'Best Of' Albums Not So Great These Days
By NEKESA MUMBI MOODY, AP Music Writer
24 minutes ago



A greatest-hits album once stood as a watershed — a milestone chronicling a collection of top-rated hits, culturally significant songs or the end of a stellar career.

But in recent years, a flood of "best of" titles from acts with only few years in the business — and performers with even fewer hits — have called into question how great a greatest-hits collection really is these days.

Last fall, Britney Spears released "Greatest Hits: My Prerogative," a retrospective of her chart-topping, multiplatinum recording career — all six years of it. The Backstreet Boys put out "The Hits: Chapter One" in 2001 — just four years after releasing their first album.

"I don't know what you'd put on a record if you've only been making records for five years. I don't know what those greatest hits would be," said veteran rocker John Mellencamp.

At least Spears and the Boys had a steady collection of hits — or can say they have more than just one.

Among the more questionable greatest-hits collections that have popped up in recent years: "Toy Soldiers: The Best of Martika" (with one hit from the 1980s); "The Best of Mandy Moore," from an entertainer who had more success as an actress than she ever did as a singer; and "The Best of O.D.B.," from the late rapper who will best be remembered for his wild behavior and legal troubles than his chart-topping hits (or lack thereof).

And while teen queen Hilary Duff has sold millions of albums, she's only released two discs — the first one in 2003 — and neither spawned a top 10 hit. Her "best of" collection, "Most Wanted," hit record stores Tuesday.

"I guess with music becoming so disposable, things just happen so much faster now," said Collective Soul singer Dean Roland, whose band put out a greatest-hits album of its own in 2001. "The short answer to the whole thing is it comes out to a money issue. The labels can put a greatest-hits album out and it's going to sell."

They can be wildly popular. The Eagles' "Greatest Hits" is the best-selling album in U.S. history, selling more than 28 million copies. They're also cheap to produce and promote.

Sheryl Crow, whose "The Very Best of Sheryl Crow," was a multiplatinum hit in 2003, agrees that in some cases, thoughts of profits weigh heavily. "Part of that is record labels continually try to work their catalog so they always have money coming in," Crow said.

But Kevin Gore, executive vice president of sales and marketing at Rhino Entertainment, which puts out various greatest-hits packages, compilations and boxed sets, says a "Best of Sugar Ray" — which they recently released — is valid, even if some may sneer.

"At the end of the day, there's a larger audience that will buy a greatest-hits collection than might buy the individual albums just because they've chosen not to buy the original albums," Gore said.

"Let's say there's two hit songs on a record from five years ago, and then there's another two hit songs from a record that's three years ago," he said. "You have a greater opportunity to bring in a larger audience because you're putting all the hits in one place."

It's an idea the Backstreet Boys agree with — even though, initially, they balked at the idea of putting one out.

"For me as an artist, like, when I see somebody put out a greatest-hits record, they're either finished, or they need some time (off)," said Brian Littrell. "I kind of felt it was too soon to put those great songs on a CD. I think I wanted our fans to miss them a little bit."

However, Howie Dorough said in many ways, the greatest-hits album — which sold more than 1 million copies and contained a few new tunes — may have drawn the casual fan who had never brought a Backstreet Boys CD.

"We've had, knock on wood, over 12 singles," Dorough said. "But for somebody who's not a truly Backstreet fan, (who) wants to go out and buy five different records? ... To be able to go and buy their greatest hits, I'd do that in a heartbeat."

A more critical issue, record companies say, is the decreasing shelf space to carry an artist's catalog. With the advent of Wal-Mart and Target as major record stores, there are fewer outlets where you might find several different albums from one artist.

"If an artist has five or six or seven albums in his or her catalog, a lot of times many retailers are only carrying two or three. Perhaps songs that were included on albums one, three and five might no longer get the kind of visibility or shelf space that a hits record will provide those particular songs," said Jeff Jones, executive vice president of Sony BMG's catalog division Legacy Recordings (whose catalog releases this year range from Miles Davis to Bob Dylan to ... Martika).

