Just the hits, ma'am.

[The Curmudgeon]

So I've been doing some casual Amazon music shopping over the last few weeks, and I always told myself I wouldn't become a "hits album" kind of listener, but I've found myself fitting increasingly into that mould. It's probably more to do with the iTunes/iPhone listening habits, where sometimes you just want the big songs you know.. you know?

There's a famous scene in British sitcom "I'm Alan Partridge", about a clueless, arrogant radio DJ, where he's talking to a younger guy about music and gets asked what his favourite Beatles album is. "Tough one. I would have to say.... the Best of the Beatles."

And it always gets a laugh because it's SUCH a philistine viewpoint to have. How can you render the entire musical output of a band like the Beatles to 12 hit singles?

But it's something I've found myself doing, not with the Beatles, with other bands, and I wonder if anyone else is the same, and are we missing out on key songs that you won't find on a hits record? Like, Prince's best of for example. I don't even know if my top five Prince songs are even singles. My favourite ever Bowie song won't be found on any Best Of either.

So what classic bands/artists are in your collection in Hits form only, and are we missing out here?

[trashcanman]

I've been leaning on Spotify to fix that. I never intend to just get the hits unless I'm just a casual admirer, but it's usually a decent jumping off point to familiarize yourself with the artist. But being broke most of the time, loving so many artists, and being hesitant to pirate makes hearing every song by every band I like unlikely. I used to only own Queen's hits albums, but spent a whole week on Spotify premium hearing every thing they ever recorded and it was awesome (except for Hot Space). Same with Johnny Cash, except I only binged his "American" albums, which were top to bottom amazing.


I've actually taken it upon myself to create definitive playlists for a lot of my favorite artists lately and it seems like you need at least three discs worth of well-chosen tracks to really capture the career of a truly great band. Anyways, Cheap Trick, The Clash, Black Sabbath, Metallica, and The Who are bands that come to mind where owning just a greatest hits album will give you almost no clue about why they are so great.

There is no metal fan that doesn't know every song on Metallica's first two albums (at least) by heart, and the non-radio tracks still make up a lot of their live setlists and get the most enthusiastic responses.

Sabbath usually released their simplest and dumbest songs in single form, but their albums are full of surprising, creative, and technical musical moments and lyrics that you would not expect if all you think of is "Sweet Leaf" or "Iron Man".

The breadth and width of the Clash's musical output cannot be captured in one CD. They evolved so much and experimented so much that they are quite possibly the most creative band that ever existed, or at least to become as famous as they were. If you think "Should I Stay or Should I Go" or "London Calling" is typical Clash, I pity you. Also, there was hardly even such a thing as "typical Clash". That band as always doing something new and unique.

The Who are arguably the best band ever, right up there with Zeppelin and the Beatles. You won't know why if you only listen to "My Generation", "Pinball Wizard" and "The Seeker". Their evolution during the '60s and '70s from basically pop ditties to insanely epic rock operas was just fucking incredible. And their playing was so anarchic and different there's no way that combination of people should have even been able to play together. But they did.

Cheap Trick were caught in that weird spot between underground sensation and aspiring pop stars, which makes some of their later albums uneven. Their first four were amazing, but after they found some success, the record labels had them changing what made them great chasing hits so lot of their lamer material ends up on their hits albums.

[The Curmudgeon]

Great examples. I too only really know Queen from their singles, but I bought a not-really-hits collection called "Queen Rocks", which was a collection of their harder rock songs, and it was a bunch of stuff I'd never heard before. Kicked my ass. Loved it. I don't have any other Queen album, I wouldn't know where to start for one, but they may well be a band I look into more.

Agree about the Clash. I don't have a lot of their albums (a Best Of and "London's Calling") but even going by their singles it's impossible to pigeon hole them into one sound or genre. Straight up pop like "Should I Stay" is nowhere near the powerfully defiant anti-war "The Call Up" and the really fucking grim "Know Your Rights" ("Murder is a crime, unless it's done by a policeman") and that's followed by "Hitsville USA", a fucking joyous bouncy ode to Motown. What a band.

The Who are, hands up admission, a band where I've only got the Hits. I think we've had this discussion where I was like "what the fuck is THAT song about?" and you kind of scolded me because it was from Tommy. Really, it had no business being on a Best Of. Part of a rock opera fair enough, but "See Me, Feel Me" sitting next to "Won't Get Fooled Again" and "Baba O' Reilly" just doesn't fucking work. Out of all the bands you've mentioned, I think the Who are the band I'd actually like to discover more of. In fact, I don't enjoy listening to their Best Of for that reason... it just feels like cheating.

[trashcanman]

Yeah, "See Me Feel Me" isn't even a song, really. It's a recurring theme from Tommy, and it makes sense in context with the story and themes of that album, but by itself it's just repetitive. There are loads of songs that make better standalones from that album.

As for Queen, you can't really go wrong aside from Hot Space, which was them trying to sound like the Beegees. Queen II is perhaps their best, but the production on it kind of irritates me at times. Sheer Heart Attack and News of the World are pretty amazing too. I'm not really sure how sharing Spotify playlists works, but here's a link to my Queen one if you want to see what a REAL "best of" sounds like.




[edit] Oh shit, it embeds it right here the thread? That is freakin' awesome.