# Second Album is their Greatest Hits? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** music\ **Created:** [May 21, 2026, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-album-is-their-greatest-hits/1030297 "2026-05-21T23:53:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2026, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-album-is-their-greatest-hits/1030297/1 "2026-05-21T23:53:33Z")
Back when Tim Curry was a kind-of in demand recording artist, he made two albums of original material–and then released a “Greatest Hits” album. I think Julie Brown did something similar, except all three of her albums had mostly the same six songs on them (One was her first album, the second was a movie soundtrack, and the third was “Greatest Hits.”) I think “Greatest Hits” albums are a contractual requirement after X number of years without new material, but I could be mistaken. Anyway, are there any examples of an artist whose second album was actually called “Greatest Hits”? ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2026, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-album-is-their-greatest-hits/1030297/2 "2026-05-22T00:37:44Z")
**Smash Hits** by the Jimi Hendrix Experience was released after two studio albums, in the UK. In the US it was after the third album. **Mass Slaughter: The Best of Slaughter** was released after their second album. Incidently, while looking up some bands I discovered that trivia that the first Greatest Hits album was **Johnny’s Greatest Hits** by Johnny Mathis, released in 1958. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2026, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-album-is-their-greatest-hits/1030297/3 "2026-05-22T01:11:49Z")
> [@Horatio\_Hellpop](#): > > I think “Greatest Hits” albums are a contractual requirement after X number of years without new material, but I could be mistaken. I’ve never heard of such a contract provision after 50 years of reading about rock, but there maybe could have been one. Hard to imagine that any record company would promise that to a new group, and any company resigning a known group would want new material and maybe not even have the rights to the older stuff. Much more usually, they are rushed in to cash in on sudden success, or fill in a gap in recording, or used to fulfill a commitment to a company the group wants to get away from. Way back in the 60s, greatest hits albums were done early in careers, because rock still focused on singles, so putting out a collection of hits just meant all the singles in one place. The Byrds did one after four albums and Buffalo Springfield after three. _So Far_ was the greatest hits album for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and released after their first two albums. Still went to #1. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2026, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-album-is-their-greatest-hits/1030297/4 "2026-05-22T01:26:38Z")
How about the **first** album? Take Mrs. MIller, for example. > **[Mrs. Miller](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mrs._Miller)** > > Elva Ruby Miller (October 5, 1907 – July 5, 1997) known professionally as Mrs. Miller, was an American singer who became a novelty figure in the 1960s for her unconventional interpretations of contemporary pop songs. An untrained mezzo-soprano, she performed with a pronounced vibrato and frequently deviated from standard pitch and tempo. > Miller's recording of "Downtown" entered the Billboard Hot 100 in April 1966, where it reached No. 82. Its B-side, "A Lover’s Concerto", also charted that month... Her first album was called _Mrs. Miller’s Greatest Hits_. There was also the punk band, The Cockney Rejects. > **[Cockney Rejects](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockney_Rejects)** > > Cockney Rejects are an English punk rock band that formed in the East End of London in 1978. Their 1980 song "Oi, Oi, Oi" was the inspiration for the name of the Oi! music genre. The band members are supporters of West Ham United, and pay tribute to the club with their hit cover version of "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles", a song traditionally sung by West Ham supporters. > Formed in East London in the late 1970s, the Cockney Rejects rejected the art-school punk scene, delivering a fiercely workin... Their first album was called _Greatest Hits Vol. 1_. Their second album was called _Greatest Hits Vol. II_. (Yes, they changed to a Roman numeral the second time.) Their third album was… Can you guess its name? It was called _The Power and the Glory_. They actually released 8 new albums after the first two that had more original names. To make things even more confusing, the same year they released _The Power and the Glory_, they also released an album called _Greatest Hits Vol. 3 (Live & Loud)_, which not only dropped the Roman numeral usage, but was an actual compilation album of previous hits. And they ended up releasing a total of 9 compilation albums, including at one point _Greatest Hits Volume 4: Here They Come Again_, 20 years after the release of their debut album. There was also an album called _The Best Of The Cockney Rejects_ at some point. I guess when you are a punk band, you don’t have to make sense and you can just call things whatever you want. (Also, the Cockney Rejects were a pretty influential band; their song “Oi, Oi, Oi” spawned an entire musical genre called simply, “Oi!”) It seems that it’s not really that odd for a debut album to be called “greatest hits” for a music act. There are some other examples I could dig up. The reason for this is that sometimes the debut album is a compilation of previously-released singles, so they really are hits already. ---
