Greatest Hits Series Popular Books
Greatest Hits Series Biography & Facts
A greatest hits album or best-of album is a type of compilation album that collects popular and commercially successful songs by a particular artist or band. While greatest hits albums are typically supported by the artist, they can also be created by record companies without express approval from the original artist as a means to generate sales. They are typically regarded as a good starting point for new fans of an artist, but are sometimes criticized by longtime fans as not inclusive enough or necessary at all. It is also common for greatest hits albums to include new recordings, remixes or unreleased alternate takes of the hit songs, plus other new material as bonus tracks to increase appeal for longtime fans (who might otherwise already own the recordings included). At times, a greatest hits compilation marks the first album appearance of a successful single that was never attached to a previous studio album. Greatest hits albums usually are released after an artist or band's contract with a major label is completed, they've been dropped or died, with next releases following on new labels. History The first greatest hits album was Johnny Mathis's Johnny's Greatest Hits, released in 1958. The album collected eight of Mathis's charting singles, as well as three non-charting B-sides and an altogether new track. The album spent three weeks at the number one spot on Billboard's Best Selling Pop LP's chart. The greatest hits album format then gained popularity in the 1960s and 1970s among American and British rock and pop artists. One notable example was the Beach Boys 1974 album Endless Summer, which upon release was certified 3× platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. It propelled them from an opening act for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young to headlining their own tour in just a matter of weeks. Some artists were even popular enough to release multiple greatest hits albums during and after their career. Greatest hits compilations were sometimes also released as 4-track 7" vinyl EPs. In the late 1960s, EMI Sweden released a series of greatest hits-EPs featuring artists such as The Supremes, Ray Charles and Louis Armstrong. By the 1990s, greatest hits albums were common for popular artists, with some artists even releasing the greatest hits album as a music video collection concurrently with the album. It also became a commercially viable option to boost popularity for artists with dwindling careers. Some bands refuse to release a greatest hits album, such as rock groups AC/DC, Tool, and Metallica. Garth Brooks had initially refused releasing one, but he eventually agreed to it in 1994 for a limited release (the resulting record, The Hits, sold over ten million copies). In 2000, Sony Music Entertainment launched their The Essential series, which collects singles and other career-defining tracks of artists licensed to Sony. The Essential Bob Dylan was the first in the series, and the company has since released dozens of albums in the series with other artists under their label. In addition to artist-specific collections, the series has also released genre-specific and themed albums, such as The Essential Christmas (collecting pop and rock covers of Christmas songs) or The Essential Australian Rock (collecting a specific regional output). In 2005, Universal Music Group launched a similar line, Gold, which collects artists' greatest hits onto two discs. In the late 2000s and 2010s, digital downloads and music streaming services increased in popularity, which allow users to listen to their favorite tracks without the need of a greatest hits package. In 2016, Pitchfork said that "in the digital era, once a catalog enters a streaming service or an MP3 store, there's no need for a reissue and, therefore, there's no reason for a label to mine the vaults, searching for old music to make new again. Users can assemble their own personalized greatest hits playlists or just scan through an act's most accessed songs", which has led to greatest hits collections becoming redundant. Despite the popularity of streaming in the 2010s and early 2020s, some artists continued to issue physical greatest hits albums, including the White Stripes, Spoon, and the Weeknd. Spoon lead singer Britt Daniel said he chose to compile 2019's Everything Hits at Once: The Best of Spoon out of an affinity for compilations such as Standing on a Beach by the Cure and Substance 1987 by New Order, which had introduced him to those artists in his youth, and to provide an official introduction to Spoon's catalog for new listeners. Alex Kapranos of Franz Ferdinand echoed those sentiments when describing the decision to release the band's 2022 Hits to the Head compilation, stating that "I have friends who believe you're somehow not a 'real' fan if you own a best of rather than a discography. I disagree. I think of my parents' record collection as a kid. I loved their compilation LPs. I am so grateful that they had Changes or Rolled Gold. Those LPs were my entrance point. My introduction." Notable examples Various compilation albums became amongst the best-selling albums worldwide with sales of over 20 million copies. For example, Eagles' Their Greatest Hits (1971–1975) is the best-selling album in the United States, according to Billboard, selling over 38 million copies. Worldwide, The Immaculate Collection by Madonna is the best-selling compilation by a solo artist, with 30 million