# What was the first single artist "greatest hits" album to contain an unreleased song? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 23, 2007, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-single-artist-greatest-hits-album-to-contain-an-unreleased-song/397162 "2007-03-23T13:19:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-single-artist-greatest-hits-album-to-contain-an-unreleased-song/397162/1 "2007-03-23T13:19:11Z")
That about sums it up. If not the earliest, what are some early examples? ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-single-artist-greatest-hits-album-to-contain-an-unreleased-song/397162/2 "2007-03-23T13:35:14Z")
Why? ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-single-artist-greatest-hits-album-to-contain-an-unreleased-song/397162/3 "2007-03-23T13:44:51Z")
[QUOTE=Walloon] Why? [/QUOTE] Are you serious? Why do I want to know? Do you need to have an approved reason to ask a question here? Who do I check with before posting a query? I find the idea fascinating and want to properly credit the genius who thought it up - is that okay? ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-single-artist-greatest-hits-album-to-contain-an-unreleased-song/397162/4 "2007-03-23T16:38:18Z")
Billy Joel’s Greatest Hits Vol. 1 & 2 had two previously unreleased songs on it. That was 1985, so now you have a benchmark to work back from. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-single-artist-greatest-hits-album-to-contain-an-unreleased-song/397162/5 "2007-03-23T16:54:10Z")
**A Collection of Beatles Oldies** , released in the UK in 1966, included “Bad Boy,” which had previously been released only in the USA. ---
**Author:** ![Ferd\_Burfel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecccb3/32.png) [@Ferd\_Burfel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferd_Burfel)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-single-artist-greatest-hits-album-to-contain-an-unreleased-song/397162/6 "2007-03-23T17:34:22Z")
Harry Chapin’s **Greatest Stories Live** , a double album released in 1976 had some studio recordings tacked onto the end. [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greatest_Stories_Live) only lists one, but I owned the album and distinctly remember 3 studio cuts on side 4. ---
**Author:** ![Small\_Clanger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@Small\_Clanger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Small_Clanger)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-single-artist-greatest-hits-album-to-contain-an-unreleased-song/397162/7 "2007-03-23T17:48:40Z")
I have a double LP set of **Steely Dan’s Greatest Hits** WTF _Hits?_ from 1979 which has a song _Here at the Western World_ which wasn’t on any of their previous albums - let alone being a hit. In one of his cyberpunk books (Idoru?) I’m pretty sure William Gibson names a weird nightclub after it. Do I get a cookie? ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-single-artist-greatest-hits-album-to-contain-an-unreleased-song/397162/8 "2007-03-23T18:15:55Z")
**Donovan’s Greatest Hits** (1969) included a different, longer edit of “Sunshine Superman” than any previously released version, plus newly recorded versions of two early songs (at the time Epic couldn’t get rights to release the original recordings; when the album was reissued on CD the original versions were substituted for the remakes). **Best of Procol Harum** (1973) included “Long Gone Geek,” not previously released in the U.S. (and released in Europe only as a B-side). Jethro Tull’s **Living in the Past** (1973) contained numerous rare and previously unreleased tracks, but wasn’t exactly a “greatest hits” album. **M.U.: The Best of Jethro Tull** (January 1976) included the previously unheard “Rainbow Blues.” ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-single-artist-greatest-hits-album-to-contain-an-unreleased-song/397162/9 "2007-03-23T19:03:57Z")
[QUOTE=Biffy the Elephant Shrew] **A Collection of Beatles Oldies** , released in the UK in 1966, included “Bad Boy,” which had previously been released only in the USA. [/QUOTE] The Stones’ _Big Hits: High Tide and Green Grass_, from early 1966, included “19th Nervous Breakdown”, which I think might have been released as a single at about the same time. The inside-album photos are from the recording session for the song. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-single-artist-greatest-hits-album-to-contain-an-unreleased-song/397162/10 "2007-03-23T19:11:52Z")
[QUOTE=JKellyMap] The Stones’ _Big Hits: High Tide and Green Grass_, from early 1966, included “19th Nervous Breakdown”, which I think might have been released as a single at about the same time. The inside-album photos are from the recording session for the song. [/QUOTE] Good one. The single had actually been out for a month or two before the LP, but I still think this counts, and it does predate my Beatles example. ---
**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:** [March 23, 2007, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-single-artist-greatest-hits-album-to-contain-an-unreleased-song/397162/11 "2007-03-23T19:41:58Z")
Would this one qualify? Elvis [For LP Fans Only](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/For_LP_Fans_Only), 1959, appears to be a compilation with additional unrealeased tracks. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-single-artist-greatest-hits-album-to-contain-an-unreleased-song/397162/12 "2007-03-23T19:54:57Z")
The previously-unreleased song “You Don’t Believe” first appeared on the Alan Parsons Project’s (first) Best-Of album, and then also appeared on their next album to be released (_Ammonia Avenue_). (which kind of thing is nice for hard-core fans because it means you don’t have to buy the best-of album just to get that one extra song) Daryl Hall & John Oates released a greatest hits compilation, _Rock 'n Soul Part 1_, with two new songs on it (“Say It Isn’t So” and “Adult Education”). I think both these examples were from 1983. ---
**Author:** ![blinkingblinking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea5d25/32.png) [@blinkingblinking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blinkingblinking)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-single-artist-greatest-hits-album-to-contain-an-unreleased-song/397162/13 "2007-03-23T22:40:03Z")
I think a better OP would be who was the first to release a Greatest Hits album with new unreleased songs that were then released as singles. This would disqualify some entries here. There are some notable examples of groups doing this with the embarassing result of the new singles not being big hits at all. Pet Shop Boys and Def Leppard Greatest Hits Cds spring to mind. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2007, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-first-single-artist-greatest-hits-album-to-contain-an-unreleased-song/397162/14 "2007-03-23T23:12:42Z")
[QUOTE=Wee Bairn] Are you serious? Why do I want to know? Do you need to have an approved reason to ask a question here? Who do I check with before posting a query? [/QUOTE] Yes, yes, no, nobody.