If You’re Only Going to Buy One Greatest Hits Set From… The Temptations

This is why you need me around.  There are so many choices, it’s hard to make a good call.

The Temptations have been recording, in one form or another, since 1960, with their most recent album coming out in 2010.  They started out by combining two different Detroit groups – Paul Williams and Eddie Kendricks came from The Primes, and Otis Williams, Elbridge Bryant, and Melvin Franklin were part of The Distants.

Since then, the shuffle among group members has been endless (Otis Williams is the only surviving member of those original five), but they’re still hitting the boards (and they ain’t cheap – they’re playing here in Naperville next May, with tickets starting at $145; The Temptations Review, with former lead singer Dennis Edwards and Paul Williams’ son as the leads, also tour).  That’s a lot of money to shell out, but given Otis Williams turns 74 years old today (happy birthday, Otis!) and may call it a day soon (the youngest of the current group, Bruce Williamson, is 45), it may be now or never.

Anyway, the good news is all but two of their studio albums are now under the Universal Music Group umbrella (and there’s nothing you’ve ever heard of on the other two), the bad news is it’s real easy to get something mediocre without looking a bit.  There are also some no-name labels selling best-ofs as well (which sound a lot like the originals – it may be Dennis Edwards’ Temptations Review); my rule of thumb is if the cover looks like it was created in Microsoft Word and the label isn’t Motown, Gordy, or Universal, leave it alone.  (After having written this, even I was surprised by one of the options – read on.)
The Temptations have had 60 songs over the years that have made either top 40 pop or top 20 R&B, so there’s a lot of ground to cover.  Accordingly, I’m going to… have to recommend a two-disk set.

Anthology: The Best of The Temptations

It’s fairly complete – covering the period between the group’s first big hit (1964’s “The Way You Do the Things You Do”) and their last pop top 10 (1973’s “Masterpiece”), only four of those 60 songs are left out – the oddball "Ungena Za Ulimwengu (Unite The World)" (producer Norman Whitfield’s reach exceeded his grasp on that one), the meh 1972 song “Take a Look Around,” and two lesser collaborations with Diana Ross & The Supremes, “I’ll Try Something New” and “The Weight.”   Other than that, all of their hits from that era are here, along with, strangely, a few non-hits and the occasional unreleased song to reel in collectors (“Lullaby of Love”).

Motown has released three different albums under this name for The Temptations – one in the 1970s (vinyl only, which is the version I own), one on CD in the 1980s, and a third one on CD in 1995, which is the one you want.  With 46 songs clocking in at over two and a half hours, the CDs are both pretty much filled to the 80-minute limit.

Another couple of oddities for those buying on Amazon – the list price for the CDs is $12.52 (which makes me think they may be running out shortly), and the download is $18.99.  The CD listing only lists the first disk, but make no mistake – this is a two-disk set.  I would order the CD, which I’m sure comes with liner notes – and it’s six dollars less anyway.

Other options, with Wikipedia links included when available:

