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Record shops are alive with the sound of cash registers ticking up sales of greatest-hits albums. Noel Mengel guides you through the Christmas shopping maze
IF YOU can't beat 'em, join 'em. For years I whinged about greatest-hits records -- that the songs never quite sound as good taken out of context from the original albums; that whoever compiles them always manages to leave out the one track you really wanted; that whoever sequences them always manages to sneak in all the later- career rubbish between your early favourites . . .
Then I had children and had to devote the space where all the records used to be stored to more pressing demands, such as a cupboard stuffed with cricket bats and rollerblades where my boxes of old 45s used to live.
And realised I really didn't want to pay for five different Procul Harum albums on CD (which I already had on vinyl) just to get hold of the five tracks I really wanted.
Then, the clincher.
You get a Walkman for the train ride to work and a CD player in the car and discover that greatest-hits albums can be pretty good value as well as saving on storage space.
At this time of year a lot of people seem to agree with me, since greatest-hits albums also make for a fairly painless choice for a Christmas present when most people don't have the time or energy to be trudging from store to store.
In recent years, the stream of compilation albums targeted at the Christmas market has become a flood.
This week, four of the albums in the Australian Top 10 are best- of compilations (from the Bee Gees, The Corrs, Madonna and Pink Floyd), another is a compilation of tracks for a film soundtrack (Shrek) and another is a compilation of Sinatra-style standards reworked for a younger audience (Robbie Williams' Swing When You're Winning).
There are hundreds more where they came from, not...