Anthology

There's little question that Shout! Factory's double-disc compilation The Marshall Tucker Band Anthology: The First 30 Years is exhuastive. It spans 32 songs, sampling from 20 albums, running more or less in chronological order, and giving a good idea of the group's narrative…

A two-disc anthology of Rod Stewart's early Mercury recordings, which, in conjunction with the albums he recorded with the Faces, are inarguably his finest (nothing from the Faces records is included). Most of the highlights of his terrific first four albums are here – "Maggie May," "You Wear It Well," "Handbags and Gladrags," "Gasoline Alley" – as well as selections from the lukewarm Smiler, a live album recorded with the Faces, and a couple of rare B-sides.

Unquestionably the finest collection of a major band that did much to launch American folk-rock in the mid-'60s. Anthology jams 26 cuts onto a single CD, including all of their hits and some of their strongest album tracks, drawing mostly from their 1965-1966 prime…

What's in a name? If you love mid-'60s folk-rockers the Mamas & the Papas, this four-volume U.K. Complete Anthology (2004) speaks for itself. The 101 selections run in excess of five hours centering on the vintage long-players If You Can Believe Your Eyes and Ears (1966), The Mamas & the Papas (1966), The Mamas & the Papas Deliver (1967), The Papas & the Mamas (1968), People Like Us (1971), and The Monterey International Pop Festival (1971)…

There is a track listing on the back cover of Metro Doubles' two-CD Procol Harum compilation, Classic Tracks and Rarities: An Anthology, and potential purchasers are encouraged to consult it before buying this album. It is a natural tendency to assume that a collection with a title like that surveys the group's entire career, but in fact, this one focuses on only the first four albums, Procol Harum, Shine On Brightly, A Salty Dog, and Home…

Anthology essentially replicates the previous collection Greatest Hits and adds singles from There's a Riot Goin' On and Fresh to the end of the album. Where Greatest Hits didn't follow chronological order, Anthology presents every single in the order it was released – and, with the exception of the latter-day singles and the inclusion of "Don't Call Me Nigger, Whitey," that is the major difference between the two collections…

The Smithereens already have a single-disc compilation, 1995's excellent Blown to Smithereens: The Best of the Smithereens. Released in 2004, From Jersey It Came! The Smithereens Anthology expands on that collection, taking 15 of its 16 songs (a cover of the Outsiders' "Time Won't Let Me" is left behind) and adding 24 other tunes, including their version of "Downbound Train" from a Bruce Springsteen tribute and a selection from 1999's God Save the Smithereens, for a grand total of 39 tracks over two discs…

It's easy to say that Rhino's Jukebox Heroes: The Foreigner Anthology is the definitive Foreigner retrospective, simply because there's so much music here: 39 tracks over the course of two discs, including all the hits, the bulk of notable album tracks, solo cuts from Lou Gramm and Mick Jones, plus two tracks from Jones-era Spooky Tooth…

Gram Parsons' legend is so great that it's easy for the neophyte to be skeptical about his music, wondering if it really is deserving of such effusive praise. Simply put, it is, and if you question the veracity of that statement, turn to Rhino's peerless double-disc set, Sacred Hearts and Fallen Angels: The Gram Parsons Anthology. This is the first truly comprehensive overview of Parsons' work, running from the International Submarine Band, through the Byrds, to the Flying Burrito Brothers and his two solo albums, scattering appropriate rarities or non-LP tracks along the way…