Level 42 Definitive Collection

The titles of hits compilations always deal in superlatives: "Greatest," "Best," "Very Best" – but the compilers of this ABBA collection have a special problem justifying the release of yet another such album after the multi-platinum success of 1992's ABBA Gold: Greatest Hits and its 1993 follow-up, More ABBA Gold: More ABBA Hits. (Indeed, the band was never shy about repackaging, issuing a Greatest Hits LP in 1976 as only its third U.S. album, followed by Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 in 1979 and The Singles [The First Ten Years] in 1982.) They have settled on The Definitive Collection and done their best to live up to the name. The 37-track double CD contains "for the first time exclusively collected in one package, each and every single as conceived and released by ABBA and their record company Polar Music between 1972 and 1982," writes annotator Carl Magnus Palm.

Known both for his solo hits in the '80s as well as his hits with the band Smokie in the '70s, Chris Norman is a British soft rock singer with an international following whose career spans several decades. A few years after the success of his 1978 Suzi Quatro duet, "Stumblin' In," he parted ways with Smokie and found solo success with his second album, 1986's Some Hearts Are Diamonds. In the decades that followed, Norman proved himself to be surprisingly prolific, delivering a new studio album every two or three years and maintaining a large fan base in Germany, where his chart success continued into the 2000s. Following a 2004 resurgence and Top Ten German hit with "Amazing," he continued releasing new material as well as career-spanning collections like Definitive Collection: Smokie And Solo Years.

The Hollies have a recorded many songs and everyone has their own list of favourites whether it be single or album track. With this Double set, we've included all the hits plus the classics that audiences request at every Hollies concert.

Greatest hits albums are a big thing for Air Supply. Their first, 1983's Greatest Hits, is their biggest seller in the United States, earning five platinum certifications within its first decade of release, after which it was continually replaced by collections both considered and sloppy. All of which is to say, Real Gone Music's 2016 The Columbia & Arista Years: The Definitive Collection has some stiff competitors for the title of definitive Air Supply compilation, but this physical rendition of the 2014 digital release The Essential Air Supply does offer an overview of the soft rock duo's prime that's thorough in a way its predecessors aren't. Much of this is due to sheer length: at 30 tracks and two CDs, it's nearly a third longer than the previous standard bearer, 2003's Ultimate Air Supply (and it doesn't replicate all of that disc's songs, either, cutting away four tracks most fans won't miss).