I'll admit it, I'm too lazy to go out and buy entire albums from some artists, so I have nine greatest hits albums Ice Cube Aerosmith: Big Ones Madonna: The Immaculate Collection Guns N' Roses Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Garth Brooks: The Hits Billy Joel: Greatest Hits 1&2 Rolling Stones: 40 Licks Bangles
Oh man! Tons of compilations Off the top of my head... Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From the First Psychedelic Era 1965-1968 The Worst of Jefferson Airplane The Byrds - 12 Dimensions: 1965-1972 Anthology of American Folk Music, Vol. 1 Hot Rocks - The Rolling Stones Weird Scenes Inside the Gold Mine - The Doors Spanky's Greatest Hits - Spanky and Our Gang [edit] how could I forget "Shut and Play Yer Guitar" Mr. Frank Zappa
B-52s -- Time Capsule Beta Band -- Music David Bowie -- Changesbowie Chicago -- GH (vol 1) Dire Straits -- Money for Nothing Eagles -- GH vol 2 Fleetwood Mac -- GH Foreigner -- Records Guided by Voices -- Human Amusement at Hourly Rates Elton John -- GH (vol 1) Kinks -- Come Dancing with... (vol 2) Lemonheads -- Best Of Moody Blues -- GH Van Morrison -- Best Of Morrissey -- Bona Drag Pixies -- Wave of Mutilation St. Etienne -- Travel Edition Smiths -- Singles Soundgarden -- A-Sides Steely Dan -- A Decade Of... Matthew Sweet -- Time Capsule Tears for Fears -- 20th Century Masters Suzanne Vega -- Retrospective not counting compilations I bought, after which I got most of the constituent albums (e.g., R.E.M.'s Eponymous), compilations I got of bands I already liked (e.g., R.E.M.'s In Time), live CDs I got instead of an official greatest hits (e.g., Rush's Exit... Stage Left), or Boston's self-titled debut
Oh yeah, I have that one, also...forgot about it... I also have Weird Al's box set "Al in the Box", but I also have all his albums...
Madonna: The Immaculate Collection Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Billy Joel: Greatest Hits 1&2 Rolling Stones: Hot Rocks Elton John Commadores Temptations Louis Armstrong Eagles Fleetwood Mac Foreigner Frank Sinatra No Doubt George Strait Mark Chestnutt Hank Williams Hank Williams Jr. Patsy Cline Alabama Stevie Wonder (Great CD) Sound Garden The Doors Many many more as I'd rather have all the good songs on one disc...
I think the biggest improvement from many "regular albums" to one greatest hits album is Steve Miller. From his Greatest Hits, you'd be like"you know, this dude has terrible lyrics, writes weird songs, but is pretty catchy car-radio rock music." Any one of his first-release albums is like eating broken glass, you don't even like "Jet Airline" when it comes on. Conversely, Paul McCartney's Greatest Hits solo albums make you think he sucks; something about putting his "hits" together is much cornier than he already is, which is pretty corny. The Beatles themselves are like two different bands - the Greatest Hits / Singles band - Hey Jude, Paperback Writer, Revolution, Help, etc - which was the best band ever, and then the albums band - white album / revolver / meet the beatles - which was even freaking better. Probably because they made singles and albums separately; they actually thought about those songs differently. Stone are much better on Greatest Hits collections. The Who, whom I like, dont really work as either, oddly enough. Zeppelin, whom I do NOT like, are obviously an albums band.
Too many to name but off the top of my head: Pink Floyd Queen (both Classic Queen and Queen's Greatest Hits) Roxy Music The Cure (both Staring at the Sea and Galore) The Police The Who The Rolling Stones (40 Licks) Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers The Eagles The Smiths Bob Dylan (Biograph) David Bowie Stevie Wonder (Musiquarium) The Smashing Pumpkins Marvin Gaye Elvis Presley (The Top 10 Hits) Black Sabbath CCR ZZ Top (2 different ones) Howlin' Wolf (2 different ones) Muddy Waters John Lee Hooker Buddy Guy Canned Heat Rick James Leonard Cohen The Gap Band The Dazz Band Meat Loaf Bonnie Tyler Laura Branigan Patty Smyth Judy Collins New Order (Substance) Joy Division (Substance) There are probably more but that is all I can think of off the top of my head.
These are the only two that I can think of off of the top of my head. Green Day - International Superhits! Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Greatest Hits
Nine Inch Nails - And All That Could Have Been Smashing Pumpkins - Rotten Apples Placebo - Once More With Feeling Hmm i'm sure there are others but that's all I can think of.
Damn, I also remembered Sly and the Family Stone Madonna (Immaculate Collection) James Brown Def Leppard
Led Zep- Early Days and Latter Days RUSH- Spirit of Radio Duran Duran- Decade (I think that's the name) U2- Best of 1980-1990 and 1990-2000 ZZ Top Tom Petty and the Hearbreakers
Rebound Records Funk Classic cd set Trojan ska box set Trojan Calypso box set Bob Marley box set No Thanks! The '70s Punk Rebellion box set Clash On Broadway cd set Hardcore Devo, Vol. 1: 74-77 Hardcore Devo, Vol. 2: 74-77 Buzzcocks - Singles Going Steady Ohio Players - Funk on Fire cd set Funkadelic - Music for Your Mother cd set a bunch more I cant remember...
U2 ZZ Top Bob Marley Pete Rock and C.L. Smooth Neil Diamond Pink Floyd Garth Brooks The Cure Fleetwood Mac George Strait (gotta support my fellow alum) The Who Duran Duran Led Zeppelin Many more, I'm sure.