On Wednesday, we posed you the question: What is the greatest "greatest hits" album of all time? And, like the troopers you are, you responded in droves to create Ultimate-Guitar’s top ten list of Greatest Hits albums. Your responses made reference to the good and the great... and for some reason Shaquille O'Neal...
Here is the full top ten list, along with the total number of votes for each entry:
10. Alice In Chains - "Music Bank"
9. Megadeth - "Greatest Hits: Back To The Start"
8. Pearl Jam - "Rearviewmirror"
7. Shaquille O'Neal - "The Best Of"
6. Bob Marley - "Legend"
5. The Beatles - "1"
4. Jimi Hendrix - "The Ultimate Experience"
3. Weird Al Yankovic - "The Essential Weird Al Yankovic"
2. Led Zeppelin - "Mothership"
1. Queen - "Greatest Hits"
It was the classic rock legends that dominated the list, with Queen’s "Greatest Hits" storming into the lead over Led Zeppelin’s "Mothership". "The Ultimate Experience" by Hendrix and "1" by The Beatles sat comfortably at 4 and, while grunge and metal made up the remainder with entries from Pearl Jam, Megadeth and Alice In Chains taking up slots 8,9 and 10.And, while we can’t fault the majority of your choices, oh faithful Ultimate-Guitar readers (even Weird Al we can see the merit in), we are slightly baffled by your insistence that Shaq’s Greatest Hits deserves slot number 7. We assume that the 51 users who voted for Shaq are also the only 51 people who have ever bought the album... Anyway, whether your voting for Shaq was ironic or not, we’re going to subject you to this video of him conducting the Boston Pops Orchestra... enjoy!
Thanks for voting guys. Don’t forget to check back next Wednesday for another question!
I think it's awesome not having a greatest hits because they only represent what was the most successful songs. Often a band's best songs are not the singles so the fact that the most successful metal band of all time hasn't put one out yet is awesome. Greatest hits albums are a way to grab money, and sadly some bands like Aerosmith for example keep putting out GH compilations one after the other.
But seriously, like I've said in the Wednesday Article with the question, I like the aforementioned bands (Hendrix especially), but come on, not EVERY list on the world needs to have the same bands over and over, it just becomes boring... open way for some new blood, dudes!
I know, but it's not the point I made. Let me give an example... Creedence Clearwater Revival. They have an immeasurable number of hits and classics, also quite a few Greatest Hits' albums, but they never seem to make it into any list... C'mon.
I think it's just the userbase really. Every week asking the same people what the greatest X is will most likely get very similar results in terms of bands.
Seeing as how they were at the top of the list from the beginning, they received much more attention, as everyone who wanted to comment or vote had to at least pass them by... not to mention the fact that they're both pretty goddamn good.
Agreed. I wish other athletes would realize you don't have to take yourself so goddamn seriously and be complete pricks to fill your hands up with championship rings
I tried to add Tom Petty's name into the mix on the initial article but theres was too many comments for it to get noticed. He was forced to write new a song for his greatest hits album but was strongly against it (believing it was cheating the fans to try and throw a song on a greatest hits album that wasn't a hit). That song however turned out to be "Last Dance with Mary Jane".
Hmm. I wonder what happened there UG?..... That said, I'm not a big fan of Echoes. Sure the music is good, but the songs just don't play right when they're plucked out of context from their respective albums. Thats just my humble opinion though
I can't say I'm a big of Beatles #1. There's too many Beatles songs that never reached the #1 position that are now considered timeless classics, and there's too many of their #1 hits that have since faded away somewhat. Still obviously a great album, but just not definitive enough for a list like this
The songs on it are great (they barely have a bad song), but it's just not a very good collection for anyone who's more than a casual fan, and it just seemed more like a record label cash-in sort of thing than anything else.
I would strongly encourage anyone with any interest in GN'R to pass on the Greatest Hits and pick up any one of their actual albums. I would also recommend that you save "The Spaghetti Incident?" for last. It's all covers anyway, but the quality of some of that album might turn some people off before they get a chance to hear the band at their best.
I love DT more than just about anyone on here but that was a terrible collection of songs for a greatest hits album. Not that they were terrible songs..just not the best.
Please shut up, you already made like 7 comments about how you dislike it, ok we got it dude, you don't like it. Why do you have to get so butthurt about the fact that many others like it a lot? I don't see a single bad song choice on the record.
The songs are all good, however it's a best-of compilation, and there are far better songs out there. Honestly I'm a huge megadeth fan but this album is just a cash-in..
Yeah, well that's just your opinion. Sure Bad Omen and The Conjuring are amazing songs, but no, I wouldn't call them better than Angry Again or Dread And Fugitive Mind, because I love these songs so much as well. You can't compare two awesome songs and simply say that the other one is better.
Don't you think it's a good thing that it has a little bit every album in it rather than just the first 4 albums? Back to the Start was a great way for me to get into Megadeth, because it was full of great songs, and it left so much more amazing songs to be discovered from the actual albums.
I have to admit it's a good way to get into the sound of megadeth, as the earlier stuff sounds way less polished and stuff. I was merely hoping for a few more classics a la Tornado of souls, etcetera. Guess it's just a matter of opinion, but still, imo they could have done better.
Was hoping to see Pantera (FBTGSCVH) and Black Sabbath (The Best of or Symptom of the Universe), I'm glad Mothership, The Ultimate Experience and Queen's Greatest Hits made it on though.
It's time for UG to actually come up with real topics for articles instead of lame reader voting crap. Obviously, no one is taking these seriously anymore. And why should they when UG is too lazy to actually write an article? Booooo!
I wouldn't expect bands too distant from the mainstream to be present on this list, however I have a few selections for greatest Greatest Hits albums
The first being The Best of Deep Purple. Considering the album encompasses the band's music from the late sixties until the mid '80s, this CD alone made me a Deep Purple Fan.
The second one I recommend is Dream Theater - Greatest Hit...And 21 Other Pretty Cool Songs. Dream Theater is technically a one hit wonder group, which made choosing the rest of their greatest hits on this double album a daunting task. One CD is comprised of the dark, heavy side of Dream Theater while the other CD is comprised of lighter music. It truly encompasses what a diverse group of musicians this band is made of.
The last compilation worth mentioning is The Best of The Allman Brothers Band. Just a great listen from start to finish.
As always, these lists are purely subjective and should be taken with a grain of salt.
The Eagles' "Greatest Hits" is TIED with Michael Jackson's "Thriller" as the top selling album in U.S. history (29 million copies) and is 7th worldwide with 42 million copies sold total ("Thriller" is #1 worldwide with estimates between 65 million and 110 million, #2 and #3 are Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" and AC/DC's "Back in Black" with 50 million copies each).
That being said, it is still the highest selling greatest hits album of all time worldwide... the next highest greatest hits album is actually the Beatles "1," which only sold 31 million copies.
311s greatest hits... They have a great deal of straight up MISSES on their LP's, it's nice of them to compile their best songs and cut out the poo for us.
Wow... Some of the albums shouldn't even be there... So what could've been better is if you did a top 10 for each GENRE... Then people who prefer different styles of music can also take part as well.
Just to put these out there:
Great White: Best Of Great White
Cinderella- Rocked Wired ans Bluesed
Iron Maiden- Edward The Great
Pantera: Reinventing Hell
Queen: Greatest Hits II (Better than GHI)
How can you have a greatest greatest hits album? A greatest hits album contains an artist's most popular songs to date, spanning their career. Often, people buy a greatest hits album as a starting point for an artist they want to check out. Really, by voting for your favourite selection of singles, you're just voting for your favourite artist.
Nice to see Alice in Chains though.