• The Temptations’ Greatest Hits (1966) – their first hits set, covering the early hits produced by Smokey Robinson and a few by Norman Whitfield.  Out of print and not available for download, but it was issued on CD at one point.  “Beauty Is Only Skin Deep” was first issued on album here; it wasn’t available on any studio albums.
• The Temptations’ Greatest Hits II (1970) – more of the same, and again was only CD for a short time.  “Ball of Confusion” is the non-studio album track here.  There was a Volume 3 issued, but I’ve never seen it in stores, so I think it might have been for foreign markets only.
• All the Million Sellers (1981) – a 10-track set that may have served a purpose when it was first released in 1981, but certainly doesn’t now – but apparently somebody at Universal thinks so, because it’s available for download.  For $9.49, there are much better options.
• Songs That Inspired The Motown 25^th Anniversary Television Special (1983) – one of a bunch of albums issued in the wake of the classic 1983 NBC TV show (more famous for what it didn’t show; Diana Ross apparently had a mini-freakout on stage).  Again, a mix of stuff, and it doesn’t seem to be available now.
• 25^th Anniversary (1986) – I have this one on vinyl.  22 tracks that probably fit on one CD but required two vinyl disks; most of the hits plus some rarities and nonhits.  Not bad; not necessary if you’ve already got Anthology.  Later issues of the CD may have had a few less songs.  Out of print and unavailable for download.
• Compact Command Performances: 17 Greatest Hits (1990) – at least this has 17 songs, but they could have done better.  Out of print and unavailable for download.
• Motown Legends: The Temptations (1991) – another series Motown did for its heritage acts; at least these had bargain prices.  It looks like there were three volumes in all, hits and a few oddities on each.  All out of print and unavailable for download, but you might see them on remainder tables.
• Hum Along and Dance: More of the Best 1963-1974 (1993) – somebody at Motown/MCA must have fallen asleep at the switch, because this is inexplicably a Rhino release (Rhino is technically part of Warner Brothers, although they pick up reissues from almost everybody).  It’s pretty much singles and some other major tracks from this era that didn’t make Anthology – the aforementioned "Ungena Za Ulimwengu (Unite The World)" and “Take a Look Around” are both here; 18 tracks in all.  Out of print and unavailable for download, but I’d snap it up if I saw it cheap.  MCA/Universal eventually started their own backlist rerelease label, Hip-O (get it?) to avoid letting Rhino get their mitts on the classics.
• Emperors of Soul (1994) – Holy mackerel:  110 songs spread out over five disks; I think this is Motown’s largest hits set dedicated to a single act.  Every hit is here if I’m not mistaken (although casual listeners won’t recognize much of the last two disks).  It comes with a lengthy book/discography (which fell apart on me after repeated use, so be careful).  If you’re a big fan, you won’t need anything else, but at $45.62 (not available for download), you’d better know what you’re getting into.  (I got mine for considerably less – RIP, BMG Music Service.)
• One by One: The Best of Their Solo Years (1995) – This doesn’t really belong here; it’s a two-disk set of solo tracks from David Ruffin, Eddie Kendricks, Dennis Edwards, and Paul Williams.  Dominated by Ruffin and Kendricks (Edwards only made two solo albums for the label and cut a handful of songs before he joined The Temptations in 1968; Williams only recorded two songs after leaving the group in 1971 for health reasons – he committed suicide in 1973), it’s a fascinating look at what happened to the primary members of the group before and after their tenure there.  (Only Edwards is around today; he had three tours of duty with the band, but he’s been out for good since 1989.)  Out of print and unavailable for download, but worth finding.
• The Ultimate Collection (1997) – a pretty good one-disk choice at $8.39, although $11.49 for the download is a little high.  21 songs, just four from after “Papa Was a Rollin’ Stone” (their last #1 pop hit).  Still available.
• 20^th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection, Volumes 1 and 2 (2000) – I hate these things.  11 songs on each; five bucks for the disk or $5.99 for the download; and as at least one reviewer on Amazon points out, they could have easily fit all 22 songs on one disk.  Only buy either one at a truck stop if you’re desperate.
• The Universal Masters Collection (2000) – another one released after UMG got ahold of a bunch of catalogues.  Okay at 16 songs, but there are better choices.  Out of print and unavailable for download.
• My Girl: The Very Best of The Temptations (rereleased in 2005 as The Temptations: Gold) (2002) – another two-disk set.  This barely missed out on my pick, mostly because it’s super cheap ($15.49 for the download, and an astonishing $7.39 for the CD – I wonder if Amazon is trying to clear this out).  It is missing some prime stuff, however, with over 2/3 of the second disk taken up by post-“Papa” songs, some of which weren’t hits at all.  I’d taken this over most of the one-disk options if you’re buying the CD, but not Anthology – 10 less songs, and the first disk runs less than an hour.
• Psychedelic Soul (2003) – this only focuses on songs released between 1968 and 1974, and skips “Just My Imagination” and the Supremes collaborations.  Worth getting if you can find it cheap, as I did (RIP, BMG Music Service), but since virtually all of the albums from that era are in print and are available for download, that might be the better bet.
•  Joined Together: Diana Ross and The Supremes and The Temptations (2004) – like Psychedelic Soul, this focuses on a specific era.  It’s basically everything from two studio albums the two groups did together (Diana Ross and The Supremes Join The Temptations, and Together) with a couple of outtakes for collector interest.  (They also did a TV special soundtrack, TCB, which is not included here.)  Interesting notes; there’s not a single picture in the studio of Diana with anyone else, which makes me think she recorded her parts separately.  $16.99 for the disk, $17.99 for the download, and probably not worth it at those prices, unless you can get it cheap like I did (RIP, BMG Music Service) – but in this case those two group albums are, in fact, out of print.
• Love Songs (2004) – I hate these things; most of their songs were love songs anyway (excluding the psychedelic era, I suppose).  Available both for purchase and download, 14 songs. 
• The Definitive Collection (2008) – pretty solid one-disk set, but at 18 songs, they’re not cramming up the disk.  $7.39 for the disk, $9.49 for the download.
• Number 1s (2009) – 20 songs, most of the same as The Definitive Collection.  $9.49 for the download, $8.49 for the disk – maybe the die-cut cover explains the extra buck.
•  Icon: The Temptations (2010) – another UMG ripoff.  24 songs on two disks (it probably just missed fitting onto one – remember, most AM hits before 1970 were somewhere around 2-1/2 minutes long), for $13.00, and no download option.  Avoid.
• 50th Anniversary: The Singles Collection 1961-1971 (2011) – well, this is different.  Every single they made for Motown in their first 10 years on the label, both A and B sides.  A couple of rarities (“My Girl” in German and Italian), and a this-doesn’t-belong-here (“Power,” a 1980 near-miss single, in a couple of remixed versions).  At three disks and $50.98 ($42.99 for the download), I think it’s only for obsessives.