copies, and is the best-selling compilation by a female artist in major music markets such as Australia, United Kingdom and United States. In the UK, Queen's Greatest Hits is the biggest selling album of all time. In second place is ABBA Gold, another greatest hits compilation which has gone on to become the longest-charting album in the UK. Queen's Greatest Hits II is also one of the UK's top ten biggest sellers. One example of a greatest hits compilation released against the artists' intentions is British rock group the Rolling Stones' 1971 compilation Hot Rocks 1964–1971. The music magazine Rolling Stone remarked that the album served as a "beautifully packaged... purely mercenary item put together by the Stones' former record company to cash in on the Christmas season and wring some more bucks out in the name of the Mod Princes they once owned." After their manager tricked the band into signing over the copyrights to their 1963–1970 song catalog, the band did succeed in changing management and record labels. However, they could neither prevent the release of Hot Rocks nor its successor, More Hot Rocks (Big Hits & Fazed Cookies). Hot Rocks remains the best-selling album of the Rolling Stones' career. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards continue to collect significant songwriting royalties from the Hot Rocks sales, but not the ownership royalties. In other media The concept of greatest hits compilations has been adapted to other media as well. In television, some shows have released compilations of their crit.... Discover the Greatest Hits Series popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Greatest Hits Series books.
Best Seller Greatest Hits Series Books of 2024
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Wrigley Field Year by Year
Sam Pathy & John ThornMore than just a lavishly illustrated and highly readable book, Wrigley Field Year by Year, originally published in 2014 and updated through the 2018 season, is the result of a qua...
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The Greatest Hits of Jules Verne
Jules VerneJules Verne wrote dozens of novels, and stories; if you are like most people, you only want to read his most famous stories and books. This anthology does just that. Each of Verne'...
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Tales from the 1967 Red Sox
Rico Petrocelli & Chaz ScogginsBy the end of 1966, the Boston Red Sox were a team in serious trouble. The Red Sox had not won a pennant in twenty years and had not posted a winning record in eight. Pampered by t...
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25 Classic Westerns
Zane Grey, Charles King & Clarence E. MulfordBefore John Ford showed the world how the West was won, these 25 classics gave readers a glimpse of what the West was really like. The following works are included in the collectio...
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Grassroots Baseball
Jean Fruth, Jeff Idelson, Mike Veeck, Johnny Bench & Jim ThomeJust as baseball is at the heart of America, so too is Route 66. This book is a photographic tribute to the national pastime along the artery that stretches from the shores of Lake...
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The Greatest Hits of Mark Twain
Mark TwainMark Twain wrote dozens of novels, essays, stories, and nonfiction pieces; if you are like most people, you only want to read his most famous stories and books. This anthology does...
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Baseball Italian Style
Lawrence BaldassaroBaseball Italian Style brings together the memories of major leaguers of Italian heritage whose collective careers span almost a century, from the 1930s up to today. In these first...
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Tales from the Kansas City Royals Dugout
Denny Matthews, Matt Fulks & Frank WhiteAmos Otis, Frank White, George Brett, Hal McRae, Dan Quisenberry, Bret Saberhagen, Paul Splittorffone mention of any of those names can bring about visions of great baseball, deter...
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25 Classic Love Stories for Your eReader
Jane Austen, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edith Wharton & P.G. WodehouseThis massive anthology of 25 books will give you plenty to choose from on that long trip. Works Include: Ann Veronica The Beautiful and Damned Blind Love The Blue Lagoon: A Romance...
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Pirates By the Numbers
David FinoliWhen the National League decided on June 22, 1932, to place numbers on the backs of uniforms to make it easier for fans to follow their favorite players, no one knew at the time ju...
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Dingers
Joshua Shifrin & Tommy SheaFrom splitters to spitters; from a frozen rope to the suicide squeeze; from extra innings to no hitters, baseball is truly a great game. But nothing hypes up a crowd like a home ru...
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Grassroots Baseball
Jean FruthA photographic tribute to how ballplayers get their start with memories from Nolan Ryan, Hank Aaron, Randy Johnson, Ichiro Suzuki, Vladimir Guerrero, and more. With an Introduction...
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Wrigley Field Year by Year
Sam Pathy & John ThornMore than just a lavishly illustrated and highly readable book, Wrigley Field Year by Year, originally published in 2014, is the result of a quarter century of meticulous research....
