What should be on the new Smiths greatest hits CD?

[mspendl828]

The usual crap that's on every other best of album.

 

[Irryco]

Re: i started something i wish i hadn't....

I don't like Greatest hits compilation in genereral since they never give a fair view of a band, just the hits, and no depth at all. The best way to find a new band is just to buy their best CD, not some pointless compilation. You should buy The Queen is Dead if you want to find The Smiths, not this new compilation. But Ok, let's make a try just for fun:

1. Hand in Glove
2. Still Ill
3. Reel around the fountain
4. This Charming Man
5. Asleep
6. Panic
7. This night has opened my eyes
8. You just haven't earned it yet, baby
9. I want the one I can't have
10. Nowhere fast
11. How Soon is now
12. Never Had No one ever
13. Bigmouth Strikes Again
14. The Boy with the thorn in his side
15. There is a light that never goes out
16. I know it's over
17. Girlfriend in a coma
18. Stop me if you think you've heard this one before
19. I won't share you
20. Last night i dreamt that somebody loved me

(yeah, I know people will miss Ask but I've never been a fan of that song, besides, this is more of a my greatest hits than the actual one. : ) )

 

[Worm]

Re: i started something i wish i hadn't....

Such crushing negativity.

The point I was trying to make is that this comp is aimed at attracting a new generation of fans. We have to remember that somebody who is 18 in 2008 was born after they split up and was still only 11 when the last "new" Smiths best of came out in 2001 (the horrible Hawtrey affair). I was thinking that maybe this could be something like The Clash Story Of The Clash which came out in 1988 and got a new bunch of kids into The Clash. Well, I can dream...

All great bands are reissued/repackaged - look at Joy Division! - and it's something we - the old got-it-all-on-vinyl-so-what's-the-point curmudgeons - have to accept and we should only begrudge if it's done shoddily. The Hawtrey best of WAS shoddy (the sleevenotes even spelt Steven as Stephen for god's sake) and deserves to be lambasted. The 1995 Singles album was actually a worthwhile release (and the cover was even one Morrissey had picked out before) even if some of the tracks weren't single mixes.

Yes, we may not necessarily need this new Super Duper Greatest Hits of The Smiths (which may be a 7 inch single seeing as they only had two top 10 hits in their lifetime), but as long as it's done properly and respectfully then good luck to all those young fans yet to discover the best band in history whose minds may be blown by whatever it contains.

And if it does feature Hilda Baker on the cover, I'll be first to slit me wrists...

With all due respect I'm afraid I'm going to begrudge these new releases, shoddy or not. A teenager can walk into HMV and find "Best", "Singles" "Very Best", or any one of the three Morrissey-made compilations ("Hatful of Hollow", "The World Won't Listen", "Louder Than Bombs", any of which would be a better introduction to the band, if not exactly a "greatest hits"). I know that legal hassles have held up a boxed set along the lines of releases by The Clash or The Velvet Underground but it's also true that one would be hard to do anyway because with The Smiths there was no fat on the bone, so to speak-- nothing to anthologize. The fact that we are all breathlessly anticipating the release of a surefire dud like "Heavy Track" attests to the band's greatness, in my opinion; every release following "Rank" is superfluous. Anyone who wants to discover The Smiths can do so easily enough now.

Five years from now the lame, exploitative, posthumous collections will outnumber The Smiths' original releases, a fact which should depress anyone.

 

[the judge]

If it's called "greatest hits" rather than "best of" they'll have to just put singles on there surely? And seeing as we already have a singles collection, it seems a complete waste of time.

ditto.
The greatest hits should have the most successful songs, which are usually the singles. I'd include There Is A Light, I don't think it was a single, well, not in Britain. On the other hand I don't know the tracklists of the other compilations.
I thought the Very Best had a nice tracklist, I bought it for a friend when I'd just listened to half of their catalogue. (No, he didn't become a fan, he likes U2).