David Ruffin and Eddie Kendricks do have solo greatest hits sets in print (the others do not); if you can’t find One on One as mentioned above, here are the options.

• Kendricks has the 16-song Definitive Collection ($9.49 for the download, $7.99 for the CD) and his own 12-song 20^th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection ($5.99 for the download, $4.99 for the CD).  Since Kendricks only really had two major solo hits (“Keep On Truckin’” and “Boogie Down”), it might be tempting to go with the cheaper option, especially since it contains the live medley of “The Way You Do the Things You Do” and “My Girl” Kendricks and Ruffin did with Daryl Hall and John Oates in 1985.  Definitive Collection, however, does include a gorgeous song Kendricks sang in his natural tenor voice (as opposed to his standard falsetto), “This Used to Be the Home of Johnnie Mae.”  There are also some every-album-crammed-into-one-set versions of every one of his eight Motown albums available, with the first volume a bargain (three albums on two disks, $14.99) and the second one not so much (five albums on three disks, $41.99).
• Ruffin’s also got his own Definitive Collection and 20^th Century Masters options, and the latter also has the Hall & Oates medley.  But Ruffin’s Definitive Collection is 20 songs instead of 16 and costs $6.99 instead of $9.49, so that’s probably the better bet – even though I’m pretty sure Ruffin didn’t have 20 chart hits in his solo career.  (They also could have tossed in “Stand by Me,” from his duet album with brother Jimmy, which was a hit.)  Also, David Ruffin at His Best (which couldn’t have been often enough for the band; Ruffin was notoriously a pain in the rear because of ego and drug problems) is around for $5.99, but with 10 songs, four of which were Temptations songs, it’s not worth the effort.  Ruffin also has the same every-album-crammed-into-set releases like Kendrick, but the first one isn’t available for download and costs $50.99 for the disks, while the second one is over 30 dollars for the download and 100 dollars for the disk – and they aren’t even that good.

For reference, here are the groups pop and R&B hits – and what’s represented on Number 1s and Anthology.

