The Best of the Greatest Hits, Volume One

The Best of the Greatest Hits, Volume One

by Robert Fithen

Ah yes!  The "Greatest Hits" album.  It seems like a long, lost artform.  These days people make there own compilations on burned cd-rs and mp3 playlists.  However, back in the day of the LP, the only way to get an overview sample of an artists' best was to get their official "Best of" album.  Usually, each artist had only one.  Now, their are countless compilations available and another rehash of someone's hits seems hardly special.  So let's step back a few years when a great assortment of career highlights was sometimes just as crucial as the actual catalogue albums.  For many people, the official "Greatest Hits" was the only album from certain artists they needed.

Here's a tribute to some of the best of the "best of's".  How many of these classic compilations did/ do you own?

 

JIMMY BUFFETT - SONGS YOU KNOW BY HEART (1985)

Having gone 7x Platinum, this is one of the most successful "greatest hits" releases of all-time. I could tell you more about it, but you own it so chances are you already know. I will say that the LP and cassette cover, featuring a photo of Buffett serenading a parrot, is much better than the CD cover. It's bare yellow with "Jimmy Buffett" written in red. Unless you're a parrothead, you probably don't know much Buffett that's not included here.

THE EAGLES - THEIR GREATEST HITS (1976)

Here it is! The big daddy of them all! The compilations all other compilations want to be! Nearly 30x platinum, if you live in a house that's more than 20 years old, this album has been in the house at one point or another. Another perfectly timed release, debuting when a couple of the songs were still recent hits. This captures the Eagles just before "Hotel California" and includes all of their mid-70's country-rock singles. Sorry Lebowski, apparently you're the only one who doesn't like the Eagles.

ELECTRIC LIGHT ORCHESTRA - ELO'S GREATEST HITS (1979)

For those who liked the hit singles, but didn't want to get too into the weirder stuff it was the perfect ELO album. I had it as a child on 8-Track and now am miffed that my kid years were robbed of the classic "Do Ya" which is missing here. "Dont Bring Me Down" was released later so it's not here either. Most everything else is... "Strange Magic", "Livin' Thing", "Turn To Stone", "Evil Woman"... all in nice little 3 1/2 to 4 minute pop packages.

JIMI HENDRIX EXPERIENCE - SMASH HITS (1968)

The very first compilation of his music, this was considered to be part of The Experience's original catalogue. At the time, it was the only place to get "Stone Free", "Red House", and others so it must have seemed like an a hybrid release of old and new material (even though the "new" songs were actually from the UK vault). Plus, now fans could get "Purple Haze" and "All Along the Watchtower" on the same LP. No "Are You Experienced" or "Voodoo Child", but that's what the other albums are for. This is the only Jimi Hendrix greatest hits to be released in his lifetime. The double album "The Essential Jimi Hendrix" took over as the Hendrix compilation to own in 1978.

JANIS JOPLIN - GREATEST HITS (1973)

 

Janis, smiling, stradling a motorcycle is just as great an album cover as the "Pearl" one. It's too bad that most of Janis' recorded output can fill just one album, but this is it. Actually, you really need "Pearl", too. You can get a much broader overview of her career with more recent collections containing more tracks, but back in the LP days, this was hard to beat as the definitive way to hear Janis Joplin. From garage rockin' with "Piece of My Heart", to barroom blues of "Me and Bobby McGee", to live and loose on "Ball and Chain".

JOURNEY - GREATEST HITS (1988)

Released when the band was still a vital force. Containing nearly a decade's worth of hits, it's still towering as the definitive Journey collection to own. "Stone In Love", "Anytime", and others are missing, but there's still a whopping 15 tracks and this was the first time any of Journey's music was available on anything but the original albums and singles. Released at a time when the CD was hitting big as the preferred music format, this certainly was one to own. At the present, there are other choices such as the two-disc "Essential" which has some of the great album tracks, too.

KISS - DOUBLE PLATINUM (1978)

Man, oh man! Kiss was at their peak when this two-record set hit the stores. Someone in the A&R department knew what they were doing, but it was Kiss', so that's no surprise. Some of the songs are remixes or remakes, but they compliment their originals well. The cover was a reflective silver with the KISS logo embossed on it. If your allowance could only afford you one Kiss album, you made it this one (assuming you could afford a double album). It still stands today as the best of the makeup years without their disco attempt "I Was Made For Loving You". Nice little hard rockin' songs, one after another. And "Beth". Don't forget to hang the miniature platinum record award that came with it and fill out the sheet to become an official soldier in the KISS Army.

