dazzjped said:

Aerosmith (rather their record companies) did something almost unthinkable. Two seemingly "band approved" and/or offical American released double disc hits sets in less than tweleve months. "Young Lust" featured an over all good collection of new and old Aerosmith tunes and was released in Nov 2001. It's hard to tell if this was an offical and/or band approved collection, due to the fact that it didn't include anything from their album that year "Just Push Play"...but then came "O, Yeah!", which was heavier on the latter big hits AND featured the new song "Girls Of Summer" in July 2002! Not to mention "Big Ones", the all Geffen collection and "Greatest Hits", the all early Columbia classic collection. And then there are live "collections", "Gems", which I think that was b-sides...And they also have a "Gold" series, along with other noteworthy artists in the "too many" collections group, Kiss and Donna Summer.

I really like this topic.

RipHer2Shreds said:

"The Journey" was I think one of her biggest ever collections (even more than the noteworthy "Endless Summer") since it returned Donna to the charting on te album charts (not even "ES" did that), it had some new songs (and yielded two dance chart hits), was the offical release of the bootlegged hit "You're So Beautiful" and I think the UK verison hit the Top Ten or Twenty! And it's a good one!

Patsy Cline

The Beatles have quite a few. I prefer the red and blue double discs.

Aerosmith are the most guilty. I think they've had more GH/live albums than studio albums and none of them have managed to be comprehensive. Amazingly one band who haven't had one GH album and have been going 30 years are ACDC!

I think Cher holds the record. After "Believe" in 1998 she's had like 5 GH albums including those millenium editions.

And she's had a lot before that, including the Sonny and Cher greates Hits

Hopefully MJ will stop since his box set has apparently gone to hell with poor sales.

WildheartXXX said:

Completely off topic, but I just noticed your avatar and it made me laugh. "It's got a death curse!"

i don't know how many bob marley has but when i go into coconuts or whatever i swear there are like 5 or 6 greatest hits.

RipHer2Shreds said:

Holy Shit someone recognized my avatar! I actually believe he is saying that very line you mentioned when i took this capture lol.

WildheartXXX said:

I can tell you for sure that he was saying it at that very moment, because I am obsessed with bad horror

Aretha Franklin has like 4 Greatest Hits I think

FUNKitUP said:

the complete truth is here he did the last 2 just to get away from Epic and I have found all of the rleases of greatest hits.

1980:The Legend Continues
1981:The Best of Michael Jackson[Motown]
1984:16 Greatest Hits
1984:The Great Love Songs of Michael Jackson
1984:14 Greatest Hits
1986:Anthology
1986:Looking Back To Yesterday
1995:Anthology:The Best of Michael Jackson
1997:The Best of Michael Jackson & The Jackson Five
1999:Early Classics
2000:20th Century Masters-The Millenium Collection:TheBest of Michael Jackson
2001:Greatest Hits:HIStory Vol.1
2002:Best of Michael Jackson[Japan]
2002:Love Songs
2003:Number Ones
2004:Ultimate Collection

ABeautifulOne said:

This is the only one I have--absolutely beautiful.

WildheartXXX said:

No kidding! The live album doesn't count. An AC/DC greatest hits would sell millions, but it would also mean millions of people would never need to buy an AC/DC record ever again.

Thunderbird said:

Yeah their studio albums post Bon have been so erratic a greatest hits collection(it would have to be a double set) would pretty much be all most people need.

Creed has one out... which is one too many

Diana Ross/Surpremes

mynameisnotsusan said:

welll, reissues aren't really the same as best-of compilations, though bowie has certainly done BOTH into the ground. he's had changesone and changestwo, then the ryko changesbowie album, then TWO editions of the sound+vision box set, and multiple versions of "best of bowie" (which was advertised as his "first ever career spanning collection" - WTF?!?) - this doesn't include all the quickie "greatest hits" cheapie compos that RCA records put out in the '70s and early '80s.

Parliament-Funkadelic have so many Greatest Hits and Best Of that I lost count.

RipHer2Shreds said:

And there's yet another Donna Summer compilation coming out in January.It's a 2-CD set called "Donna Summer Gold".This is ridiculous.

Earth,Wind and Fire is my favorite band,but they have way too many hits compilations! It seems like,every few months,their old label (Sony/Columbia) issues yet another greatest hits set.In addition,there are several sets that focus primarily on their slow love songs.How many times can a record company re-package and re-sell what's already been sold many times before?

DavidEye said:

That's nothing

MJ is set to release another GH compilation next year called "The Super Duper Collection" featuring hits like "Billie Jean," "Beat it," and "Smooth Criminal." AND the never heard R.Kelly penned track "I Love You."

large numbers of compilations don't bother me. it's when none of them are the definitive collection, usually because of label-jumping by artists, that bothers me.


Ike & Tina, and hardly any of them are worth having as far as being good, career-arching retrospectives. "Proud Mary: The Best Of..." comes as close as I can find online.


With the number of useless compilations put out by Cher's various labels, you'd think that at last one of them would contain a few songs from her 1975-1977 output. sure, that stuff was a terrible flop, but it's not even on CD and apparently Stars is one of her best. and i'm sure there are some Allman fans that would pick up the Allman & Woman album. weird that it took until 2003 (and the import version at that) to actually get a difinitive career-spanning hits package out there for her. and even with that one, you need 2001's "Essential Cher" to fill in the gaps from the old stuff.

Elvis has way too many. the mind boggles. fortunately, a dear, dear friend took note when i was getting into Elvis and got the 3 5-disc box sets covering the 50's, 60's and 70's. just the 2-disc stuff from the movies to go!

Bowie has had a lot of them as well, though only a few are available on CD, so his catalog doesn't appear to have been mined quite as much as it actually has. but when he left RCA (prior, even), there were dozens of them coming out for years.

I'm not really satisfied with Elton John's either. Greatest Hits I & II are perfect best-of collections. however, Greatest Hits III (replaced by Greatest Hits 1976-1986) really kind of sucked in both incarnations. and the one that came out in 2002 is pretty much a waste. everything on disc 1 is on the original GH's (and if anyone had 1 or 2 Elton John albums, it'd be those), which leaves disc 2 to cover about 25 years worth of hits. i understand why it's set up the way that it is (to get people to actually buy it for the old songs they like), but i would like to see artists and labels work at putting out something that at least appears on the surface to be complete. or a reason for someone who's already got all the albums and various compilations to buy it. that goes for all artists, really.

jayaredee said:

You're kidding, right?

What really pisses me off is,record companies release numerous hits compilations,but yet they don't release what the fans really want: the actual albums! Most of Rick James' albums have never even made it onto CD,but yet there are countless compilations containing the same songs that everyone already has.Same goes for the Commodores.Motown,in particular,has done a really shitty job with their amazing catalog.

Anxiety said:

And don't forget the Singles '69-'93. And those ones from '97 covering '69-'74 and '74-'79.

GangstaFam said:

oh good lord. i forgot about those.

jayaredee said:

GangstaFam said:

That's the only Bowie album I have. Did he release others? I heard about one called 'Ziggy Moonbeam' or something.

Anxiety said:

The thing is, I own all of 'em. And I kinda like 'em all too.