Member-only story
The Best “Worst” Album
Or is it the worst best album?
Normally, I don’t care for “Best of” albums, though I know that many do, or else why would The Eagles: Their Greatest Hits be such a multi-million bestseller?
“Best of” albums necessarily have to make decisions as to the order of songs, and that might very well be a thankless task. I would never thank, for instance, the person who decided to place “Oye Como Va” before “Black Magic Woman” on 2007’s Ultimate Santana package. Did they never listen to Abraxas? I’m not sure what “ultimate” means or what limits we need to take these things to. I do know that not everyone can buy every record by artists that they like or admire. So sure, grab the Best of The Beatles or Aretha if you must, but you’ll miss how certain songs really need to segue into others.
But there are moments and records that turn the original order on its head, making an accepted standard into a better or Worst version of that original. It also matters when and how you’re introduced to a band and a record.
In January 1973, as a high school junior, I watched an ABC Movie of the Week, a Tuesday night TV staple, about an addicted girl named Alice. I was haunted and mesmerized, not so much by the story and plot, but by a song I should have known but somehow in my pop and slightly hard rock life, I didn’t.
