have, others I have made a mental note to search out next time I'm allowed HMV time.
"Edge of Twilight"
by Gentle Giant. A band I missed entirely first time round but this compilation is an absolute delight. Put aside all prog rock preconceptions, sit back and be amazed.