Compilation Albums: The 11 MOST Essential (Amity Tracks #42)
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- čas přidán 7. 09. 2024
- Vinyl Community, when does a compilation album become an essential part of an artist's discography? At what point does it go beyond being just a collection of hits? When does it make sense to recommend a compilation to a friend as an introduction to a band or musician, rather than one of their studio albums? These are our picks for 11 compilations that answer one or more of those questions.
❔ Let us know in the comments if you agree or disagree with our selections, or if you have some of your own that we missed.
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Great choices! But of course we all have an opinion.
Might I add these oddities that clearly date myself:
The Smiths - Hatful of Hollow
The Smiths - -Louder Than Bombs
The Stranglers - Peaches
Steely Dan - Greatest Hits
Motörhead - No Remorse
New Order - Substance
Joy Division - Substance
Buzzcocks - Singles Going Steady
I have Decade on CD ❤️
Arista Kinks are my favorite era of the Kinks as well my favorite Kinks album is Give The People What They Want and I was going to mention Rewind by the Stones and then you showed that great comp, great video !
Decade is terrific 😊😊😊😊😊
For me it was the 1973 Buffalo Springfield compilation with the 9 minute version of Bluebird that really hooked me into the band.
The 2 compilations that served as entry points into great bands for me: The Best of the Doors in 1985 (the one with the iconic shirtless photo of Morrison), and Decade. Of course, I had heard more than a few songs from those bands, but those two comps are what really hooked me. I am still mildly surprised every time I listen to the Doors debut album and Light My Fire doesn't immediately follow Break on Through.
I know your compilation list is basically classic rock, which is great, but for the punk era, Snap! by the Jam is essential and is basically their red and blue album if you get the vinyl or cassette version. I would also add Singles Going Steady by the Buzzcocks. Mania by the Ramones too. Fast forward to the 80's. Any Smiths fan has to own Louder than Bombs and/or Hatful of Hollow to get essential tracks that were not on regular albums. For XTC, I love Upsy Daisy Assortment. Just a few I wanted to add to the list of great comps.
Robert Palmer is an artist with such great songs but every album is filled with riff raff and a nice comp is perfect. Same with Huey Lewis and they both have scarcely produced comps from different eras at different levels of quality, same with hall and Oates
The double album The Very Best of Hall & Oates does a great job
@@amitytracks yarg matey
Your list closely coincides with my favorite greatest hits. Beatles Red & Blue, Hot Rocks, Decade, Retrospective, CCR Chronicles --- all records I listened to a lot before going deeper into those bands. Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits V1 & V2 are also good intros -- especially since V2 starts his eclectic trend.
Hi,
I consider 1965-1978 the best period of time as far as music is concerned, some of the best music ever, produced we have now the possibility to listen to all the albums people loved in the past, CD, vinyl, deluxe, super deluxe and so on. Can you imagine being in 1965 and not knowing yet about Pet Sounds, Revolver, White album, Abbey Road, Sticky Fingers, Village green preserv society, Tommy, Blood on the tracks, Dark side of the moon. We can now see all the greatness of those albums
Greatest single vinyl compilation is Best of the Byrds, along with Springfield Retro. Maybe Worst of the Airplane. And since it covers a couple of years of material that didn’t get released during his lifetime, Hendrix Cry of Love. Still a challenge to get a good, prolific band to just a double lp, and it used to be a great fan hobby to record their take on a 90 minute cassette, and later, of course, on a single 80 minute CD. My favorite of single fan CDs were all the attempts to take the many bootleg snippets of Brian Wilson’s failed Smile project and try to assemble them into a satisfying, coherent estimate of what the released album may have sounded like. Which we finally got from him, though I think a lot of the amateur assemblages of his modular pieces are actually more satisfying.
Yep, spent many hours back in the day trying to make the perfect comps on tapes and CDs. The whole 'Smile' thing is really fascinating. There can never really be a definitive 'Smile' because he just never finished it.
My favorite comps came out within a year or two from each other and are great intros for the uninitiated...
1978:
Steely Dan..."Greatest Hits, 1972-1978"
KISS..." DOUBLE PLATINUM"
Jimi Hendrix..."The Essential Jimi
Hendrix"
1979:
Jimi Hendrix..." The Essential Jimi
Hendrix Vol. II"
Lynyrd Skynyrd..." Gold & Platinum"
I've got those Essential Hendrix albums. Those were great.
My favorite compilations are the ones with several bands.
I wasn't even thinking in that direction, but good call. I should have talked about Nuggets.
Nice list :D
Here's a bakers dozen of compilations I had in my junior high and high school years. All the ones from 1973 on were new when I bought them. They were, for the most part, a great introduction for these bands. I'm not ratong them... I have them in release order.
The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Smash Hits (1969)
Jefferson Airplane - The Worst of Jefferson Airplane (1970)
The Rolling Stones - Hot Rocks (1971)
Steppenwolf - Gold: Their Great Hits (1971)
The Who - Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy (1971)
Cream - Heavy Cream (1972)
The Rolling Stones - More Hot Rocks (1972)
The Beatles - Greatest Hits 1967-1970 (1973)
Mountain - The Best of Mountain (1973)
Alice Cooper - Alice Cooper's Greatest Hits (1974)
Free - Best of Free (1974)
The Beatles - Rock 'n' Roll Music (1976)
David Bowie - Changesonebowie (1976)
Cheers!
Buffalo Springfield Retrospective is great, I only wish they could have fit Sad Memory on there. Another compilation that I consider near perfect is Quicksilver Messenger Service Anthology.
I'll have to check out that QMS one. I have a couple of their records, but would like to explore more.
Shout out for the 2 CD Comp set of QS….excellent SF sound. Surprising but we’ll chosen Buff Springfield. Not sure CSNY So Far shouldnt be an the list..
Mark Don & Mel by Grand Funk
Greatest Hits albums never get their proper respect.
Here’s my favorites that I play a lot:
Best of The Guess Who
Best of The Bee Gees (1969, pre-disco)
Rolling Stone’s Through the Past Darkly
Rolling Stone’s Hot Rocks
Best of Cream
Byrds Greatest Hits
Worst of Jefferson Airplane
Fairport Convention’s Fairport Chronicles
Joni Mitchell’s Hits and Misses
Best of Bread
This is the Moody Blues
Best of Stealers Wheel
Kate Bush’s The Whole Story
Beatles’s Red and Blue albums
Neil Young’s Decade
Buffalo Springfield Retrospective
What about made in the shade by the stones? early to mid 70's