Against Compilations
Rolling Stone has a soft spot for non-album albums, or, as they're called in the 21st century, playlists.
In reviewing Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Albums of All Time,” I decided early on that compilations, while accepted by Rolling Stone’s list editors, aren’t convincing enough in my mind as albums in the classic sense. The impetus for compilations seemed to be a way to resell music to fans who had already purchased singles, or draw new fans by putting together the radio hits. Early on, it was a way to capitalize on the willingness of fans to buy anything and everything released by their favourite artists. As time went on, compilations had other purposes: packaging out of print material or bringing awareness to artists or bands from different genres or regions that didn’t get their due.
In any case, in the era of digital music, downloads, playlists, streaming, remastering, and rereleases, the definition of a compilation has become blurry. The “best of” albums of the vinyl era are difficult to find in their initial form, replaced by “Essentials” (or some such variation) playlists; most likely the same songs, but there's no reasoning behind the playlist other than bringing together the best songs from a particular artist or band, or not even that - perhaps it's the singles, which in many cases aren’t necessarily the best songs.
As I went through this list, I noticed that compilations generally fit into three categories: career-spanning retrospective, mid-career appreciation, or repackaging songs by artists or various artists to bring in a wider audience.
Box Sets
For some reason there are several box sets on this list. They are usually career-spanning retrospectives that take the best of (or maybe all of) an incredible artist’s work and package them in 3-4 cds or some equivalent. In arguing against these, I found myself at odds with the music itself, as I often wouldn’t listen to box sets from Ray Charles, Merle Haggard, Sam Cooke, James Brown, etc. But it is curious that the desire to have these artists represented on this list would lead to stretching the guidelines a bit. I can certainly understand that since Sam Cooke’s career output was mostly singles and gospel songs, he didn’t have a proper album release in his lifetime - his Live at the Harlem Square Club is #240; he may not have appeared on this list otherwise. So if you’re doing a greatest music anything and you don’t have some of the key figures of rock and roll on there - like Hank Williams or Buddy Holly - then it may seem incomplete. I get that. But I chose to look at the album as the art form, and a compilation put together 20 or 30 years after the songs were released doesn’t really seem to fit.
Mid-Career Appreciation
Many artists of the 60s through the 90s would see a “best of” album released while they were at their peak - record labels did this to capitalize on the popularity of the artist, or, in some cases, fill the gap between proper album releases. Sly & The Family Stone notoriously took too long between albums (almost 2 years!), and so in 1970 Greatest Hits (#343) was released to keep the fanbase motivated. It’s a great album, because of course it is! It’s Sly & The Family Stone! But it’s not quite the same as an artist capturing a piece of their creative vision of that moment, recording it, curating it - what belongs, what doesn’t, what order, what belongs together - and releasing it as a unified product. For this list, and my understanding of it, I just don’t see how they compare. A greatest hits compilation is indeed a great album, but we’re talking apples and oranges, in my opinion, in comparing the original recording with a greatest hits package. The Immaculate Collection (#138) by Madonna may just be the best thing she’s ever released, and it was a mega selling album (it was found and played at nearly every house party I went to in high school). But it’s still a collection of the best songs by one of the biggest artists in music history, released at her peak popularity. The deck was stacked in her favour.
An exception I have noted is Presenting The Fabulous Ronettes (#494) from 1964 - it was at their peak, but the songs on the album were released together for the first time, as they had only been released as singles to that point. A similar example is Singles Going Steady (#250) by Buzzcocks. It’s a compilation of previously released material, but never on an album before. For these two artists, this is the lasting record of their music, released during their career and beyond.
Various Artists
Two examples of various artist compilations come up on this list - film soundtrack and genre/regional collections. In my mind, a film soundtrack can act as an album, independent of the film if the tracks were composed in service of the film, and curated as such. A random collection of songs played in a movie, however, is just another form of a greatest hits compilation. We have The Harder They Come (#174) by Jimmy Cliff, who acted in the film as a musician, and so the songs his character performs are the centrepiece of the album, along with other songs composed for the film. It’s a vital piece of the film itself. Saturday Night Fever (The Original Movie Soundtrack) (#163), too, is vital to the film; the key parts of the film coincide with original compositions, yet the remaining songs are disco’s “greatest” hits.
Regional collections appear on this list as well: #497 is The Indestructible Beat of Soweto. Cataloguing South African musicians of the 80s, it had an influence on many western artists and audiences who may not have been exposed to this music otherwise. I can understand this inclusion (I admit I was skeptical when I first listened to it), even though it’s a collection of songs already released elsewhere, it’s a curated album with a purpose and a vision.
One example that doesn’t have merit to me at all is #489, Back to Mono (1958-1969) by Phil Spector and Various Artists. Again, of course this compilation is going to be incredible, as these were incredible songs and artists, but then so was Bob Dylan, The Beatles, and The Rolling Stones (1971’s Hot Rocks was another mainstay of everyone’s record collection from the ‘70s), yet their greatest hits compilations are not on this list. The inclusion of Back to Mono, even at #489, defies logic in my mind, not to mention that adding more Phil Spector to this list is unnecessary and, frankly, unwanted.
I might soften on compilations as time goes by; for now, it’s hard to consider them in the same category as original albums.