 An Essential Retrospective Collection of The Very Best Of The Greatest Hits Anthologies!
Whew!! Nice long title eh? Quite suitable for what it’s about. I wanted to address the latest trend in the music industry. It’s not really just a trend but seems to be a never ending factor in the world of record retail, the Best Of…, Greatest Hits, Retrospective, The Collection, ect; of a given artist. And lately, there have actually been some really good compilations for the average record buyer to add to their collection. There are usually 5 reasons for a release like these. The T.V. best of’s are the first way to commercialize on these before they hit the shelves. You know what I’m talking about, the late night commercials with all of their hits scrolling up the screen with “vintage” performance clips and videos playing in the background. You get the picture. 2. The label or even the artist themselves, will put one out just to tide the fans over till the next album, which always sucks because they usually have at least one hit off of that new disc that could’ve been on it had they waited. LIVE albums are notorious for this, for they are merely a collection of hits performed in concert. Especially when they blatantly call it so, such as Phil Collins’ Serious Hits LIVE, or Journey’s Greatest Hits LIVE! More on the LIVE album thing in a future article. 3. You can usually tell if their contract with the label just expired or they are no longer making hit albums, they’ll top it off with a “hits collection”. Expose’ for example, had huge hits from their first album Exposure and a couple from their 2nd, What You Don’t Know, then Gioia Bruno left due to health problems and they hired Kelly Moneymaker to replace her (really good name there Hun!) and scored a few more hits and that was it. The Greatest Hits collection was out there in a heartbeat trying to get you to buy it before they faded away. Even though they were one of the best selling girl groups of all time. 4. This sorta goes back to number 1 but is a bit tricky, the infamous posthumous retrospective. Depending on the parties involved, it can be a noble gesture to remember an artist’s entire body of work. If it’s a solo artist, a spouse, offspring or surviving band members might put it out with the intention of making sure their name is solidified in music history or out to earn that fast buck. Nirvana, Tupac and The Doors come to mind here. Sometimes a label will put out a complete retrospective of a given time period in that artist’s life that held something special of when they recorded for them. First thing comes to mind on this would be Elvis Presley’s Sun recordings or Judy Garland’s Decca years. 5. It seems necessary in country music that if you’ve been around for more than 5 years, it warrants a GH album. And I mean EVERY 5 years! I’ve never seen any other format of music commercialize on it than the “new country” movement that started in 1988. They really know how to make the cash register sing when it comes to their artists. And most of the time, they almost always include 1 new song to get you to buy it. Anyway you slice it, it’s a repackaged collection of songs you already have unless they score a number of “off-shoot” tunes like for movie soundtracks, charity albums or television and radio recordings. Then they actually gain a little bit more of value because you don’t already own them from purchasing the last album. This point in time is very difficult for the music industry. Lately, many artists from the baby boomer generation are getting ready to hang it up. Whether it’s due to age, health, or just because they’ve already left their mark. They want to enjoy the remainder of their lives without having to worry about another hit. Since most top 40 stations don’t really play their material anymore when they do put some new songs out, they grow weary of the hassle of recording, touring and all the other hoopla that goes with the business. Many artists have done some farewell concerts and top it off with a huge GH’s collection like Cher, Tina Turner and KISS. As far as value in dollars goes, the biggest label of them all, MCA/ Universal, has been putting out some interesting best of ’s as of late under their 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collections banner. These are artists of any given time in the last century under their roof. Anywhere from timeless acts like Judy Garland, Louis Armstrong, Bing Crosby, Neil Diamond, and Buddy Holly to more modern acts like The Commodores, Cinderella, Whitesnake, Marvin Gaye, and a host of other artists. They usually are under $10 and cover most of their notable hits. This is a great way to introduce yourself to that artist without having to shell out the big bucks for their Greatest Hits collection that you only may want a few songs of. One last thing to point out is the album itself. There are 3 ways they’re usually formatted. 1) In the order of release from their first hit to their latest. 2) From their latest to their first or 3) in an arranged order to mix it up a bit. The last one can be very tricky as well. Some GH’s have actually been compiled very nicely and almost become a separate album in itself. Pink Floyd’s Echoes, The Best Of The DOORS, and Poison’s Greatest Hits are good examples. They are very well laid out and actually have a cohesiveness that blends the songs together. Yet, there are some GH’s that just suck horribly. They have the material but do not gel well together in the format there’re in. Bon Jovi’s Cross Road, KISS’ Greatest Kiss, and Def Leppard’s Vault are a few of these. Some may disagree on these, but the records could have been done better if they took the time to do it right like the other artists I mentioned did. The bottom line is this, you can fool the general public but you can’t fool the die-hard fans that buy their albums regardless. Here’s a list of some of the best Greatest Hits/Best Of’s ever released that will stand the test of time: (in no order) |