**Author:** ![Thing.Fish](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thing.fish/32/9168_2.png) [@Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thing.Fish)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2026, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-album-is-their-greatest-hits/1030297/5 "2026-05-22T02:07:44Z")
I recently read that Men At Work released three studio albums and eight greatest hits compilations (so far!) ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2026, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-album-is-their-greatest-hits/1030297/6 "2026-05-22T02:07:49Z")
[Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/exapno_mapcase) [Charter Member](https://boards.straightdope.com/g/Charter_Member) > I’ve never heard of such a contract provision after 50 years of reading about rock, but there maybe could have been one. Hard to imagine that any record company would promise that to a new group, and any company resigning a known group would want new material and maybe not even have the rights to the older stuff. Much more usually, they are rushed in to cash in on sudden success, or fill in a gap in recording, or used to fulfill a commitment to a company the group wants to get away from. I got this impression from reading about Michelle Shocked (I like her, but you don’t have to) putting out a greatest hits album called _Mercury Poise,_ a contractually obligated album she had to crank out to malicously comply with her contract with Mercury Records, which she was trying to separate from at the time. The goodbye album might not have had to be a GH, but that’s likely the fastest way to get past such an obligation. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2026, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-album-is-their-greatest-hits/1030297/7 "2026-05-22T02:16:10Z")
[Thing.Fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thing.fish) [2m](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-album-is-their-greatest-hits/1030297/5) > I recently read that Men At Work released three studio albums and eight greatest hits compilations (so far!) I think it’s more like three studio albums, three compilations, three live albums, and three EPs, but yeah, that’s excessive! ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2026, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-album-is-their-greatest-hits/1030297/8 "2026-05-22T10:28:15Z")
> [@Atamasama](#): > > Their first album was called _Greatest Hits Vol. 1_. The German punk/new wave band Extrabreit pulled a similar stunt and called their first album “Ihre größten Erfolge” (Their Greatest Successes), being totally unknown and never having had a hit. Ironically, it became a big hit. ---
**Author:** ![Jaycat.again](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat.again/32/11525_2.png) [@Jaycat.again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaycat.again)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2026, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-album-is-their-greatest-hits/1030297/9 "2026-05-22T12:11:57Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > The Byrds did one after four albums and Buffalo Springfield after three. Buffalo Springfield only made three albums before disbanding. So that would have been the time. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2026, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-album-is-their-greatest-hits/1030297/10 "2026-05-22T12:12:59Z")
The band that immediately came to my mind was Edison Lighthouse of “Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes)” fame. In an age of singles, they released one studio album in 1971, one in 1977, and then 11 “compilation albums.” There was also a “live” album released in 2003. To the best of my research, they released 8 singles in total, but only 2 of them made the charts at all. There are 14 albums based on one lonely top-40 single. A lot is explained by Tony Burrows’ involvement. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2026, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-album-is-their-greatest-hits/1030297/11 "2026-05-22T12:26:32Z")
Are you not describing the third album being a greatest hits album, not the second? Because presumably a greatest hits album as a second album would just be a repeat of the first album, or a reduced version. At least the third album can combine the most popular songs from the first two. ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2026, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-album-is-their-greatest-hits/1030297/12 "2026-05-22T12:30:48Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > Because presumably a greatest hits album as a second album would just be a repeat of the first album, or a reduced version. At least the third album can combine the most popular songs from the first two. There are cases when a band releases non-album singles before and during they release their first album, and those singles with the outstanding tracks from the debut album land on a Greatest Hits album. Sorry, I can’t come up with an example, but I’m sure there are some. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2026, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-album-is-their-greatest-hits/1030297/13 "2026-05-22T13:35:46Z")
