Note: Don’t get too hung up on the “Greatest Hits” side of things-this thread can refer to any compilation for a given artist no matter what the title is. The idea being that in crafting said compilation, they (those responsible for making the choices) left off stuff that you consider essential.
As an occasional aficionado of 80’s postpunk/neopsych/new wave, consider the Greatest Hits of the Cure. Somehow this is lacking “Charlotte Sometimes”, along with “The Hanging Garden” and several other things. Likewise Siouxsie and the Banshees’ The Best of, which is missing “Swimming Horses” while taking time to include a bunch of other less essential cuts.
The band/artist probably changed record labels at some point, and the OLD label won’t allow the new label to use older recordings they hold rights to…
That explains why, for example, Styx’s greatest hits album didn’t include their first big hit, “Lady.” That song was recorded on the Wooden Nickel record label. Wooden Nickel was still miffed at the band for leaving. Hence, they balked when Styx asked them, “Could we include that track on our greatest hits album… which we’re going to release on A & M?”
Older labels often refuse such requests, or ask for more money than the new label is willing to pay. If that happens, a band or artist may record a new version (often a live version) and put THAT on the Greatest Hits album. Neil Diamond’s Greatest Hits collection on the Columbia label included live renditions of several songs he’d originally recorded for Bang or Uni labels.
Billy Joel’s “Greatest Hits Volumes 1 & 2” lacked different examples of his best-loved songs depending upon what format you bought it in. IIRC, the CD has songs the LP and cassette don’t have, the LP has songs the CD & cassette don’t have, and the cassette has songs the CD and LP don’t have.
I’ve been a little pissed at Joel ever since, to be honest.
Postscript: even if an artist DOESN’T change record labels, he may occasionally be asked to do a song for a movie soundtrack. If he does, that soundtrack MAY be released on another record label.
Example? Bob Seger recorded most of his albums for Capitol, but he sang “Shakedown” for the sountrack of ***Beverly Hills Cop 2 ***, and that soundtrack was released on MCA.
“Shakedown” was Seger’s biggest hit by far! It was the only #1 single of his long, successful career. But…
His record label didn’t have rights to the song, and
Seger didn’t really like the song in the first place- he didn’t write it, and didn’t really think it reflected his style. He only recorded it because he was offered a lot of money after Glenn Frey (who was SUPPOSED to sing it) got sick.
So, for his first greatest hits album, Seger didn’t even TRY to get permission to include “Shakedown.”
That actually makes a lot of sense to me: Glenn Frey had a big hit with a previous BHC soundtrack song, and the song does sound much more like his style. Thanks for that bit of trivia.
One of the most curious examples was 10,000 Maniacs’ “best of” collection Campfire Songs: Popular, Rare & Obscure Recordings which as the title suggests was an overview of not just popular hits, but some fan favorites, B-sides, demos & out-takes. What is odd is that “Campfire Songs” is actually the name of one of the bands’ songs - a popular hit that they did in concert quite a lot. Yet, for some reason, even though they named the whole package after the song, it wasn’t included!
The Essential Billy Joel appropriates the “essential” title while somehow excluding “Angry Young Man”, “Scenes from an Italian Restaurant”, and “Big Shot” (later alleviated by the addition of a third disc for v 3.0 which includes those and a few more, but still excludes “The Ballad of Billy the Kid”).
Doesn’t look like any of the Bob Seger collections include “Feel Like a Number”, which I always thought was one of the better songs on the already-strong Stranger in Town.
Lynyrd Skynyrd had a couple of collections with odd omissions: Gold & Platinum has “Tuesday’s Gone”, “On the Hunt”, “Whiskey Rock-a-Roller”, “I Know A Little”, and “Down South Jukin’”, but does not have “Gimme Three Steps” (the studio version), “The Ballad Of Curtis Loew”, “Call Me The Breeze”, or “Swamp Music”, all of which appear on All-Time Greatest Hits, a very good collection that is nevertheless missing the aforementioned Gold & Platinum tracks.
This is one of the things I love about the advent of digital music – you can easily compile your own best-of collections and even rearrange tracks and create new “albums” of your own making using the released collections as starting points. For instance, Pat Benatar’s first four alblums, (In the Heat of the Night, Crimes of Passion, Precious Time, and Get Nervous) are masterpieces of 80’s Pop/Rock, but following the Live from Earth set, her music just didn’t seem as consistently good. At some point I had picked up the '94 Greatest Hits collection, but also picked up the remasters of those first four albums. So when I ripped the Greatest Hits disc, I only needed the last eight tracks representing 1983 through 1988 (stuff like “Love is a Battlefield” and “Invincible”), which I renumbered 1 through 8 and retitled Latter Days. I have similarly re-jiggered both the Joel and Skynyrd collections in my iTunes library.
The Cure: Mixed Up was a great remix album of a lot of the Cure’s stuff. One of the better songs on it was a remix of the hit “Why Can’t I Be You?”.
I had the cassette and wore it out. When it was released on CD they cut this song off the album for what reason I have no idea.
Van Halen: Van Halen had the unseperatable tracks Eruption and You Really Got Me. These tracks had to be played together as Eruption was practically a solo intro for You Really Got Me. Even radio stations played them back-to-back 90% of the time. When the released the Greatest Hits Vol.1 they kept Eruption but dropped YRGM. Dumb.
But later when they released the greatest hit album Best Of Both Worlds they kept both of the songs but now they were seperated by several tracks:smack:
“Bohemian Rhapsody” is on Queen’s Greatest Hits (1981), but does not appear Greatest Hits (1991) due to Elektra owning the right to the previous material.
Eddie Money’s The Sound of Money(1989) does not include “The Big Crash”
I had the “original” Greatest Hits on cassette (released on Elektra in around 1981, IIRC), and it had a much more sensible track selection, including BR.
I remember being livid that the CD release of Come Dancing With the Kinks leaves out “Catch Me Now I’m Falling,” “Misfits,” and “Sleepwalker” apparently so that the entire album could fit on one 80-minute disc.
If there’s one Bob Seger song I would be interested in owning, it would be his 1969 hit “Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Man.” (Which, coincidentally, was alluded to in the Pit this morning.) I see by the list you linked to that it was finally included on his most recent compilation, in 2011. About time.
At one point in time Queen released Greatest Hits and Classic Queen at the same time. BR was on Classic. I think they’ve since put both disks together to make Greatest Hits I-II.
I don’t have the LP but can confirm that the CD has tracks that are not present on the cassette.
CD 1: Cassette, Side 1:
Piano Man Piano Man
Captain Jack Say Goodbye to Hollywood
The Entertainer New York State of Mind
Say Goodbye to Hollywood The Stranger
New York State of Mind Just the Way You Are
The Stranger Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)
Scenes From an Italian Restaurant Only the Good Die Young
Just the Way You Are She's Always a Woman to Me
Movin' Out (Anthony's Song) My Life
Only the Good Die Young Big Shot
She's Always a Woman to Me
CD 2: Cassette, Side 2:
My Life You May Be Right
Big Shot It's Still Rock and Roll to Me
You May Be Right Don't Ask Me Why
It's Still Rock and Roll to Me Pressure
Don't Ask Me Why Allentown
She's Got a Way (live) Goodnight Saigon
Pressure Tell Her About It
Allentown Uptown Girl
Goodnight Saigon The Longest Time
Tell Her About It You're Only Human (Second Wind)
Uptown Girl The Night Is Still Young
The Longest Time
You're Only Human (Second Wind)
The Night Is Still Young