Which brings us back to Martika's "Best Of ..." collection.

At the time, her "Toy Soldiers" was enjoying a resurgence after Eminem sampled it on his song, "Like Toy Soldiers." Fans searching for the original song may have been out of luck, Jones said.

Stores weren't carrying her records anymore, he said, adding: "So without creating a new hits collection, there's no visibility."

Besides, just because the average person can't name more than one Martika song doesn't mean there aren't fans out there.

"A hits collection doesn't necessarily always have to be 16 No. 1 songs," Jones said.

Not anymore.

Which is good news for the PM Dawns, Lisa Stansfields and Color Me Badds of the world — who all have greatest-hits albums

(who) wants to go out and buy five different records? ... To be able to go and buy their greatest hits, I'd do that in a heartbeat."

Anxiety said:

And this person has a place (albeit as somewhat of a joke) in the industry? What happened to discovering an artist one album at a time?

The fact is...most artists and labels don't cater to real fans anymore- they cater to the dollar by appealing to the greatest common denominator.

most people don't care about discovering artists one album at a time. they like 3 songs by the artist. i LOVE Air Supply, but i have no album by them beyond their greatest hits. and i don't particularly want any others.

Moonbeam said:

most people don't care about discovering artists one album at a time. they like 3 songs by the artist. i LOVE Air Supply, but i have no album by them beyond their greatest hits. and i don't particularly want any others.

At least Air Supply has a deep enough catalog to merit a greatest hits compilation. Hilary Duff's compilation after TWO albums is hideous and shameful.

GrayKing said:

I'm sure you're not that way with most other artists though.

honestly, i kind of am. but i make my own GH comps. that's pretty much all i listen to anymore, except for the first month a new album's out.

GrayKing said:

surface fan.

you do make a mean comp tho.

post your mj?
[Edited 8/17/05 16:21pm]

not yet. still perfecting the art. hit a snag....

"For me as an artist, like, when I see somebody put out a greatest-hits record, they're either finished, or they need some time (off)," said Brian Littrell.

HA HA

And then you have bands who have trouble getting it right in the first place....ala

Erasure's last offering. Hideous and Shameful! STrange too as POP was a wonderful gem to have.

Pet Shop Boys have at least got it correct...BOTH times.

Dead or alive's was a so-so offering. Offering up classics with reworked garbage.

Madonna's for the most part are LAZY.

And for what it's worth...I think it's a good thing for really obscure bands that have a few offerings to put something out for thier fans. Army of Lovers did this and did it correctly. I amy not like all of the songs, however it's difficult to get them in any format...and I don't wanna buy 4 or 5 of their albums cuz I know there is a lot of stuff on them I don't care for. They also put a special release that had a remix disk included.

i agree. how the hell do artists like Martika and britney Spears and worst of all hillary duff release "greatest hits" collections?? that just goes to show what a pathtetic state the music industry is in today

superspaceboy said:

You hit it right on the head. I think mostly it's record companies that create the tracklisting, especially for those sets that are label specfic like "20th Century" and "Essentail". Then again, when artists chose the tracklisting, sometimes they think so little of some of their biggest hits, that's why they get cut out (I think this happened with "Who's that Girl" and "Causin" among other Madonna tracks on "Immaculate").

Xavier23 said:

rare, medium or well done? how do you like your words prepard, so we know how to serve you when J.Lo comes out with a GH album in time for this Christmas

stereolab has been around for over a decade and they've released a buttload of albums - they've yet to release a 'best of' anthology. they've put out a few collections of odds and ends, and a boxed set of CD single remixes and b-sides, but they've yet to crank out a CD of songs that their fans already have, bless 'em.

Anxiety said:

You seldom see any electronic-oriented acts releasing "best of" albums, do you? It's a totally different fanbase.

Anxiety said:

You seldom see any electronic-oriented acts releasing "best of" albums, do you? It's a totally different fanbase.

From Yahoo/AP:

Novabreaker said:

well, there was a basement jaxx best-of that was released last year, and a chemical brothers best-of that was released either last year or the year before. those are the two i can think of right off the top of my head...