I did a bit more research. Their second album, titled _Love Grows_ (1977), “is a reissued compilation album/EP distributed on the SMA label in the UK.” While it’s not titled “Greatest Hits,” it appears to have no new tracks that weren’t on the first album or released as singles. Therefore, I think it qualifies under the OP. All the remaining albums were issued at least 15 years later. Their debut album (1971), was titled “Already.” This almost suggests that it was intended to be a collection of their hit singles to date. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2026, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-album-is-their-greatest-hits/1030297/14 "2026-05-22T13:48:43Z")
Darn! Looks like at least two tracks on _Love Grows_ were not previously released as singles or included on their first album. ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2026, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-album-is-their-greatest-hits/1030297/15 "2026-05-22T13:52:54Z")
If you only count LPs and not EPs, [Bow Wow Wow](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bow_Wow_Wow#Discography) released a greatest hits in between their first and second LPs. "_I Want Candy_ Following the success of the “I Want Candy” [music video](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_video "Music video") on [MTV](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MTV "MTV"), RCA compiled an album, _[I Want Candy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Want_Candy_(album) "I Want Candy (album)")_, to capitalize on their newfound American audience. Once again, the cover photo (by Jim Varriale) featured a nude Lwin painted entirely in gold. Side one of _I Want Candy_ contained all four tracks from _The Last of the Mohicans_ and “Baby, Oh No”. Side two consisted of four tracks from _See Jungle! See Jungle! Go Join Your Gang, Yeah. City All Over! Go Ape Crazy!_ and “El Boss Dicho”, the [B-side](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B-side "B-side") to “Go Wild in the Country”. The album peaked at No. 123 on the _[Billboard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_200 "Billboard 200")_[200](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_200 "Billboard 200"). Meanwhile, EMI reissued all their recordings under the same title _I Want Candy_. The EMI album matched \*See Jungle’\*s position of number 26 on the UK album charts. It was released in North America as _Twelve Original Recordings_ and elsewhere as _Original Recordings_." ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2026, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-album-is-their-greatest-hits/1030297/16 "2026-05-22T14:03:32Z")
As an aside to the OP, how many “Greatest Hits” albums do the Stones have? 15? 🙂 A lot. And what do you do in cases where the artist’s legitimate Greatest hits album is their best overall album? Like the Eagles, or the Doobie Brothers? ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2026, 2:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-album-is-their-greatest-hits/1030297/17 "2026-05-22T14:14:00Z")
Don’t forget Pete Best’s first album, **Best of the Beatles** 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2026, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-album-is-their-greatest-hits/1030297/18 "2026-05-22T14:42:09Z")
> [@ZonexandScout](#): > > Darn! Looks like at least two tracks on _Love Grows_ were not previously released as singles or included on their first album. The very first greatest hits album (Johnny’s Greatest Hits - 1958) included a previously unreleased track, so that shouldn’t be a blocker. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2026, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-album-is-their-greatest-hits/1030297/19 "2026-05-22T14:48:43Z")
Thank you, **Telemark**. I was trying to decide how to properly express my shame. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 22, 2026, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-album-is-their-greatest-hits/1030297/20 "2026-05-22T16:09:12Z")
Look at band’s discographies on Wikipedia if you want to see corporate exploitation at its finest. The Stones list 28 compilation albums, a group that includes some UK or US only releases, rarities, b-sides and other non-hit stuff. The Beatles have 50, with many more individual country releases, and that doesn’t include five from their pre-fame work. Every other major performer or group shows the same pattern. Paul Simon once wrote “every generation throws a hero up the pop charts”, but record companies know that every generation wants to buy older heroes as they get introduced to them. A never-ending double/triple/extuple dipping into the pool of money. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/second-album-is-their-greatest-hits/1030297.md?page=2)