Andy Gibb's Greatest Hits followed three studio albums and three Number One songs on the Hot 100. Considering he only had seven songs chart on the Hot 100 at the time of this album's release, three new recordings from a possible fourth album were quickly patched in to produce a five-songs-a-side proper Greatest Hits disc. It would be the unexpected exclamation point on the youngest Gibb brother's recording career, the final album he released in his lifetime. Two of the newly recorded songs would eventually make the Top 40 as Gibb extended his hit single streak to nine for nine with only his duet with Victoria Principal failing as his tenth and final charting single at number 51. We loved Gibb's first two albums and eagerly scarfed up Greatest Hits for three new tracks, one of which ("Time Is Time") ranks among his finest hits.
Anne Murray's Greatest Hits is a chronological review of Murray's nine biggest chart hits since 1970 and "Snowbird". Hedging her bet, she tacked on one newly recorded track "Could I Have This Dance" which also prominently featured in the 1980 film Urban Cowboy and would go on to be a wedding staple. I've since purchased more thorough and complete compilations of Murray's charting singles as she became a constant on both the Adult Contemporary and Country charts after 1980 but I keep coming back to the uncomplicated snapshot of her career that Anne Murray's Greatest Hits will always be.
Mom had a copy of Kenny Rogers' Greatest Hits on cassette in her car while Dad owned it on eight-track and vinyl. I snagged my vinyl copy in 1982 or 1983 when none of my friends were looking. I really like every track (except "Coward...") even the re-recorded without the First Edition version of "Reuben James". This compilation features two never-before-released tracks and an(other) Urban Cowboy contribution, "Love The World Away". One of the other new songs was Lionel Richie's "Lady" which was huge in late 1980 and early 1981, topping the Hot 100, Adult Contemporary, and Hot Country charts while also showing up on the Soul Singles. Sweet Kenny Rogers could do no wrong for an extended minute and the only song that would make this album any sweeter for this listener would be 1982's "Love Will Turn You Around" which would turn up on the Twenty Greatest Hits compilation in 1983.
Aerosmith's Greatest Hits was the first Aerosmith album I ever bought. Toys In The Attic was the second. Aerosmith's Greatest Hits was the first Aerosmith CD I ever bought. Permanent Vacation was the second Aerosmith CD I ever bought. Yes, some of the tracks are edited musically, lyrically, or both for unexplained reasons but none of that mattered until I played Toys In The Attic and heard the full-length version of "Sweet Emotion". Then and there it became the highest crime to listen to any other version. I'm fairly certain later pressings of Aerosmith's Greatest Hits have the full-length "Sweet Emotion" but I cannot be sure as my copies have the edit. I've never said no to an Aerosmith compilation (6 of them in the HERChives as I type) but five decades on Aerosmith's Greatest Hits is still my favorite.
Didn't see a reason to pick up Greatest Hits by KC & the Sunshine Band until March 1985. And I recall it was essentially for one song, "Please Don't Go". I remember being obsessed with this album for at least a month as I dubbed it down to both sides of a TDK SA90 cassette and listened to it over and over and over again. It felt like a fitting finale to a hit-filled career with five Number Ones over six years. Unlike every other album featured thus far today, I rarely listen to Greatest Hits by KC & the Sunshine Band these days. It's unquestionably a Greatest "Greatest Hits" Album but when I feel the need for an almost solid hour of the Sunshine Band, I'll pull up 1990's The Best of KC and the Sunshine Band, or if I need to double down for two hours, the 25th Anniversary Collection certainly fits the bill.
Spending summers with my Texas Grandparents was great on levels I'm still unpacking today. One (or more) of my four Texas Aunts had Ronnie Milsap's Greatest Hits on cassette and I think it lived in her car for at least two summers I was there. They knew every song and I learned them real quick. I don't know if seeing the album in an RCA Music Club catalog triggered a good memory or if I was simply in pursuit of my favorite Milsap track "Smoky Mountain Rain" but I received his Greatest Hits album as part of a ten-album order from RCA in July 1985. It's a sentimental favorite for sure.
While Hits! wasn't the wide-ranging Boz Scaggs overview it could or probably should have been at that exact point in his career, it is a great ten-track sampler of his finer efforts from 1975-1980. (Boz's neon pink jacket with the padded shoulders still burns my eyes, though.) We have no issues with the album's sequencing, the inclusion of single edits, or the really fantastic sound. We are tickled that Hits! is the third album featured today with a new not-yet-a-hit song also included in the film Urban Cowboy with the sultry "Look What You've Done To Me". In 2006, Hits! was reissued with five extra songs and fresh cover art showing Scaggs wearing a stylish herringbone-patterned jacket. Having invested in 1997's double-disc My Time: A Boz Scaggs Anthology (1969-1997), we took a pass on the Hits! redux.
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