GH: Elton John. His best work is his earliest work
1A: Sandra Bernhardt "Excuses for Bad Behavior. It’s good
BX: ABBA–The 4CD boxed set is all you could want.
WC: Andrew Lloyd Webber. Some day I will have everything.
If anything, I would put Weezer under the “One album” listing. Their first album is a masterpiece from start to finish. I don’t think about skipping over a single track. Their other albums are very good, “Pinkerton” I would even say is underrated, but if you want the best Weezer has done, that first album is the way to go.
As for me:
Greatest Hits: Aerosmith. They have a way of putting out great singles, but I neve hear people speak of an Aerosmith album as a start-to-finish masterpiece. Give me 20 tracks from “Dream On” to “Janie’s Got a Gun” and I’m all set. (Everything from the Alicia Silverstone video era onward is unnecessary, in my mind.)
One album: Matthew Sweet’s “Girlfriend” is so far and away his best album that it’s kind of scary. His other albums aren’t awful, but they’re also not worth your $16.99.
Boxed Set: Prince. I know he has two greatest hits CDs, but I don’t think that’s really enough. For example, not a single track off “Purple Rain” is bad. The same could be said for at least three of his other albums, and he’s had at least one or two decent tracks from the rest of his stuff. A “Purple Box” with all the great songs (not just radio hits) plus some live tracks, b-sides and rarities, would be fantastic for someone who doesn’t own his stuff already. Oh, and if there isn’t a boxed set for The Clash, there needs to be.
Whole Catalogue: I have to second Radiohead here. (Yes, I’m biased, as I practically worship them.) Getting ahold of all their b-sides is a painful task, yet I like almost all of them and marvel at how some of them weren’t included on albums. (The stuff off the Airbag EP especially).
GH: The Bee Gees. From their folky 60’s to their disco 70’s, their 2-CD set Bee Gees Greatest gives me enough Bee Gees to last a lifetime
1A: The J. Geils Band Love Stinks. One of my Top 5 All Time Favorites.
BX: The Police Message in a Box: actually this is cheating a bit since it contains everything they ever recorded up to that point.
WC: The Electric Light Orchestra if I have to name just one. (The Beatles and ABBA if I could name a couple more)
In the categories of Greatest Hits and Boxed Set, I take it to mean that I could personally select the tracks that would go on said collections, and whether or not said artist has already released a greatest-hits collection or a boxed set is irrelevant.
That said:
Greatest Hits:
The Smiths – Gems to be had, but not so many that a good greatest-hits collection wouldn’t be enough.
Hall & Oates – One disc would do it, I think.
One Album:
Violent Femmes – Be sure to get the version with the gleefully nasty “Ugly” appended to it.
Boxed Set:
U2 – Too many gems for a greatest-hits collection.
“Weird Al” Yankovic – I have the boxed set he released several years ago, and it’s good, but I would substitute quite a bit nonetheless.
Whole Catalogue:
Husker Du – Their shoddy first album, Land Speed Record, is totally expendable, but that’s not enough to knock them down to the Boxed Set category.
R.E.M. – Their last couple of albums have been kind of lacking, but I can’t knock them down to Boxed Set because a boxed set would omit too many songs I love.
SNenc,
There was a box set on the Clash that was released back in 1991 called Clash On Broadway. It’s a 3 CD set.
Great thread!
GH: I’ll go with *So Far * from CSNY. Great album from start to finish, as a GH should be.
1A: **Bob Mould’s ** Workbook. He sings, he thrashes about, and he uses that guitar like a scalpel. 2nd place, **Pink Floyd’s ** The Wall.
BX: ** I’m waiting for Uncle Tupelo ** to come out with a boxed set. When it arrives, I’m first in line. If the gods are great, it wil include all Wilco and **Son Volt ** work as well (I know, that’s cheating).
Entire Catalog: May seem like a flier, but I’ll go with Matthew Sweet. I love the growth, I love the musicians he chooses to work with, and I’ve been on a lyrical thing lately. 2nd place, REM. 3rd place, The Byrds.
-Cem
Songs of Freedom. There are some great songs that aren’t on there, but it’s a great set with a lot of variety and some rare stuff. If you’re not, say, named for the guy, I could understand being satisfied with just that box set. 
Cemetary Savior revives a zombie thread! 
GH: Jimmy Buffet - great songs, no real album feel. The only question is do you go live or studio?
1A: This one is hardest. I might cheat and go with Boston’s 1st album (since they only did 3).
BX: A good, clean compilation of Elvis that covers his Gospel, his Rock, etc. He almost deserves WC status, except for all of the crap discs out there due to multiple labels. Second Choice is Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band - more than just GH, but not quite WC for my tastes.
WC: I have Zepp and the Beatles, but I think that the WC for Sinatra might be my wish. Similar issue as with Elvis - a lot of crap pumped out over the years due to multiple labels owning rights however.
GH: Tough one, as there are a lot of bands out there with good GH albums. I think I’ll also go with Jimmy Buffett here.
1A: The Kinks, The Kinks are the Village Green Preservation Society. This one’s a no-brainer.
BX: Minor Threat, Complete Discography. This one might be pushing it a bit, but how many other complete catalogues fit on one CD?
WC: Ulver. I have their entire catalogue, and I literally had no idea what this year’s album would sound like. That’s not hyperbole–I didn’t even know the genre they’d be recording in.
That, sir, was going to be my inspiration for posting in this thread. My three-year-old son, upon hearing “I Can’t Stand Losing You” the other day has decided he likes the Police, even though he doesn’t quite understand the concept of singers and bands completely; but he can name all four members of Bowling For Soup by looking at their pictures.
GH: Joe Jackson’s greatest hits CD has several good songs on it that I like to hear once in a while, but I don’t crave more. Ditto for The Fixx.
1A: I’m gonna have to disagree with the OP’s assessment of Meatlof on the basis of “I Would Do Anything For Love …” alone, but we’re here to talk about my choices, not his. For a single album, I’ll take Hot Fuss by The Killers. It’s got some good songs on it that I like to hear, but I have no overwhelming urge to go out and buy Sam’s Town.
BX: I have Message in a Box by the Police. As KGS said, that pretty much sums it up. There’s nothing else from them I really need… although I would like to check out that early “Strontium 90” stuff just to be sure.
WC: I have to go with Electric Light Orchestra. ELO has always been the band that brings me the most musical happiness, and there’s a lot of stuff from each album that just seemed to fall between the cracks and get left out of Strange Magic and Afterglow. They continued to record for seven years after their greatest hits album, so you’d miss out on all the gems from Time, which, despite all their other classics, is my favourite album of theirs. We can blame that on Studio Gainax.
If I could have a second catalogue, I’d take The Ramones.
Does Loaded have some sort of bad reputation? It’s probably my favorite VU album to listen to.
Greatest Hits: Queen. Their good stuff is excellent, the rest is just sort of strange and hard to get behind.
One Album: Blues Traveler - Four. The rest of their stuff is either way too jam-oriented or way too mellow. This album found a very good balance.
Whole Collection: David Bowie. His albums need to be taken in their entirety, and his post-Spiders From Mars stuff just doesn’t stand out as singles.
Box Set: The Talking Heads. Lots of good stuff spanning multiple albums, but each one can be appreciated on their merits as a single song.
Didn’t even know this was an old thread! I swear it was on the front page…very odd!
-Cem
Lots of love for this box…but how could such a massive, almost comprehensive set leave off “Good Times Bad Times”? Album one, song one, and easily one of the top 10 things the band ever recorded!