Best Of...

     The "Best Of" album is an age old record label tradition. Whether it's to bridge a gap between band projects, or to cash in on a band after they've left your label or just to encapsulated the career of a defunct band; Best Of's are a license to print money. I'm using "Best Of" generically to also include Greatest Hits albums. The distinction, of course, is there are bands and artists who merit best of collections but technically never had any "hits". Everybody has bands that they like, but don't need to own every album they've recorded. I usually fall in the category of a completist, which means if I like an artist I do have to have everything they've done, including best of's. There are some artists though that I only have the best of album. I don't really understand how the decision process happens in my brain, but I'm able to turn my completist gene on and off. Take for example The Ramones. I like the songs I hear on the radio, but they're all pretty much the same. So, I was never interested in hearing all their albums and breaking them down. I just wanted a collection of the songs I liked, so I bought Ramones Mania. It's all the Ramones I need and have time for at this point in my life. Maybe someday I'll have the desire to hear their complete recorded works, but I'm not there yet. Perhaps one of my kids will listen to Ramones Mania and have their life changed. Anything's possible. So, the following list is the artists for whom I only have best of albums that I would recommend to my kids.

* The Ramones- already discussed

* Men at Work- I played Tenor Sax when I was in school and I love the sax solo on "Who Can It Be
   Now". They were a fun band who had a great singer in Colin Hay with terrific songs.

* Joe Jackson- Worth listening to just for the amazing "Is She Really Going Out With Him".
   Definitely in my Top Ten songs of all-time.

* The Pixies- Love their classic songs, but haven't gotten around to the albums.

* Talking Heads- I like many of their radio singles, but find David Byrne annoying. I haven't listened to any of their albums in it's entirety.

* Steely Dan- I love, love, love their hits, but don't have any proper albums.

* Yo La Tengo- I like the best of collection, but every time I try to listen to an entire album I don't like them. I can't explain.

* The Fixx- One of my favorite 80's groups who had a string of great hits. I particularly love "Red
    Skies at Night", "Saved By Zero" and "Driven Out".

* The Replacements- I like "Alex Chilton" and "I'll Be You", but for some reason I haven't really
   been all in with them.

* Devo- Great act that everyone should at least know the hits.

* John Coltrane- I have much of his work with Miles, but only the best of  for him. I like him until he
   started playing avant garde, free jazz. Definitely one of the giants of the saxophone.