The etymology of the word certainly isn’t a settled issue as you indicate, so I think there’s plenty of room for others to feel comfortable using the word without thinking of it as an ethnic slur.
Still, this is an issue outside the scope of this thread. Debate over the word’s origin can be had in Great Debates; admonishment for its use (if one feels strongly enough) can live over in the Pit. Let’s not continue with this hijack.
The live versions really piss me off. Live versions were NOT the “Greatest Hits.”
I bought the vinyl record when it came out, after noting that it had more tracks than the cassette. That must have been one of them. A few years later I finally got a CD player, and got the CD set, which had all the ones on vinyl and more. At the time, I thought that was strange. I guess it’s a moot issue these days.
There were two bonus tracks. Second Wind was mildly successful (and I liked it), but “The Night is Still Young” was, commercially and in my opinion, a flop.
I would still like a Best of AC/DC that wasn’t a live album.
Did you change the thread title Skip? Good job, that was mighty white of you.
What songs are included on what albums is always decided by who owns the rights to the songs. Often, early hits aren’t owned by the artists, but by the label or a production company, who can lease the rights for commercial use and so on. Record labels often demand the rights to the songs of aspiring artists, knowing the artists will do almost anything to get a break, including give up ownership of the one thing that makes them great. John Fogarty and Credence Clearwater Revival are the worst examples of this – Fogarty was quite simply raped by the record company.
It’s a greed thing, to be sure, and that’s why I had no sympathy for the labels (“Nobody rips off our artists but us, bigawd!”) in the whole Napster thing several years ago. But, it’s kind of like embargoing Iran – the real evil ones will still get rich and live well, it’s the powerless folks who suffer the most.
Men Without Hats greatest hits had Safety Dance, but in the “extendo-craptacular dance remix” version. Same with Nena Greatest Hits for a while, it only had the “DJ scratching for Dummies remix” version of 99 Luftballons.
Guess what they put on the Love and Rockets compilation? The “crap-mix radio edit with super-looping remix” of Ball of Confusion.
Modern English? You say you want to hear Melt With You in a format that didn’t sound like a pack of rabid penguins were in the producer’s booth supervising the remaster? Nope.
Bow Wow Wow GH didn’t include Do You Want to Hold Me at all, which is probably one of their finest and most-recognized songs.
It can be pretty damn hard to find the actual original versions songs I grew up with.
Just as bad is the abbreviated single version of The Who’s “Won’t Get Fooled Again” that’s on a The Who’s Greatest Hits cassette I have. Fortunately, I already owned “Who’s Next” when I got it so I didn’t have to settle for the chopped up version.
Is that the one with the organ intro?
GREAT song, great video as well.
True, but there are actually two re-recordings of earlier Police songs that were never released: “Truth Hits Everybody '83” and “De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da '86.” The former is pretty weird and almost tuneless; the latter… well if you don’t like DSSCTM '86, you won’t like this either. I think they’re both fairly cool, though.
Copeland’s injury apparently simply unearthed some nasty feelings among the trio. Sting apparently suggested that it was reckless to play polo when they were recording, Andy wanted to use a Fairlight and Sting didn’t like it, Sting generally started bossing the other two around… but they’re together again, and Sting allegedly has two new songs written for The Police.
My beef? I can’t find a Boomtown Rats GH package with “Up All Night.” Grrr.
They included that because collectors asked them for years to please release the single edit on CD. That’s how it was heard on AM radio and when you bought the 45, and previously, it was unavailable except on a used 45. Now, if they’d only put out the single version of “Who Are You” where Roger went in and re-sang “who the hell are you?”
You wanna talk about horrible editing jobs that should be consigned to the garbage heap of history? Let’s start with “Green-Eyed Lady” by Sugarloaf. On the LP, it was 6:40. The single was 5:50-something, as they couldn’t fit it all on a 7" disc. As soon as it was reissued as an oldie, it was in a version that sounded like they let a drunk, blind guy with pinking shears loose on the master tape. It contains the absolute worst edits I’ve ever heard, including one that edits on 3 and a fraction beats into a 4-beat measure…and they’re still licensing it for compilations.
My greatest hits pet peeve is any Who collection that has the shortened version of “Who Are You?” That includes the 4 disc box "30 Years of Maximum R&B (GRRRRR). This necessitates the purchase of the original “Who Are You?” album. Fortunately this now includes an out take version with different lyrics.
I’m trying to imagine how this would sound – anything like the cut into the last verse of Matilda Mother off of Floyd’s Piper at the Gates of Dawn? :::shudder:::
Mine has “Up All Night”, but what I want is a GH with “Drag Me Down.”
Naw, it’s worse than that, to me anyway. What’s galling is that somebody in charge didn’t care about either of these shitty versions and OK’ed them in the first place. I can edit music better than that, and I’ve got my own edit of “Green Eyed Lady” in case I ever want to hear it. I’ve toyed with the idea of submitting it to Jerry Corbetta.
ZZ Top is another band the would have benefited from time machine technology. They released The Best of ZZ Top in 1990 - at the same time they released a new album Eliminator, which had a bunch of singles that would become their biggest hits: Gimme All Your Lovin, Got Me Under Pressure, Sharp Dressed Man, and Legs. So a lot of listeners discovered the band, went out to buy their “best of” album, and found that it didn’t have any of the songs they knew.
Does anybody else ever use iTunes Artist Essentials? (If you have iTunes, click here).
I’ve found that to be a great panacea for the dearth of crappy “Best of” and “Greatest Hits” packages. While I don’t always agree with their ranking of what’s “Basics, Next Steps and Deep Cuts,” the fact that I get to cherry-pick the selection means I don’t have to pay for filler.
One time, at the record store, I saw “The Knack’s Greatest Hits”. As far as I knew, they only had that one album (Get the Knack) and I can’t imagine where more hits came from.
You may not know, but the little girls understand.
Nobody’s mentioned it yet, but the Dire Straits GH collection Money for Nothing (ironic, no?) actually features the adulterated version of the title tune with the offensive lyrics removed.
I don’t think that’s quite right. Eliminator came out in 1983. The Best Of you’re eluding to came out 1977 (before Eliminator) so naturally it couldn’t have any of the Eliminator hits. It was also by their first record label which only had rights to their first 5 albums. They had a “Greatest Hits” out in 1992 that had the Eliminator stuff.