Greatest Hits!

[An Cat Gav]

Hi everyone, I'm sure that this question has asked many times in the past, but as I'm new here you'll have to be patient
I was just wondering what everybody thinks of the two U2 "Best Of" albums.
Personally, I think the first one was pretty bad, Ok, it had 15 brilliant songs but I think it totally failed in summing up the 80s part of their career. It was much too top heavy with Rattle and Hum songs and not enough of their majestic earlier songs like Gloria, Out of Control and 11 O'Clock Tick Tock.
The 1990-2000 version, at least the UK version with The Fly as track 17 was almost perfect. Apart from the fact that the new versions of the Pop tracks added nothing to the originals and that Please and Lemon (Perfecto Mix) would have been welcome additions, I think it was great and didn't deserve the bad reviews it got from some quarters.
The Best of 1980-1990 and 1990-2000, should have looked like this in my opinion:

Even Better Than The Real Thing (U2)
Mysterious Ways (U2)
Beautiful Day (U2)
Electrical Storm (William Orbit Mix) - New Song (U2) (William Orbit)
One (U2)
Miss Sarajevo (U2)
Stay (Faraway, So Close!) (U2)
Please
Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of (U2)
Gone (New Mix) (Mike Hedges) (U2)
Until The End Of The World (U2)
The Hands That Built American (Theme From Gangs Of New York) - New Song (U2)
Lemon (Perfecto Mix)
Discotheque -New Mix (Mike Hedges) (U2)
Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me (U2)
Staring At The Sun - New Mix (Mike Hedges) (U2)
Numb (New Mix) (Mike Hedges) (U2)
The First Time (U2)
The Fly (U2)

Pride
New Years Day
Angel Of Harlem
Out Of Control
Desire
Gloria
Sunday Bloody Sunday
11 O'Clock Tick Tock
October (Hidden Track)
Where The Streets Have No Name
Bad
Bullet The Blue Sky
With Or Without You
Unforgettable Fire
I will Follow
When Love Comes To Town
I Still Havent Found What I'm
All I want Is you

Whaddya think?? (Ok, I admit my tracklisting on the earlier album isn't the best)

 

[ponkine]

Hola amigo
First of all, I always have said that the "New Mixes" for Best (?) of 1990-2000 are the most horrible piece of they´ve ever put onto tape.

Appart from that, why 2 filler new songs?. Both songs have nothing in common with the vibe of the 90s U2. Moreover, ATYCLB has nothing in common with the 90s. So if I were U2, I would have put the ATYCLB onto The Best of 2000-2010.

Best of 1980-1990 is a pretty good compilation, but rather short (only 65 minutes long, even including the hidden track October).

Anyway, here´s my REAL Best Of 1980-1990 and 1990-2000 ... and some tracks for 2000-2010

BEST OF 1980-1990

1- I Will Follow
2- Gloria
3- Sunday Bloody Sunday
4- New Year´s Day
5- Pride (in the name of love)
6- The Unforgettable Fire
7- Bad
8- Where The Streets Have No Name
9- I Still Haven´t Found What I´m Looking For
10- With Or Without You
11- Bullet The Blue Sky
12- Running To Stand Still
13- Desire
14- When Love Comes To Town
15- Angel Of Harlem
16- All I Want Is You

BEST OF 1990-2000

1- Even Better Than The Real Thing
2- The Fly
3- Mysterious Ways
4- One
5- Until The End Of The World
6- Who´s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
7- Numb (ORIGINAL !!!)
8- Lemon
9- Stay (faraway so close)
10- Hold Me Trill Me Kiss Me Kill Me
11- Miss Sarajevo
12- Discotheque (ORIGINAL !!!)
13- Mofo
14- Gone (ORIGINAL !!!)
15- Staring At The Sun (ORIGINAL !!!)
16- If God Will Send His Angels (single version)
17- Please (single version)

BEST OF 2000- 2010

1- Beautiful Day
2- Elevation
3- Stuck In A Moment
4- Walk On
5- City Of Blinding Lights
6- Vertigo
7- Sometimes You Can´t Make It On Your Own
8- Original Of The Species
9- ?
10-?
11-?
12-?
13-?
14-?
15-?
16-?

