I was wondering if there was any vaguely comprehensive various-artist compilations out there featuring a vast majority of the acclaimed songs, given that some artists only have one song and no album in the acclaimed lists. I do have the Phil Spector boxed set which covers quite a few artists where even a greatest hits of them would be overkill.

I need a credible way to own 'Theme From S'Express' (among others). I suppose I should track down the CD-single but what about artists from before the age of CD-singles?

I've thought about a thread like this for a while, not so much dealing with various-artists compilations but with any anthology (single-artist included) that contains, say, at least 3-5 Acclaimed Music songs that don't appear on any of the AM albums.

The Spector box (BACK TO MONO) certainly comes to mind, as do the Motown HITSVILLE anthologies. NUGGETS, of course (either the original Lenny Kaye-compiled 1972 single disc or Rhino's 1998 4-CD expansion).

As far as single-artist compilations go, you can start with the two PAST MASTERS discs that Capitol put together to compile all the non-LP Beatles tracks, then go to two albums that have frequently been proposed for inclusion on the Acclaimed albums list even though they're _technically_ deemed ineligible: Elvis Presley's SUN SESSIONS and SINGLES GOING STEADY by the Buzzcocks.

Don't have time at the moment to parse the track lists of all these and note the AM songs that appear on them. I promise to keep all such posts squarely in this thread, rather than post them all under separate cover.

Can anyone think of any others?

As a postscript re: THE SUN SESSIONS, it should be noted that RCA released most of the then-unreleased Sun recordings on the ELVIS PRESLEY album, then subsequently included most of the Sun single A&B sides on either A DATE WITH ELVIS or FOR LP FANS ONLY, the hodgepodge albums that were released during Elvis' Army stint and which both appear on the Acclaimed list. But the label didn't compile all the Sun sides into one album until 1975.

Hmmm. I've come to regard Elvis's fifties albums as stingy compilations and now just listen to his fifties stuff on 'The Complete Fifties Masters' boxed set (all the masters are on four discs). Certainly saves room on the shelf. The post-Sun fifties material is almost as good and certainly in the same league.

Surely people's attachment to Elvis's 'studio albums' is merely nostalgic as they make little sense.

Boxed sets or compilations (usually on the Rhino label) are probably the only coherent way to listen to fifties rock'n'roll.

PS. The Beatles 'Past Masters Volume Two' is my favourite compilation album of all time!

Thank you, Harold. I didn't know about that Motown Hitsville boxed set. I've added it to my wishlist! Is the 'Nuggets II' boxed set the sequel to the single-disc album or an expanded version of the album?

NUGGETS clarification:

In 1972, Lenny Kaye (rock critic and future lead guitarist for Patti Smith) compiled 28 mid-60s American garage band singles into the initial NUGGETS album. In 1998, Rhino created the NUGGETS box set, with Kaye's original compilation as Disc 1 and three additional discs filled with 75 other tracks.

The NUGGETS II box, which Rhino put out a couple of years later, is a compilation of garage band recordings from the same period, but from England and the rest of the world. I don't have this one, but I know it has at least a couple of Acclaimed Music tracks like the Easybeats' "Friday on My Mind".