4 Single-Disc Greatest Hits Albums From 70s and 80s Bands That Don’t Miss

Greatest hits compilations are a tricky bit of business. Many are made for cynical reasons. Others try to eke out a few extra dollars from an act that doesn’t really have enough hits to quite make up two sides.

But when they come together just right, they can provide an overwhelming listening experience. These four single-disc greatest hits collections from the classic rock era are beyond stellar.

‘Records’ by Foreigner

The amazing thing about Records is that it collects songs from only the first four albums of Foreigner’s career. But you could make the argument that the truncated format actually helps in this case. After the 4 album, which is the cutoff point for this collection, the band started to lose its way a bit amidst inner turmoil and an overreliance on ballads. Before that, though, they simply didn’t miss with their singles game. They could get bluesy (“Dirty White Boy”, “Long, Long Way From Home”) or go for pop glory (“Cold As Ice”, “Feels Like The First Time”). On 4, they added some new touches, such as the funky “Urgent” and the soul of “Waiting For A Girl Like You”. And they’re all squeezed into this 10-song LP.

‘ELO’s Greatest Hits’ by Electric Light Orchestra

Electric Light Orchestra took more of a prog rock angle on their earliest records, with elongated songs that meld into one another. Eventually, Jeff Lynne realized that he could take his hybrid of classical and rock music and turn it into a streamlined pop machine. This LP only includes singles by the band up through 1979. That’s crucial because it lets “Don’t Bring Me Down”, an essential piece of ear candy, get in under the wire. Lynne’s mastery of pain-drenched balladry shines through on classics like “Can’t Get It Out Of My Head” and “Telephone Line”. You also get the pop masterpieces, à la “Livin’ Thing” and “Mr. Blue Sky”, that combine ambition and emotion in the best possible way.

‘Greatest Hits’ by The Cars

You might think (yes, we intended that pun) that The Cars released a kind of Greatest Hits album with their debut in 1976. That self-titled debut certainly brought the goods with a host of tailor-made radio songs. But only three of the 13 songs on Greatest Hits come from The Cars album, not even as many as from their mega-hit Heartbeat City from 1984. And when you hear the greatness on display throughout this record, you can’t really quibble about the selection. If nothing else, it gives a spotlight to songs, like the breathlessly brilliant “Touch And Go”, that should have been bigger hits. And bonus points are earned because the new song on the collection, “Tonight She Comes”, hangs right with the previously released classics.

‘Singles – 45’s And Under’ by Squeeze

We admit that, for many American fans, this choice might be a bit baffling. But, to look at it another way, it’s baffling to us that Squeeze didn’t do better on the charts in America. To make things even stranger, their biggest American hit, “Hourglass”, came years after the release of this stellar collection. If you’re new to this band, consider yourselves lucky to be discovering these songs for the first time. (And, by the way, even though they didn’t break through in the US, many of these songs scored big in the UK.) There’s not a wasted moment on the American version of this collection. And here’s another case where the song recorded just for the collection (“Annie Gets You Gun”) stands up to everything around it.

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