Bonus DVD

- Gloria (video)
- A Celebration (video)
- Two Hearts Beat As One (video)
- A Sort Of Homecoming (video)
- Pride (video 2)
- Bad (video NOT from Rattle & Hum)
- Red Hill Mining Town (video)
- In God´s Country (video)
- One Tree Hill (video)
- It´s Christmas, Baby Please Come Home (video)
- All Along The Watchtower (Live Video From Sydney 1989)
- God Part II (Live Video From Sydney 1989)
- Hawkmoon 269 (Live Video From Sydney 1989)
- Until The End Of The World (video)
- Love Is Blindness (video)
- Staring At The Sun (video 2)
- Please (video 2)



Damn, what a boxset it could be

 

[RademR]

like your 90-2000 mix ponkine....the real one released was a travesty.

An Cat Gav, welcome to the site

 

[An Cat Gav]

Thanks for the welcome !!
Ponkine, I love your DVD selection, you named ALL the videos I wanna see!
A Celebration is one of U2's best ever videos!
Baby Please Come Home is possibly their best cover version, along with Night and Day(which also should get a mention as U2's best video in my opinion!).
I've always longed to see the video for Red Hill Mining Town but I wasn't aware there was a video for One Tree Hill. have you seen it? I know it was a No 1 single in New Zealand so I guess it must have a video.
I agree with you about the video for Bad, it has to be the version from Wide Awake in America! That song and video are sublime!
Lastly, I also worship those live songs from the Lovetown documentary, especially Hawkmoon, what a way to open a show!
Did you see the version of Desire on that documentary?I know it was excluded from the MTV version, if you can, try to see it, it ROCKS!!!!!!!!

 

[U2DMfan]

All things considered, I think they got the 80's disc right, with the exception of leaving off Gloria. All those R&H songs maybe aren't indiicative of their best work, but they were hits.

That disc is a huge seller.

The 90's disc is a complete fuck up.
From the song selection itself, abominable, to the reworking of the POP tracks, worse. Then the two new tracks just waste space, Storm is a nice song, but it's nothing special, at least Sweetest Thing made some sense in context. Why not rework a 90's b-side? Fuck. Then you have the 90's B-side disc which should have gotten 57 people fired in the U2 camp.

A total fucking mess. Worse than that, a total fucking shame.

 

[U2DMfan]

A Celebration is one of U2's best ever videos!

Is it the red Bono pants that sucked you in?

no seriously, these hits packages are for the average person who digs U2 and didn't bother to pick up anything more than maybe the Joshua Tree. If I was given the task to make a disc for these people, to move the product and to represent the era and had hand selected them myself I would have used the exact tracklist and added Gloria, I even like the October bonus.

 

[Ellay]

I liked the new mixes.

It gave people like me who'd already got all the songs on the album, a reason to go out and buy it.

 

[An Cat Gav]

Yes, I must be honest, Bono's red trousers have a disturbing, worrying effect on me! The special effects though were great also, especially Adam Clayton walking through the "glowing door"
Got to agree with u2DM fan, the bonus disc on 1990-2000 was awful! Where was Night and Day? Satellite of love,alex descends into hell? Just too many crappy remixes. The bonus disc with 1980-1990 was damn near perfect, what went wrong?
Anyway, dont wanna seem too negative!
U2 are the best!
Glad to read on another thread that Bono has been listening to Passengers again, I was tired of hearing Larry slag it off all the time. Lets hope the guys use their time off to make a great new album!!
Peace
Gav

 

[Nisse]

But the compilations aren't "Greatest Hits" but "Best ofs".

80-90
1. Where The Streets Have No Name
2. Pride (Single Version)
3. I Still Havent Found What Im Looking For
4. Desire
5. I Will Follow
6. Gloria (Edit)
7. Angel Of Harlem
8. Out Of Control
9. Sunday Bloody Sunday
10. Bullet The Blue Sky
11. October
12. New Year's Day (Special Version)
13. The Unforgettable Fire
14. All I Want Is You (Single Edit)
15. Bad (Edit)
16. The Electric Co. (Edit)
17. 11 O'Cloc Tick Tock
18. With Or Without You
19. "40"


Best of 1990-2000

1. Beautiful Day
2. The Fly
3. Discotheque (Radio Edit)
4. Elevation (Tomb Raider Mix)
5. Even Better Than The Real Thing
6. Numb (NEW Mix)
7. Mysterious Ways
8. Stay
9. Staring At The Sun
10. One
11. Stuck In A Moment (Radio Edit)
12. Gone
13. Until The End Of The World
14. Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me
15. Lemon (Edit)
16. Miss Sarajevo (Radio Edit)
17. Please (US Edit)
18. Walk On (Hallelujah Mix)