Year	Song Title	Lead Singer(s)	Pop Chart Peak	R&B Chart Peak	Number 1s	Anthology: The Best of The Temptations
1964	The Way You Do the Things You Do	Eddie Kendricks	11	1*	Yes	Yes
1964	I'll Be in Trouble	Eddie Kendricks	33	22*		Yes
1964	The Girl's Alright with Me	Eddie Kendricks	102	39*		Yes
1964	Girl (Why You Wanna Make Me Blue)	Eddie Kendricks	26	11*		Yes
1964	My Girl	David Ruffin	1	1	Yes	Yes
1965	It's Growing	David Ruffin	18	3		Yes
1965	You'll Lose a Precious Love	David Ruffin, Melvin Franklin	-	-		Yes
1965	What Love Has Joined Together	Eddie Kendricks	-	-		Yes
1965	Who's Lovin' You	David Ruffin	-	-		Yes
1965	Since I Lost My Baby	David Ruffin	17	4		Yes
1965	You've Got to Earn It	Eddie Kendricks	-	-		Yes
1965	Nobody But You	Eddie Kendricks	-	-		Yes
1965	My Baby	David Ruffin	13	4		Yes
1965	Don’t Look Back	Paul Williams	83	15		Yes
1966	Get Ready	Eddie Kendricks	29	1	Yes	Yes
1966	Ain't Too Proud to Beg	David Ruffin	13	1	Yes	Yes
1966	Beauty Is Only Skin Deep	David Ruffin	3	1	Yes	Yes
1966	(I Know) I'm Losing You	David Ruffin	8	1	Yes	Yes
1967	Ol' Man River	Melvin Franklin	-	-		Yes
1967	The Impossible Dream	David Ruffin	-	-		Yes
1967	Lullaby of Love	Eddie Kendricks	-	-		Yes
1967	All I Need	David Ruffin	8	2		Yes
1967	You're My Everything /	Eddie Kendricks and David Ruffin	6	3	Yes	Yes
1967	(Loneliness Made Me Realize) It's You That I Need	David Ruffin, Paul Williams, Otis Williams, Melvin Franklin, Eddie Kendricks	14	3		Yes
1968	I Wish It Would Rain	David Ruffin	4	1	Yes	Yes
1968	I Could Never Love Another (After Loving You)	David Ruffin	13	1	Yes	Yes
1968	Please Return Your Love To Me	Eddie Kendricks	26	4		Yes
1968	Cloud Nine	Dennis Edwards, Paul Williams, Eddie Kendricks, Otis Williams, and Melvin Franklin	6	2		Yes
1969	I'm Gonna Make You Love Me (with Diana Ross and The Supremes)	Diana Ross and Eddie Kendricks (spoken interlude by Otis Williams)	2	2	Yes	Yes
1969	Runaway Child, Running Wild	Dennis Edwards, Paul Williams, Eddie Kendricks, Otis Williams, and Melvin Franklin	6	1	Yes	Yes
1969	I'll Try Something New (with Diana Ross and The Supremes)	Diana Ross and Eddie Kendricks	25	8
1969	Don't Let The Joneses Get You Down	Dennis Edwards, Paul Williams, Eddie Kendricks, Otis Williams, and Melvin Franklin	20	2		Yes
1969	I Can't Get Next to You	Dennis Edwards, Paul Williams, Eddie Kendricks, Otis Williams, and Melvin Franklin	1	1	Yes	Yes
1969	The Weight (with Diana Ross and The Supremes)	Diana Ross, Eddie Kendricks, and Paul Williams	46	4
1970	Psychedelic Shack	Dennis Edwards, Paul Williams, Eddie Kendricks, Otis Williams, and Melvin Franklin	7	2		Yes
1970	Ball of Confusion (That's What the World Is Today)	Dennis Edwards, Paul Williams, Eddie Kendricks, and Melvin Franklin	3	2	Yes	Yes
1970	Ungena Za Ulimwengu (Unite The World)	Dennis Edwards	33	8
1971	Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)	Eddie Kendricks and Paul Williams	1	1	Yes	Yes
1971	Superstar (Remember How You Got Where You Are)	Dennis Edwards, Richard Street, Damon Harris, Otis Williams, and Melvin Franklin	18	8		Yes
1972	Take a Look Around	Dennis Edwards, Richard Street, Damon Harris, and Otis Williams	30	10
1972	Papa Was a Rollin' Stone	Dennis Edwards, Richard Street, Damon Harris, and Melvin Franklin	1	5	Yes	Yes
1973	Masterpiece	Dennis Edwards, Richard Street, Damon Harris, and Melvin Franklin (spoken introduction by Otis Williams)	7	1	Yes	Yes
1973	Plastic Man	Dennis Edwards, Richard Street, Damon Harris, and Melvin Franklin	40	8
1973	Hey Girl (I Like Your Style)	Richard Street	35	2		Yes
1973	Let Your Hair Down	Dennis Edwards	27	1	Yes	Yes
1974	Heavenly	Richard Street and Damon Harris	43	8
1974	You've Got My Soul on Fire	Dennis Edwards	74	8
1974	Happy People	Dennis Edwards and Melvin Franklin	40	1	Yes
1975	Shakey Ground	Dennis Edwards	26	1	Yes	Yes
1975	Glasshouse	Dennis Edwards, Richard Street, Damon Harris, Otis Williams, and Melvin Franklin	37	9
1975	A Song for You	Dennis Edwards	-	-		Yes
1976	Keep Holdin' On	Dennis Edwards	54	3
1980	Power	Dennis Edwards, Glenn Leonard, Melvin Franklin, and Richard Street	43	11		Yes
1982	Standing On The Top - Pt. 1	Rick James, Dennis Edwards, David Ruffin, Eddie Kendricks, Richard Street, and Melvin Franklin	66	6		Yes
1983	Love On My Mind Tonight	Dennis Edwards	88	17
1983	Sail Away	Ron Tyson	54	13
1984	Treat Her Like a Lady	Ali-Ollie Woodson	48	2		Yes
1985	My Love is True (Truly for You)	Ron Tyson	—	14
1985	Do You Really Love Your Baby	Ali-Ollie Woodson	—	14
1986	Lady Soul	Ali-Ollie Woodson	47	4		Yes
1987	I Wonder Who She's Seeing Now	Dennis Edwards	—	3
1987	Look What You Started	Dennis Edwards	—	8
1989	All I Want From You	Ali-Ollie Woodson	—	16
1989	Special	Ali-Ollie Woodson	—	10
1990	Soul to Soul	Ali-Ollie Woodson and Ron Tyson	—	12
1991	The Motown Song (Rod Stewart featuring The Temptations)	Rod Stewart and Ali-Ollie Woodson	10	—
1995	Silent Night	Melvin Franklin, Dennis Edwards, and Glenn Leonard	—	16
1998	Stay	Theo Peoples, Terry Weeks, and Ron Tyson		28	Yes

