52 Best Greatest Hits Vinyl Albums

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Our 52 Best Rock Artist’s Original Greatest Hits Vinyl Albums list is just that, no CDs, no deluxe box sets or any compilation packages that came out during the CD era. This one goes back to the old days of vinyl records, cassette tapes, and 8 tracks. Even by limiting the list to the pre-CD era, just picking around 52 is a challenging task. Greatest hits packages have always been highly successful from a marketing standpoint and have often become the biggest-selling albums of many artists’ catalogs.

In the 1960s and 70s there were two types of music fans. Some would often buy every album released by their favorite artists and those who just brought the most significant hits albums. Usually, loyal music fans purchase everything but the greatest hits album because they already own all the music. Eventually, record labels got a little hip to that fact and began releasing greatest hits albums with an unreleased track or two. That concept would greatly take hold in the CD era. However, in the vinyl era, space was limited in the records. So, record companies were faced with the decision to place an unreleased track at the expense of a popular song or just keep it to all the hits. Depending on the band, most record companies just stuck to the hits because, in the end, they knew it was the mass public buying the greatest hits albums instead of the die-hards.

Many rock artists greatest hits packages became legendary for various reasons. Album covers were a very important part of selling greatest hits vinyl records. Some were very artistic and sometimes confusing like The Rolling Stones Made In The Shade. No place on that album cover defined it was a Rolling Stones greatest hits album. When I first purchased the album as a young kid in the 70s, I thought I was buying a new Rolling Stones album that had a very cool cover. However, most greatest hits albums would have the words Greatest Hits printed as clear as a New York City street no parking sign.

Rock Artist’s Greatest Hits albums were created for the fans that usually just brought the 45 singles. The fans that liked the band but weren’t big record collectors. The fans who would say “why should I buy the album if I only like one song?” Greatest Hits packages were also great gifts. Ever notice that most Greatest Hits albums were, and still are usually released in the fall for the holiday season?

So why do a Best Rock Artist Greatest Hits albums article? We haven’t mentioned that for many of us classic rock fans who grew up with these legendary artists, their greatest hits albums were the first records we purchased from these artists. Those albums are what turned us on to the artists in the first place. Of course not always, but I think any one of us could look back and find an artist that we became fans of because someone in our family had a greatest hits package of that artist already. And it was those greatest hits albums that we fell in love with that fueled our desire to go search out and purchase the original studio albums. In many cases became big fans and buy every single release that particular artist would ever put our again.

Greatest hits albums also had a specific flow to them led by the track lineup. We would get used to hearing an order of songs in a particular way, from repeated listens to an artist’s greatest hits record. Remember, in the old days, we listened to albums a side at a time, usually straight through. After hearing a certain flow of songs from a greatest hits record, it could be odd sometimes to listen to them being followed up by different songs on the original studio albums. Ultimately, it all depended on what came first in your record collection: the greatest hits or the studio album.

Our 50 Best Rock Artists Original Greatest Hits Vinyl Albums list was determined by multiple factors. We are using the word best in the title, so we need to define why we think they are the best. First and foremost the impact the artist’s music ‘had on popular culture was the first deciding factor. The second was the song selections placed on the greatest hits package. The third was the popularity of the album. Most of these albums are just starlight ahead greatest hits LPs, with just a few tilted towards unreleased songs or slight variations. We could have done a top 500 list, but hey we have deadlines in this business.