MADONNA - THE IMMACULATE COLLECTION (1990)

Nearly every track on this release was a remix. The point here must not have been to make Madonna out to be a nostalgia act, but to make her older hits such as "Lucky Star" and "Holiday" sound as fresh and current as "Justify My Love". The artwork photos are all from the 1990 period with, again, no real reference to the past. That's almost too bad because it would have been nice to hear the progession of dance/pop from '83-'90 since that's where the sound began to change from snyth-pop to a more club motif. Oh well, back then you still had the first ever collection of Madonna's hits even if some sounded a little souped-up.

BOB MARLEY - LEGEND (1984)

The biggest selling reggae album of all-time, this is the way most people are introduced to the music of Bob Marley. A plentiful sampling (14 songs) of mostly the latter-day, more accessible songs, it spent almost as many consecutive weeks on the album chart as "Dark Side of the Moon". No college dorm was complete without, but it also made the perfect family album (well, you may have to explain "I Shot the Sheriff" to the kids).

STEVE MILLER BAND - GREATEST HITS (1978)

Right up there with The Eagles "Greatest Hits" as far as longevity and cruciality. Released when a couple of the songs were still fresh from the charts, this is the way most people chose to hear the hit singles "Rock n Me", "Take the Money and Run", "Jungle Love", "Swingtown", etc. It was just the hits m'am without the spacy interludes of his full albums. "Fly Like an Eagle", "The Joker", and "Jet Airliner" are the single versions here, but seem appropriate in that form. While "Fly Like an Eagle" and "Book of Dreams" were essentials LP's, this was an essential 8-Track. A hefty one, too, which 14 tunes! It doesn't feature any of Steve Miller's work pre-1973, but it does capture an era perfectly, just like a catalogue album. Santa brought me this as a child Christmas 1979.

KENNY ROGERS - GREATEST HITS (1980)

Released when they were making movies based on his songs (OK, tv-movies), this had everything the casual fan could have wanted at the time. "The Gambler", "Coward of the County", "Lucille", "She Believes In Me", they're all here. There's even a non-hit thrown in just in case you'd like to hear what a real Kenny Rogers album sounds like. A huge success upon release. Either you or your mom or uncle owned this at one point.

THE ROLLING STONES - HOT ROCKS (1971)

Well, it doesn't get much better than this as far as compilation albums released during a hot streak. "Brown Sugar" and "Wild Horses" were still relatively new songs when this came out, but The Rolling Stones were so hot, it didn't seem to interfere with sales of the parent album "Sticky Fingers". 2 LPs of their best up to that time. "Midnight Rambler" is the live version from "Get Yer YaYa's Out". The UK blues band, the modsters, the hard rocking group all known as The Rolling Stones, are all represented here. Before this, there was no way to own "Satisfaction", "Honky Tonk Women", "Jumpin' Jack Flash", "Brown Sugar", and "Paint It Black" on the same album. One of the few "best of"s to be authorized by it's artists.

THE WHO - MEATY BEATY BIG AND BOUNCY (1971)

Many of their early hits were not released on an album at the time. Others were, but the album was usually some kind of concept piece where a hit single sounded out of place. This release was the first to compile the best singles up to the time. Now you could hear "I Can See For Miles" without having to sit through the "Odorama" commercials on the "Who Sell Out" album. A longer version of "Magic Bus" is a nice bonus, too. Released in 1971, it's hard to imagine a Who fan at that time not owning this LP. These days you'd probaby opt for "Ultimate Collection" or any of the other scores of compilations from The Who available that also focus on their later years.

NEIL YOUNG - DECADE (1977)

I always though the purpose of a "best of" release was to have a product that the casual fan could own with just the hits and maybe a few other choice cuts, time permitting. Something cheap and simple like a single disc. It makes a great gift, too! None of that was obviously thought about in the planning stages of this three-LP compilation from Neil Young. People who just wanted "Heart of Gold", "Old Man", and maybe a couple others tossed in had to wait until the 2000's for a proper "Greatest Hits". "Decade" was still very successful and stands a monument not only of Neil Young's music, but of his unconventionality. A release that plays like a sprawling album demanding attention and not something to be thrown on by the pool during a game of frisbee.

 

 Volume Two coming next week....