If You're Only Going to Buy One Greatest Hits Set From... Van Morrison

My friend Tom suggested I take on Van Morrison this week.  He’s a huge fan – if he doesn’t have all of Morrison’s albums, he’s not far off.  I’m very much the same way with Neil Young, whose attitude toward the music industry is fairly similar (“If you like it, great, if you don’t, your loss – I’m not making any changes”).  Anyway, Tom told me today “it could be short, I don't think he has many... Best of, Best of Volume II, [At] the Movies... it might not even be worth it.  But you could knock it out quickly, noting the scarcity of choices!”

I wish.  I found stuff he didn’t even know existed, and the disks he listed are now out of print.  To start with, there’s only one best-of available on iTunes, and none available for download on Amazon.  I’m not 100 percent certain of this, but here’s my guess as to what’s going on:

• Morrison owns his own catalogue from Astral Weeks, which came out in 1968, onward.  He doesn’t own the Them tracks, or the albums he did for Bert Berns’ Bang label in 1967 (more on that later).
• It looks like the distribution rights have switched from Universal (which had them for about 30 years – his classic albums in the late 1960s and 1970s came out on Warner Brothers, but they dropped him around 1985) to Sony/Columbia.  His most recent album, Duets: Reworking the Catalogue (which is exactly what it sounds like, rerecordings of his old hits done as duets) is listed on Amazon as on the Exile/RCA label.  RCA’s catalogue was acquired by Sony a few years back.
• He’s releasing new greatest hits sets slowly, to get fans to drop a few more bucks.
• Accordingly, here’s my choice – because it’s apparently the only one now available:

The Essential Van Morrison

Generally speaking, I like what Sony has been doing with reissues – Warner Brothers has also been pretty good for the most part, while Universal’s reissue program is, to put it kindly, scummy.  This Sony release is pretty good – 37 songs crammed onto two disks, neatly divided into the hit years (60s and 70s) and the more introspective years (80s and onward).  It also includes what’s worth including from his first band, Them (“Gloria” and “Here Comes the Night”), as well as a few of the Bang songs, which are owned (or were owned) by Sony anyway.  I wouldn’t have chosen the songs selected here from Astral Weeks (the title track and “The Way Young Lovers Do”), but that’s personal preference – many of Morrison’s anthologies ignore this crucial album altogether because it contained no AM radio hits.

