Content area
Full text
Rod Stewart, The Story So Far: The Very Best Of Warner Bros (out now) **** (RECOMMENDED)
Bee Gees, Their Greatest Hits: The Record Polydor (out now) ***** (EXCELLENT) Madonna, GHV2 Maverick (out now) **** (RECOMMENDED)
Greatest hits CDs are now as much a part of Christmas as turkey, tinsel and family tensions. And the trend is becoming more pronounced. According to the trade paper Music Week, there are twice as many 'high-profile greatesthits sets' being released this year as last.
Of course, it depends on just what you mean by high-profile.
Last year we had a compilation from The Beatles. This year we have Christopher Cross, Ricky Martin, Ocean Colour Scene, Ride, Green Day, Gene, Boyz II Men and Five. When it came to compiling some of those, there can't have been very much selection required.
But a few big names are in there too. We have had the first compilation from Pink Floyd, reviewed earlier this month, and now here are compilations from three of the most productive hit machines in history: Madonna, the Bee Gees and Rod Stewart.
All three have been this way before. When you have already released one Best Of, you can either move on to Volume Two or opt for a Very Best Of, rounding up the same old songs plus some more recent ones.
Madonna takes the Volume Two route, although she masks the fact by calling it GHV2, which makes...