Best-Of or Worst-Of Albums?
November 8, 2007 by Jo Minor · Leave a Comment
As we all know by now, best-of albums are marketing gimmicks by record companies to milk more money from the cash cows - music fans like you and me. Sadly, some bands know this and irresponsibly keep churning out best-of albums. I mean, come on?how many great songs does one band have?
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Sure, bands like U2 and Aerosmith have their share of larger-than-life tunes, but think about it: U2 has released ?The Best of 1980-1990? in 1998, and followed up with ?The Best of 1990-2000? in 2002. In 2006 they released ?U218 Singles?. Aerosmith released ?Devil?s Got A New Disguise: The Very Best of Aerosmith? last year - their 8th compilation album in their 27-year career. Are these releases necessary? Any true fan of these bands would already have all the songs in the collection!
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Some best-of albums, however, create magic.
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The Eagles? ?Their Greatest Hits (1971-1975) became the best selling album of all time in the United States. The same success goes to Bob Marley?s ?Legend?, which is a bona fide sensation. At one point, it spend 106 straight weeks atop the Nielsen SoundScan catalogue chart - a tremendous feat by any measure.