Right now, this is available for $14.99 for the download off iTunes (but not from Amazon yet!), or you can order the two-CD set from Amazon (which will not be available until this Friday, October 30 – I told you it was new!).  I saw it at Best Buy last week, if you have to have this right now; I think the price was around $13.99.

Here’s what was available, and may still be new in record stores if you look carefully (and if you can find a record store, I guess).  Links are to the Wikipedia listings:

• T. B. Sheets (1973) and Bang Masters (1991) are two official names for the music Morrison recorded for Bang in 1967.  Bert Berns, who ran the label, died December 30, 1967, at which point Bang had two major artists under contract:  Morrison and Neil Diamond.  Diamond apparently used an out clause in his contract to sign with Uni (later MCA) Records the following year, and Morrison also split for Warner Brothers, after a series of arguments with Berns’ widow, Ilene (who blamed Morrison’s battles with Berns for his husband’s death).  Morrison was required to submit 36 songs, mostly recorded in one session, to gain his release; the “revenge” songs were mostly unreleasable.  Anyway, the legit Bang sessions and bits and pieces of the “revenge” songs all seem to be on a pile of releases today – anything from the perfectly legitimate Playlist: The Best of Van Morrison (The Bang Masters) on Sony, to The Essential Van Morrison (not to be confused with the album listed above, so be careful about what you download!) on the Purple Pyramid label – they seem to specialize mostly in rerecordings.  I’ve also seen the lengthier The Complete Bang Sessions and The 1967 New York Sessions.  The sound quality of all of them seems the same, so here are my thoughts:  1) get one cheaply, 2) listen to a few tracks first to make sure it’s not a super cheap remaster, 3) at least “Brown-Eyed Girl” is the original hit, 4) the versions of “Madame George” and “Beside You” are not the ones you’ll find on Astral Weeks, released the following year.  (I’m listening to the earlier version of “Madame George” now; the lyrics are the same, but the music is vastly different.)
• The Best of Van Morrison (1990) was released after Morrison had issued 19 solo studio albums, so he wasn’t lacking for material.  Apparently he wasn’t thrilled about having a best-of come out under his name, but it actually exposed him to a whole new audience, who probably loved his hits but wasn’t thrilled about slogging through his more idiosyncratic albums.  If you want the hits, they’re all here.  Now out of print.
• The Best of Van Morrison, Volume Two (1994) was selected by Van the Man himself, and focuses on releases between 1984 to 1991.  As a result, many listeners will find the music unrecognizable, because only “Real Real Gone” was a radio hit.  (Morrison hasn’t hit the U.S. pop charts since 1978’s “Wavelength” – which inexplicably isn’t on any of these sets – but has been charting more regularly in the U.K. since the 1990s.)  Also out of print.
• Van Morrison at the Movies (2007) takes all of the songs U.S. listeners should be familiar with – the songs reused in one movie or another – and shuffles them together on one disk.  A few live versions are included, and although I’d quibble with a few selections (where’s “Tupelo Honey”?), it’s a good place for the uninitiated to start.  Again, out of print.
• The Best of Van Morrison, Volume Three (2007) is a two-disk set with 31 songs, primarily from 1991 onward.  A few alternate versions and live in concert pieces round out the set.  Out of print.
• Still on Top – The Greatest Hits (2007) makes me think Van was trying to finance a vacation house or something in 2007; I can’t think of another reason why he would be willing to release three anthologies in the same year.  One-disk set that covers his entire career; this would be a nifty purchase for the novice, except (stop me if you’ve heard this one) it’s out of print.

I'm hoping sometime in 2016, Sony and Morrison will release a one-disk set encompassing his entire career, for those who think two disks are too much.  Also, if anybody could fill a box set, this is the guy.  After all, Neil Young released a 10-disk box set in 2009, and it only covered the first decade of his career.  (I may have to start taking money from my son's college education fund if Young brings out any more of them.)
 
For the infatuated, The Story of Them (1997), featuring 50 songs from Morrison’s mid-1960s band, is out of print but should be reasonably easy to find (warning:  I have this myself, and 50 songs for this band is way too much for most people).  Be careful about downloading their studio albums; many of them were recorded after Morrison left the band.

