greatest hits

Does a ’Greatest Hits’ album give a good synopsis of an artists’ career ?

I think, like with everything, there are a lot of bad ’Greatest Hits’ albums and there are a lot of good ones. Just like with everything, the percentage is : some are 10% good and 90 % are rubbish. Although I still think it’s worth the risk to at least try. There are some ’Greatest Hits’ albums out there that I have loved, with music I am not so familiar with. For example, I was twenty-five when I found out that Marvin Gaye existed, I didn’t know soul music before that. I got some kind of singles collection or ’Greatest Hits’ of his.

I think you also have to trust people as well. Some of the Marvin Gaye collections were not so good when you just play number three or track nine or something, and the other ones were fantastic, like every song was excellent and the structure was perfect. So I think it is possible.

David Toop Interview, 2002