"Pop Singer"

I've noticed an interesting trend in music lately--a proliferation of two-disc greatest hits sets.

It's a fairly recent thing, I think. Traditionally, the greatest hits set was a single disc of the biggest songs by a band. It wasn't unheard of for a band to have a two-disc set--Dylan had one with his Greatest Hits, Volume 2, and the Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers Anthology set was a two-discer, but the usual thing was a single disc.

But then the Rolling Stones did 40 Licks, their two-disc answer to the Beatles' One. Sure, the Stones had enough great and well-known songs to fill two discs. And two discs makes a lot of sense--you get to dig deeper into a band's catalog, pull out some fan-favorites that maybe folks otherwise wouldn't get to hear. And a bunch of bands jumped on the bandwagon, or at least their record companies did. The Eagles, who already had the best-selling record ever (Greatest Hits 1971-1975, a ten-song set which managed to capture precisely who and what the Eagles were beautifully), issued the two-disc The Very Best, and Pearl Jam's done rearviewmirror, and John Mellencamp recently released his own two-disc set Words and Music. You've also got Columbia's Essentials collection, with folks like Dylan, Willie Nelson, the Clash, Johnny Cash, Bruce Springsteen, and countless others getting a pair of discs to catalog their musical ovuere (watch as I totally misspell fancy French words! Take that, French language!).

Mind you, these are all excellent sets. Song selection, setlist organization, etc.--you can pop these things in the CD player and be very content.

But let's be honest--do we need a two-disc set of Motley Crue? We just got one a few weeks ago (well, I say "we," by which I mean "the record-buying public." I myself do not own this collection, nor do I have any intention of picking it up. Ever). There's a two-disc Styx set. While I have nothing against Styx, their single-disc best of set--which my dad bought like a decade ago--contains all their vital tracks. The two-disc set is simply extravagant and unnecessary. No one (except my youngest brother) cares about Styx's new albums. Do we need a Creed greatest hits collection of any sort, one disc or two (the answer, of course, is an emphatic "no"--they released all of three albums, and most of the songs on those three albums were dreck and bland post-grunge power-chord pop. Blech)? Stone Temple Pilots might've been worth this sort of expansive collection, or even (though I really don't care for them that much) Nivana. The former was a decent grunge band, much-maligned and pigeonholed as a Pearl Jam doppleganger. And the latter...well, even if they're not my cup of tea, I see how important they were, musically.

Part of me thinks the idea of the two-disc greatest hits compilations is a good thing--we get more music, more bang for our buck. I tend to like to dig into non-single album cuts. My joy at listening to Mellencamp's Words and Music is nigh unbridled. The Eagles' Very Best paints an excellent portrait of the band's body of work, adding some of the stuff they'd done since Greatest Hits, Volume 2 (which isn't much, mind, and it's nowhere near as necessary as their prime work) and a fine selection of album cuts that weren't featured on the band's two earlier compilations. And Pearl Jam's rearviewmirror is an excellent collection that I can't stop listening to, either. The way the two discs are sequenced both chronologically and thematically was perfect, fitting the band to a tee.

But again I say, there are some bands which simply do not need a two-disc set. Motley Crue's one of them. Styx really doesn't need a double-disc set. Aerosmith's put out like three or four different two-disc best of sets in the past couple of years, which really isn't necessary since they all contain essentially the same songs with only a couple of minor variations.

By the opposite token, there are several bands I'd like to see get the two-disc treatment. Van Morrison needs a good, comprehensive two-disc set. George Harrison deserves such a set (it'd match the excellent Wingspan McCartney put out a few years back chronicling the best of his solo and Wings work). Eric Clapton needs a good two-disc set chronicling his career from the early blues years to the present. A career-spanning two-discer from REM would be nice, too (though In Time did a fine job of chronicling their major-label work to date). The Flaming Lips really need something that gives a coherent portrait of the band's evolution and development.

Admittedly, the two-disc sets are not a truly new development. But the sheer number of them coming out now--especially with the way Columbia churns out the Essential sets...you almost feel saturated by the amount of two-disc sets available for bands that maybe only had a couple of songs worth listening to.

What I really dread is the day we get a two-disc best of set for a boy band. Then I shall weep uncontrollably, like a small child with a skinned knee.

~chuck

Song of the Moment: The Eagles, "The Last Resort"