Greatest hits
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For a list of albums known simply as "Greatest Hits", see Greatest Hits.
A greatest hits album (sometimes referred to as a "best of" album) is a compilation album of successful, previously released songs by a particular music artist or band. To increase the appeal of the album – especially to people who already own the previously released material – it is common to include remixes of popular songs or new material, with new songs often being released as singles (and themselves sometimes becoming successful).
Greatest hits albums are typically produced after an artist has had enough successful songs to fill out an album release. Some artists, such as Queen and Billy Joel, have released multiple greatest hits albums through their career. Some greatest hits albums are released only at the end of the artist or group's career, as was the Stone Temple Pilots' Thank You. They are aimed at fans who liked a few of their songs or singles, but not enough to buy an artist's entire catalog as well as potential new fans who want to sample the most famous work of an artist or group with just one purchase.
Similar to a "Greatest Hits" album is a "Best of". Though there is no requirement for songs included on a greatest hits record to be high-charting singles, the term "best of" is generally used when the songs were not literal hits. An example of this is John Prine's Prime Prine: The Best of John Prine. Occasionally, artists have both a "best of" and a greatest hits album with the greatest hits album limited to songs that made the single's chart while a Best of album is more oriented towards fan favorites and album tracks. For examples, The Beatles 1967-1970 is a "best of" album largely consisting of album tracks, whereas The Beatles' 1 is a greatest hits album based exclusively on chart positions. Other terms for "best of" albums include "classic" (Classic Queen) and "gold" (Glen Miller: Pure Gold), "essential" (The Essential Johnny Cash), and "ultimate collection".
Similar to a "best of" album is a definitive collection, which attempts to include every song by the artist or band that fans and music critics consider as worthy examples of their work. An anthology collection is similar to a definitive collection but usually applies to box sets of artist's or bands with a large body of work compiled over many years.
Johnny Mathis's Johnny's Greatest Hits (1958) is generally considered the first greatest-hits album. It sold well, remaining on the Billboard Top Albums Chart for a then record-breaking 490 continuous weeks.
In 2005, some greatest hits albums became ridiculed because many young "pre-mature" artists were releasing them. The likes of Hilary Duff, 'N Sync and Mandy Moore released greatest hits albums though they might have had only a handful of hit singles in their short careers. [1]. This is not, however, a new phenomenon: Kenny Rogers and The First Edition, for example, issued Greatest Hits in 1971, three years after their first top 40 pop hit. Ringo Starr issued his greatest hits album, Blast From Your Past, after a mere three solo albums in the 1970s, while Jason Donovan had a hits album out in 1991, only two years after he debuted, and despite only having 3 albums and 7 singles, Christina Milian released Best of Christina Milian in 2006.
Some bands refuse to release a greatest hits album, notably Radiohead and Metallica. The Manic Street Preachers initially refused to do a greatest hits, but in the end Forever Delayed was released. Also, the country music star Garth Brooks long opposed the release of a greatest hits collection, but agreed to it in the mid-90s but only for a limited time (his was quickly deleted, but not until selling well over ten million copies).
A recent trend is for television shows to release greatest hits DVDs as a way to get new viewers interested in the show. Two examples of this are the Family Guy's Freakin' Sweet Collection and South Park: The Hits. Games for Sony's PlayStation that have sold over a certain number, are rereleased under its "Greatest Hits" banner.