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The Greatest Hits of Indian Literature
VatsayayanaThis massive anthology will give you plenty tochoose from on that long trip. Works Include: The BhagavadGita The Dhammapada The Kama Sutra of Vatsayayana The Mahabharata of Krishna...
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The Greatest Hits of Oscar Wilde
Oscar WildeOscar Wilde wrote dozens of novels and plays; if you are like most people, you only want to read his most famous stories and books. This anthology does just that. Each of Wilde's m...
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25 Classic Canadian Books
Stephen Leacock, L.M. Montgomery, William Wood & Harold BlindlossThis massive anthology of 25 books will give you plenty to choose from on that long trip. Works Include: An Algonquin Maiden by G. Mercer Adam All Afloat by William Wood Anne of Gr...
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25 Classic American Books
Mark Twain, Henry Adams, H. P. Lovecraft & Edith WhartonThis massive anthology of 25 books will give you plenty to choose from on that long trip. Works Include: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) An American N...
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An October to Remember 1968
Brendan DonleyAn October to Remember 1968: The TigersCardinals World Series as Told by the Men Who Played in It recalls one of baseball's most celebrated championship series from the voices of t...
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Larry Doby in Black and White
Jerry IzenbergWhen people think of baseball trailblazers, their minds immediately go to Jackie Robinson. He was the man who broke the color barrier, appearing in 1947 for the Brooklyn Dodgers, a...
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25 Women Authors You Need to Read
Anne Brontë, Anna Sewell, Johanna Spyri & Edith WhartonThis massive anthology of 25 books will give you plenty to choose from on that long trip. Works Include: Agnes Grey by Anne Bronte Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery Anth...
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The Greatest Hits of Christian Fiction
Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Leo Tolstoy & O. HenryNeed a pick me up? Any of the works in this large anthology will inspire you and lift your spirits! The following works are included in the collection: After the Storm by T.S. Arth...
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1930
Lew FreedmanThe 1930 Major League baseball season was both marvelous and horrendous, great for hitters, embarrassing for pitchers. In totality it was just this side of insane as an outlier amo...
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Red Sox by the Numbers
Bill Nowlin, Matthew Silverman & Joe CastiglioneWhat do Rube Walberg, Mike Nagy, Kevin Millar, and Dustin Pedroia all have in common? They all wore #15 for the Boston Red Sox. Since 1931, the Red Sox have issued 74 different num...
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Red Sox by the Numbers
Bill Nowlin, Matthew Silverman & Joe CastiglioneWhat do Rube Walberg, Mike Nagy, Kevin Millar, and Dustin Pedroia all have in common? They have all worn #15 for the Boston Red Sox. Since 1931, the Red Sox have issued 74 differen...
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25 Classic Philosophical Books You Have to Read
Various AuthorsIf you are looking for a general introduction to philosophy, you'll have plenty to choose from in this large anthology; 25 classic philosophical works are collected here with an ac...
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A Kitty Norville Collection
Carrie VaughnThis discounted ebundle includes: Kitty Goes to War, Kitty’s Big Trouble, Kitty Steals the Show, Kitty Rocks the House, Kitty in the Underworld, Low Midnight, Kitty Saves the World...
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Shohei Ohtani
Jay ParisRarely does anyone use the term “twoway” in regard to a baseball player. Yet the Los Angeles Angels’ Shohei Ohtani, at the young age of twentythree, has become the epitome of the t...
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Tales from the Baltimore Orioles Dugout
Louis BerneyFor several decades, the Baltimore Orioles were the envy of every Major League Baseball team. Stars like Rick Dempsey and Cal Ripken, Jr. brought life and power to a team full of d...
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25 People You Should Know
Greatest Hits SeriesThere are people in this world who have shaped the very foundations for which we live today; read about them in this epic anthology of biographies. The following works are included...
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Fall from Grace
Tim HornbakerConsidered by Ty Cobb as “the finest natural hitter in the history of the game,” “Shoeless Joe” Jackson is ranked with the greatest players to ever step onto a baseball diamond. Wi...
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The Greatest Hits of Jack London
Jack LondonJack London wrote dozens of novels, essays, stories, and nonfiction pieces; if you are like most people, you only want to read his most famous stories and books. This anthology doe...