These days a hipster would never buy a greatest hits album, or at least admit to owning one. A hipster was into ‘your band’ way back when their only release was an EP and though only 100 copies were made, they claim to have it, too!

1. America - History (Greatest Hits)
2. The Hollies - Greatest
3. Steely Dan - A Decade Of
4. Creedance Clearwater Revival - Chronical
5. The Eagles - The Greatest Hits (1971-1975)
6. Steve Miller Band - Greatest Hits (1974-1978)
7. Fleetwood Mac - Greatest Hits
8. Elton John - Greatest Hits
9. Wings - Greatest
10. New Order - Best Of
11. Elvis Costello - The Very Best Of
12. Misfits - Collection I
13. Chuck Berry - The Best Of The Best Of

Got any recommendations?

In reality, now and then you discover some artist through their Greatest Hits album. The hipster believes that such an album is an artist’s way of fulfilling contractual demands and a money grab. While this might be true for many artists, some artists use this as a tool to reel-in new fans, who may have casually heard a few of their tracks over the years and are now inspired to buy the whole lot of ‘hits’. The casual listener is amazed that the artist has enough ‘hits’ in their repertoire to warrant an album of its own.

Music enthusiasts are also interested in the Greatest Hits album in order to learn more about or discover an artist that they’ve never given proper attention to, yet ‘heard about’. I fall into all the mentioned categories.

Here is my ongoing Greatest Hits list that enabled me to ‘get into’ an artist/band and hear what all the fuss was/is about. Many are from my youth, when I used to go through my parents’ music collection. While artists may have updated their Greatest Hits collections by adding more tunes (or volumes), or remastered them, these specific collections where the ones that pulled me in. More often than not, newer Greatest Hits compilations just don’t feel right, as I’ve learned a song order through continuous playing of the older compilation and prefer them to stay that way. These albums not only opened the door for me to dig further into the artist’s discography, but some of these classics truly opened the door for my musical appreciation.