If You're Only Going to Buy One Greatest Hits Set From... The Byrds

The Byrds were the first folk-rock act to hit the big time – their first #1 hit, “Mr. Tambourine Man” (written by Bob Dylan, which gave it some cachet among folk purists) hit the top in late June of 1965, a full six months before Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence.”  The good news is The Byrds were quite talented on their own, with two good songwriters to start with (Gene Clark and Jim McGuinn, who would change his name to Roger a couple of years later) and two that developed over time (David Crosby and Chris Hillman).  (Drummer Michael Clarke was not a songwriter; he was primarily recruited for his resemblance to Rolling Stone Brian Jones.)  The bad news is they self-destructed pretty quickly – Clark bailed out after two albums, Crosby was bounced a year after that, and Hillman split after their foray into a more pure country sound, Sweetheart of the Rodeo.  McGuinn carried on for a long time after that with a variety of musicians, but they put out so much product over that time (eleven studio albums over five and a half years?) that the name wound up being sullied.  After a half-hearted reunion of the original five members in 1973, the group stayed apart almost for good (more on that later).

With the exceptions of some early recordings released under various titles and the 1973 album Byrds, all of their recordings were for Columbia.  That means getting a good greatest hits set isn’t a problem – and compilations are probably preferable to all but two or three of the studio albums.  Of course, it also means there are a lot of hits sets out there, so finding the right one can be a challenge.

Here's my choice, and it's kind of an odd one:

20 Essential Tracks from the Boxed Set: 1965-1990

The band’s output consists of five albums with most of the original group, five albums with McGuinn and a bunch of other guys, and Sweethearts of the Rodeo, which sounded like nothing that came before or after.  This is the only single-disk set that contains everything great from the first half of their career and everything that’s worth having afterward.  The bad news:  it contains nothing from Sweetheart of the Rodeo (possibly because the box set contained songs from that album as originally recorded with Gram Parsons singing lead, and no doubt Columbia wanted buyers to drop a bigger chunk of change on that), and three meh songs from a short reunion between McGuinn, Crosby, and Hillman in 1990 (to establish claim to the name over Clark and Michael Clarke, who had both toured in recent years with ersatz bands billed under the Byrds name).

This brings up another side issue - I'm not altogether sure why these reunion tracks were billed as "The Byrds" but no songs from the 1979-1980 McGuinn, Clark, and Hillman experiment are on any of these greatest hits sets.  Just guessing, but I would say it's any or all of the following three reasons: 1) McGuinn and Crosby agreed at the time not to call the band The Byrds because all five weren't involved, and stuck to it, 2) McG, C & H albums were on Capitol, so Columbia didn't want to lease any of the music, 3) they're not very good.

Getting back to this CD, I do like the price ($9.99 for the download on Amazon, but I saw it tonight for $5.99 at Best Buy), so I’m willing to overlook these flaws – if you’re desperate for the Sweetheart of the Rodeo stuff, look (and be ready to pay more) for The Essential Byrds or buy this and the actual Sweetheart album.

Here’s the rest, in chronological order (links are to the Wikipedia listings):

• The Byrds Greatest Hits (1967) – The first greatest hits set with all the classic songs, and if you’re in your late 40s or older, the one you most likely already own.  Columbia deserves a bit of credit for adding three Gene Clark songs to the compilation, but at $11.99 for 14 songs it’s not much of a bargain.

• Preflyte/In the Beginning/The Preflyte Sessions (1969 and onward) – a pile of tracks recorded before the band was signed by Columbia (they had gone under the names The Jet Set and The Beefeaters), which I’ve crunched into one listing.  Some of the material eventually showed up on official albums, but not all.  Reviews have been quite kind on the whole, and since In the Beginning was a Rhino release (they’re usually very careful about making sure their releases are no less than decent), they might be worth checking out.  That said, these are not the hit versions, and in some cases the record labels are minor.  

• The Best of The Byrds: Greatest Hits, Volume II (1972) – If you ever wondered if a record label would dare release a greatest hits set without any actual, you know, hits (three charted singles here from Sweetheart of the Rodeo and beyond, none of which made it higher than #65), your answer is right here.  Inexplicably still in print and available for download; you’re better off getting these songs as part of a full-career compilation.

