Most complete Greatest Hits or compilation collection

[caj]

We live in an age of streaming so it's easy to listen to all your favorite songs by an artist or band.

But for those of us that grew up with cassette, 8 track, and cd, what was/is the most complete greatest hits or compilation album ever?

Also, list your favorite gh album.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

For me, Beatles Red (1962-1966) and Blue (1967-1970). Those compilations were my introduction, my gateway drug to Beatlemania.

[Surf]

Hmmp, two instantly come to mind I've played the **** out of over the years. I just love the art on the ZZ GH as well. Along with others are they collectively are the reason I still keep a box of physical CD's. That S.O.S. band I think have rights issues cause that perticular issue is not on the streams. Spotify anyway.

[babyblob]

Hits by Phill Collins was one that saw a lot of time on my cd player

[caj]

Prince - The Hits/B-Sides

2 discs of hits and another with some pretty nice B-sides like Erotic City, Feel U Up, and 17 Days.

It wasn't perfect. They left off Batdance, Mountains, and Let's Work for clunkers like Sexy MF and Do Me Baby. But overall, it was pure music pleasure.

[Android 17]

Wore these two out back in the day:

Whitney Houston's Greatest Hits and Michael Jackson's HisStory.

Kids today will never know how epic 2 disc sets were.

[Mormel]

I came to realize there's a semantics game going on whether a compilation is called 'Greatest Hits' or 'Best Of', as the latter could allow the artist/band to leave some of their biggest hits off the album and exchange them for deeper cuts or less popular singles they think are better.

I think 'The Final' by Wham! and 'Ladies and Gentlemen' by George Michael were two fine compilations, but I wish 'L&G' had included 'I Want Your Sex pt. 1' (the hit single) instead of 'Part 2', and that 'Monkey' and 'Older' had been included. The album instead features a b-side ('Fantasy'), a couple of new tracks, which is is not an uncommon strategy in selling a compilation, and some recent singles that did poorly on the charts, like the double a-side 'The Strangest Thing/You Have Been Loved'. I still think collectively, The Final/L&G form a better compilation for George Michael's career than the later release 'Twenty Five', but that's also because I didn't like his output post-1999 as much as I did his earlier stuff (never warmed up to the 'Patience' album).

[Mormel]

Wore these two out back in the day:

Whitney Houston's Greatest Hits and Michael Jackson's HisStory.

Kids today will never know how epic 2 disc sets were.

HIStory is interesting in that Disc 2 is a studio album unto itself... I love the singles off it, really strong songs 'They Don't Care About Us', 'Stranger in Moscow', but I thought some of the other album tracks kinda felt like 'Dangerous' era leftovers somehow? The Notorious B.I.G. feature especially felt out-of-place to me, whereas the Heavy D verse on 'Jam' off 'Dangerous' fit perfectly. Making a single compilation disc out of MJ's career by 1995 is a hard thing to do, cutting it down to 15 tracks when you realize that 'Thriller' and 'Bad' alone had 7 and 9 singles come off it respectively. I mean, if you picked this up back in the day and among your favourite MJ tracks were 'Human Nature' or 'Smooth Criminal' you may have been a tad disappointed.

[Jim Kelly]

I'm on the fence about RED and BLUE. I feel like I should get them just to add them to my collection, but I doubt I'll ever play them. For me each Beatles album is fully registered in my memory. When I put an album on, I know exactly in what order the songs are and anticipate the next track even before the previous one ends. To hear these tracks on a butchered compilation would suck. I mean really when I put on ABBEY ROAD, I'm going to listen straight through to "The End"--and then "Her Majesty." I'm not going to listen to "Here Comes the Sun" lifted out of its place at the start of side 2.

Now, if they ever re-released the Canadian Capitol albums, that would be something, that really would be something I couldn't resist. My older brother had all these--but sadly got rid of them all. That's how I first heard the Beatles albums up until SGT. PEPPER, with the messed up mish-mash of cuts from different albums. I'd like to be able to go back and listen to those albums, to remind myself of the chaotic order in which we discovered the Beatles back then.

[CaptainEurope]

Do Box Sets count? Because it usually does not get more complete than four or five CDs of singles, album tracks, B-Sides and unreleased material. I have the ones by Marvin Gaye, the Temptations and Nancy Wilson.

[caj]

Do Box Sets count? Because it usually does not get more complete than four or five CDs of singles, album tracks, B-Sides and unreleased material. I have the ones by Marvin Gaye, the Temptations and Nancy Wilson.

That's a good point. Yes, let's include boxed sets.

I got an Elton John boxed set in the early 90s called To Be Continued that was pretty much a complete hits package at the time. I wish he would remaster and update it.

[The Darknight Detective]

Do Box Sets count? Because it usually does not get more complete than four or five CDs of singles, album tracks, B-Sides and unreleased material. I have the ones by Marvin Gaye, the Temptations and Nancy Wilson.

For the truly greats, box sets are what do it for me. Elvis, Aretha, James Brown, Sinatra, Little Richard, Hank Williams, the Police... if I posted all of my box sets, it would be one huge post.