As a measurement of greatness, ‘best of’ albums come up short

A greatest-hits album once stood as a watershed – a milestone chronicling a collection of top-rated hits, culturally significant songs or the end of a stellar career.

But in recent years, a flood of “best of” titles from acts with only few years in the business have called into question how great a greatest-hits collection is.

Last fall, Britney Spears released “Greatest Hits: My Prerogative,” a retrospective of her chart-topping, multiplatinum recording career – all six years of it.

The Backstreet Boys put out “The Hits: Chapter One” in 2001 – just four years after releasing their first album.

And while teen queen Hilary Duff has sold millions of albums, she’s only released two discs – the first one in 2003 – and neither spawned a top 10 hit. Her “best of” collection, “Most Wanted,” hit record stores Tuesday.

“I don’t know what you’d put on a record if you’ve only been making records for five years. I don’t know what those greatest hits would be,” says veteran rocker John Mellencamp.

Among the more questionable greatest-hits collections that have popped up in recent years: “Toy Soldiers: The Best of Martika” (with one hit from the 1980s); “The Best of Mandy Moore,” from an entertainer who had more success as an actress than she ever did as a singer; and “The Best of O.D.B.,” from the late rapper who will best be remembered for his wild behavior and legal troubles than his chart-topping hits (or lack thereof).

“I guess with music becoming so disposable, things just happen so much faster now,” says Collective Soul singer Dean Roland, whose band put out a greatest-hits album of its own in 2001.

“The short answer to the whole thing is it comes out to a money issue. The labels can put a greatest-hits album out and it’s going to sell.”

The packages are cheap to produce and promote, and they can be wildly popular. The Eagles’ “Their Greatest Hits: 1971-1975” is the best-selling album in U.S. history, selling more than 28 million copies.

Sheryl Crow, whose “The Very Best of Sheryl Crow” was a multiplatinum hit in 2003, agrees that in some cases, thoughts of profits weigh heavily.

“Part of that is record labels continually try to work their catalog so they always have money coming in,” Crow says.

But Kevin Gore, executive vice president of sales and marketing at Rhino Entertainment, which puts out various greatest-hits packages, compilations and boxed sets, says a “Best of Sugar Ray” – which the label recently released – is valid, even if some may sneer.

“At the end of the day, there’s a larger audience that will buy a greatest-hits collection than might buy the individual albums just because they’ve chosen not to buy the original albums,” Gore says.

“Let’s say there’s two hit songs on a record from five years ago, and then there’s another two hit songs from a record that’s three years ago,” he says. “You have a greater opportunity to bring in a larger audience because you’re putting all the hits in one place.”

It’s an idea the Backstreet Boys agree with – even though, initially, they balked at the idea of putting one out.

“For me as an artist, like, when I see somebody put out a greatest-hits record, they’re either finished, or they need some time (off),” says Brian Littrell. “I kind of felt it was too soon to put those great songs on a CD. I think I wanted our fans to miss them a little bit.”

However, says bandmate Howie Dorough, in many ways, the greatest-hits album – which sold more than 1 million copies and contained a few new tunes – may have drawn the casual fan who had never brought a Backstreet Boys CD.

“We’ve had, knock on wood, over 12 singles,” Dorough says. “But for somebody who’s not a truly Backstreet fan, (who) wants to go out and buy five different records? … To be able to go and buy their greatest hits, I’d do that in a heartbeat.”

A more critical issue, record companies say, is the decreasing shelf space to carry an artist’s catalog. With the advent of Wal-Mart and Target as major record stores, there are fewer outlets where you might find several different albums from one artist.

“If an artist has five or six or seven albums in his or her catalog, a lot of times many retailers are only carrying two or three,” says Jeff Jones, executive vice president of Sony BMG’s catalog division, Legacy Recordings.

“Perhaps songs that were included on albums one, three and five might no longer get the kind of visibility or shelf space that a hits record will provide those particular songs,” he says.

Legacy’s releases this year range from Miles Davis to Bob Dylan to Martika – which brings us back to her “Best Of …” collection.

At the time, her “Toy Soldiers” was enjoying a resurgence after Eminem sampled it on his song, “Like Toy Soldiers.” Fans searching for the original song may have been out of luck, Jones says.

Besides, he says, just because the average person can’t name more than one Martika song doesn’t mean there aren’t fans out there.

“A hits collection doesn’t necessarily always have to be 16 No. 1 songs,” says Jones.

Not anymore. Which is good news for the PM Dawns, Lisa Stansfields and Color Me Badds of the world – all of whom also have greatest-hits albums.