• The Byrds Play Dylan (1979) – Not a hits set, but a compilation of Dylan covers.  The 1982 version had 13 songs and a hideous cover; the 2002 rerelease has 20 songs (so you can have the studio and live versions of “Mr. Tambourine Man” and “Chimes of Freedom” – joy!) and a slightly less hideous cover.  At least it’s only $8.99 for the download.

• The Original Singles: 1965-1967, Volume 1 (1980) – Man, Columbia had some lousy cover designs in this era.  16 songs, obviously from the McGuinn/Crosby/Hillman/sometimes Clark years.  A decent enough selection for an $8.99 download, but I’ve been warned the CD version sounds pretty lousy.  Volume 2 (songs from 1967-1969) was released only in Europe, and there was never a Volume 3 (it would have been much like Greatest Hits, Volume II listed above).

• The Byrds (box set) (1990) – I bought this in 1998 because I somehow felt it was out of print and would stay that way, and, well, I wish I hadn’t been so anxious.  There’s nothing bad about the music – it’s got a pile of alternate takes, the aforementioned Gram Parsons lead vocals from Sweetheart of the Rodeo, the 1990 reunion songs (including a live version of “Mr. Tambourine Man” with Dylan), and it sounds fine.  That said, anything written by Gene Clark that wasn’t a hit is omitted (probably because of the legal battles at the time between Clark & Clarke and the other three), and there’s nothing from the Preflyte years or the 1973 bomb Byrds.  Finally, whoever designed the booklet really needs a good talking to – probably to save money, the text is printed in three colors (cyan, magenta, black), which saves almost no money and resulted in a bunch of pictures being done as faux duotones, plus a text design that looks like I did it (I’m not a designer).  20 Essential Tracks is taken in its entirety from this 90-track release.

• Super Hits (1998) – Super Cheap would be a better description – it’s one of the two least expensive downloads on Amazon.  10 songs, and poorly selected (“America’s Great National Pastime” is included, but not “All I Really Want to Do”?).  Avoid unless there are no alternatives.

• The Essential Byrds (2003) – Sony’s “Essential” series is generally pretty solid, and this is no exception – 33 songs over two disks, only eight of which came from after Sweetheart of the Rodeo.  The bad news:  a $16.99 download price.  Try to get Version 3.0 (which contains a third disk with six additional songs and a cardboard sleeve instead of a jewel box) or, better still, the British version (which I don’t think we can download here in the States, but I could be wrong), which has 45 songs.

• There Is a Season (2006) – Apparently somebody at Columbia decided they needed a do-over on box sets, so here’s the second four-disk box from the band.  This one includes Jet Set and Beefeaters songs, plus two Gene Clark songs from the 1973 Byrds misfire, and the songs he wrote are more represented on the first couple of disks.  The bad news is there are few alternate takes and rarities.  This was intended to replace the first box set, but they’re both available for download (and this one is seven dollars more for nine more songs).

• Playlist: The Best of The Byrds (2008) – Somewhat better than Super Hits for the same $7.99 price, although not by much.  14 songs, with the same questionable selections (“Spanish Harlem Incident”?).  There are better options.

There aren’t many solo compilations from the band members – Gene Clark could certainly use one (although it might be hard to pull that off because he was with a bunch of labels), and so could Roger McGuinn (easier, since most of his solo albums were with Columbia or Arista, which are both under the Sony banner).  Chris Hillman’s Desert Rose Band released a greatest hits set in 1992, but that’s hardly representative of his entire career.  Many of Gram Parsons’ solo recordings are on The Complete Reprise Sessions (2006) from the always-reliable Rhino, although my one-disk version of GP/Grievous Angel should be fine for most (and neither contains anything from his Flying Burrito Brothers days).  As for Michael Clarke, I’m sure there’s a Firefall greatest hits set out there somewhere. 

The one exception to this rule is David Crosby, which should be no surprise since he’s had the most successful and varied solo career (with several well-publicized detours, of course).  Voyage, from 2006, contains 51 songs (granted, only three are from the Byrds, but given he was only starting to write songs late in his tenure with the band, that’s no surprise), including a wide variety of solo, CSN, CSNY, and Crosby & Nash songs, plus a few from the band he headed with his son James Raymond as CPR.  Throw in a disk of unreleased material, and for an $18.99 download cost, it’s really worthwhile.