Greatest Hits Albums

It depends. Some artists produce great albums and some artists only produce great singles. For the latter I have no shame in listening to their compilation work. Additionally, a compilation or Greatest Hits album is a good entry point for investigating an artists work. The bottom line is if someone is exposed to and enjoys listening to music in this format then I don't think they should be judged as they are listening to music and I believe that as an activity that should be celebrated regardless of format.

Having said that, I nearly lost my current contract last Christmas as I was cornered by my bosses bosses boss at the Christmas party who proceeded to wax lyrical about the musical genius of Phil Collins. The ******* inside me couldn't resist from enquiring what he thought was Phil's best album. I'm sure you can guess his answer

 

Sorry I must be going but maybe you can post the answer later.

 

Allus same thee. Just like a broken record. Or is it Stendel fans I’m on abart.

 

It's a trick question, unless it's the one where he supports Philip Bailey.

 

I've always viewed them as albums for people who have gotten old. But Queen's Greatest Hits (the original), released almost 40 years ago, is utterly brilliant. It was brilliant 40 years ago and it still is now. Some of their studio albums aren't. Some are very good, but their Greatest Hits album is astonishing in its scope. No one could do that in a single album. I was a Queen fan from before I can remember. My mum said I heard one of their songs when I was 2 years old and I was just spellbound. I bought every album and listened to them incessantly and I was lucky enough to see them in 86 at Knebworth. It was everything I wanted it to be. After that I tuned out really. I bought the rest of the stuff they released, but I'd moved on. But that Greatest Hits album is still amazing.

18 months ago I went to an unforgettable wedding in New Zealand. Out in the mountains looking down on a lake. It was a fair distance from the hotel in which we were all staying to the wedding venue, and a coach took us home, about an hours journey. We were all well lubricated by this time. For the whole journey back, the whole bus, young and old and everyone in between, sang Queen's Greatest Hits at the top of their voices. No prompts, no CD in the stereo, no lyric sheet, but everyone knew the words to every song, and they just kept coming. I was 12,000 miles away from home, away from Queen's home, I was 45 years away from when I'd first heard them in my pushchair, when they'd made me shiver, I was an alien in a foreign land and everyone knew what I'd grown up with and what I'd loved as a child. That isn't an album for people who don't like albums. That's something amazing.

 

Soon as I saw the thread title, I was hoping for a Partridge reference

 

Partridge Family.....good band

 

Some albums only have 2 or 3 decent tracks. Back in the day I used to like OMD but their albums were ***** in the main. The Best of OMD features all their decent stuff.
Also got to agree with Jay re Queen's Greatest Hits. Superb listening.

 

I've never really been a buyer of greatest hits albums in the past, but for bands/artists that are not my absolute faves I must admit I do tend to enjoy the "This is" playlists of them on Spotify.

 

I'd hope and expect that the quality of songs on a best of album would be higher than any individual album, but that's not my point. An album should have a considered running order that captures what a band are trying to say at that point in time.

Your cool story just highlights how many great songs Queen recorded. I'm not a Queen fan, but I reckon I could muddle my way through a good number of their songs (if hidden in a crowd).

 

This misses the point of an album. It's not just 11 or so tracks of comparable quality by the same band.

 

Albums are like photographs or paintings- I want to look at (listen to) it in its entirety, not just take in one of the corners. It is intended as one piece of art.

 

I'm aware that I gave an extreme example to illustrate the contrary to your original point. And I'm self aware enough to acknowledge that I did it so I could tell a cool story. But I also think, as much as I used to agree with your point, I would now rather listen to the red album or the blue album by The Beatles rather than The White Album or Revolver, because I want all killer no filler, rather than a few tracks that are just a bit ****. I haven't enough time left in my life to listen, back to back, to the albums I've bought in my life that are on my shelves. Within those there are maybe half a dozen that are perfect from end to end. I reckon you could probably spend less than half an hour in an a shoddy place like HMV to buy Greatest Hits albums that would top that.

 

Only greatest hits I bought was ZZ Top, it was limited edition and was basically their best albums including live versions and was a limited edition album. My mate borrowed all my albums and misplaced em?????????? Cost me £10, but got my money back from him, he paid for an afternoon session in beer shop at Elsecar.

 

But if you take that to its logical conclusion, you'd never release any singles (usually extracts from albums), or listen to music on the radio (usually singles), or download or stream any ad hoc songs (extracts again). I like listening to albums, but I can't imagine not doing those other things too.

 

I knew your point. Using OMD as my example, I got balled off listening to the ***** tracks eventually and just skipped them. I've bought dozens of albums like that. Maybe I'm not getting the full picture by skipping those I hate but at my time of life I definitely don't want to be listening to music I don't like. There are always some tracks better than others on an album, even a greatest hits, but that's different to disliking some tracks. Anyway, good debate mate.

 

Very true.

 

Not as good as ZZ Top.