Best Best Of

[sevendaughters]

Having heard all of Queen's albums from soup to nuts I think their Hits compilations are rare examples of tracklistings chosen with a clear mind.

[a duncandisorderly]

The Very Best of Jake Thackray

brother go-riiiiiiii-iiiiiii-iiiiii-iiiiiii-la!

I think he'd've voted remain, myself. quite the francophile.

[madhair60]

Yeah it's Erasure. Maybe tied with Pet Shop Boys.

[bgmnts]

Has to be the greatest hits of a band who made loads of great songs but never made a great album themselves.

The Jam innit.

Queen, surely?


Goldie Lookin' Chains Greatest Hits is a fun album.

[SpiderChrist]

Actually I immediately disagree with me.

Abba innit.

Glad you had a re-think. Sound Affects is The Jam's great album.

Super Furry Animals Songbook, Supergrass' We Are 10, and (predictably) The Beatles 1967-1970.

[holyzombiejesus]

That Smiths 'Louder Than Bombs' is a good one (apart from having Golden Lights on it) but my favourite is...

[DrGreggles]

Queen, surely?

They haven't done enough good songs to fill a single, let alone an album.
Fucking hate Queen.

[jobotic]

The Pastels - Truckload of Trouble is rather ace

[Al Tha Funkee Homosapien]

Got to be Bob Marley's 'Legend' surely? Every suburban kid who is 'into reggae' will support me on that.

[poodlefaker]

That Roxy Music one from the late 70s with the leopardskin cover; all their punchiest songs with very short gaps in between, made them seem post-punk as hell.

[Lordofthefiles]

Talking Heads - Once in a Lifetime: The Best of Talking Heads

Not a skipper on the whole compilation.

[greenman]

That Roxy Music one from the late 70s with the leopardskin cover; all their punchiest songs with very short gaps in between, made them seem post-punk as hell.

Cale's "Guts" compilation was a pretty timley compilation to play up punk credibility as well.

[Kane Jones]

Sly & The Family Stone - Greatest Hits (1970)

[Delete Delete Delete]

Divine Madness is a great Madness compilation for a band thats best songs were their singles.

[Natnar]

Divine Madness is a great Madness compilation for a band thats best songs were their singles.

The Heavy Heavy Hits just beats it because it has Sweetest Girl on it as well.

[chveik]

Swans - Various Failures
Wanda Jackson - Queen of Rockabilly
The Fall - 50,000 Fall Fans Can't Be Wrong
Siouxsie & The Banshees - Once Upon a Time
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion - Dirty Shit Rock 'n' Roll
The Cramps - Psychedelic Jungle/Gravest Hits

etc.

[Delete Delete Delete]

The Heavy Heavy Hits just beats it because it has Sweetest Girl on it as well.

Technically its the same album repackaged and that song added as a bonus, so I would agree if you were to get a copy The Heavy Heavy Hits would be better.

[Sin Agog]

Talking Heads - Once in a Lifetime: The Best of Talking Heads

Not a skipper on the whole compilation.

I prefer The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads as a live best of.  It expanded the early stuff, sharpened the later stuff, and I find it hard to believe any group could be that tight for that long.

[DrGreggles]

The best Madness compilation is obviously the Divine Madness video collection.

[Sin Agog]

'ere, Greggles, just noticed your name got shouted out on a Pappy podcast!  'His pelvic foor is filled with keggles, it's DrGreggles.' Congrats!

[DrGreggles]

'ere, Greggles, just noticed your name got shouted out on a Pappy podcast!  'His pelvic foor is filled with keggles, it's DrGreggles.' Congrats!

Yep, heard it earlier and did a little jig of delight!
Which is quite sad if you think about it...

[holyzombiejesus]

[SteveDave]

Cale's "Guts" compilation was a pretty timley compilation to play up punk credibility as well.

I only realised that wasn't a proper LP a few years ago. Wall to wall bangers.

[Golden E. Pump]

Star Time by James Brown is four discs of absolute filth. That gets my vote. You don't really need anything else (although I'd say live album Sex Machine and In the Jungle Groove round off his output nicely).

[Johnboy]

Best of the Doobie Brothers is a cracker

[gilbertharding]

The Best of The Chocolate Watchband is mighty good. It covers a fair bit of ground, stylistically, too. Not much of it's original, but considering they're 'just' a garage-psych band.

Classic bests of I have loved:

Changesbowie.

20 Golden Greats by the Beach Boys.

12 Gold Bars by Quo

Buddy Holly Lives.

[greenman]

I prefer The Name Of This Band Is Talking Heads as a live best of.  It expanded the early stuff, sharpened the later stuff, and I find it hard to believe any group could be that tight for that long.

Although most it of is from a two year spell from 79-81 when they were at their peak life with Belew.

Once in a Lifetime is more biased towards the latter years/hits, play that on car jouneys with people who wouldn't tolerate the above or Remain in Light.

[grassbath]

Maybe a choice coloured by personal feeling but the Best of Bowie double CD set blew my mind as a kid. Grabbed it from the duty free in a delayed-flight fog on the way to a family holiday (I only consciously knew 'Starman') and hammered it in my CD player the entire time we were away. As a weird, bookish kid going through a early-adolescent confusing-feelings bisexual phase, it was a godsend - the range and diversity, the uncanny superimposition of feminine on masculine, the cryptic, stirring lyrics, realising that I'd heard so much of it before on the radio and the wonderful door-opening effect that great pop music and its iconography have on the imagination. And as has been noted by many, he is a tremendous gateway artist - Lou and the Velvets, Fripp and Eno and by extension Kraftwerk, Neu!, Can, Talking Heads etc.

Another one would be the 'Echoes' Floyd compilation mentioned in the OP,  which is marvelously sequenced and strung together by the sound of a desolate blowing wind. Also one for the 'music from the past you avoid' thread though - it reminds me of my mum being in hospital when I was 12/13 one winter, listening to it in the darkened car with my dad on the way to the hospital every day. Clearly recall asking my dad to keep the engine running so I could listen to 'Marooned' while he stopped to get fish and chips. The better known 60s and 70s tunes stand on their own as I eventually familiarised myself with them on the classic albums, but stuff like 'When the Tigers Broke Free,' 'Learning to Fly' and 'Sorrow' I still attach more to that compilation and that time.

[Absorb the anus burn]

Buzzcocks - Going Steady.
Talking Heads - Sand In The Vaseline.
Can - Cannibalism.
Amon Duul II - Lemmingmania.
Sly And The Family Stone - Greatest Hits.
DEVO - Hot Potatoes / Pioneers Who Got Scalped.

[Sebastian Cobb]