What are some original songs that were first featured on best of packages that are just as good as the greatest hits? I think That Girl, Do I Do and Ribbon In the Sky all of which appeared on Stevie Wonder's 1982 best of Original Musiquarium are just as good as any of the older songs on that collection. The same for Never Give Up On A Good Thing and Turn Your Love Around from The George Benson Collection and Here and Now from Luther Vandross' The Best of Luther The Best of Love. In fact Turn Your Love Around was George Benson's biggest selling single and won a grammy. Here And Now was Luther Vandross' biggest hit up to that point and won a grammy as well. That Girl was also a very big Stevie Wonder song.

Here are some of my favorites:

Alice In Chains
From Music Bank and Nothing Safe: The Best Of The Box (1999)
-"Get Born Again"

George Harrison
From Best Of Dark Horse 1976-1989 (1989):
-"Poor Little Girl"
-"Cockamamie Business"
-"Cheer Down"

Billy Joel
From Greatest Hits Volume I & Volume II (1985):
-"You're Only Human (Second Wind)"
-"The Night Is Still Young"

From Greatest Hits Volume III (1997):
-"To Make You Feel My Love"

John Mellencamp
From The Best I Could Do 1978-1988 (1997):
-"Without Expression"

From Words & Music: John Mellencamp's Greatest Hits (2004)
-"Walk Tall"
-"Thank You"

Nirvana
From Nirvana (2002):
-"You Know You're Right"

Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers
From Greatest Hits (1993):
-"Mary Jane's Last Dance"
-"Something In The Air"

From Anthology: Through The Years (2000):
-"Surrender"

Red Hot Chili Peppers
From Greatest Hits (2003)
-"Fortune Faded"
-"Save The Population"

R.E.M.
From In Time: The Best Of R.E.M. 1988-2003 (2003):
-"Bad Day"
-"Animal"

The Rolling Stones
From Forty Licks (2002):
-"Don't Stop"

U2
From Best Of 1980-1990 (1998):
-"The Sweetest Thing"

From Best Of 1990-2000 (2002):
-"Electrical Storm"
-"The Hands That Built America"

Van Halen
From Best Of Volume 1 (1996)
-"Can't Get This Stuff No More"
-"Me Wise Magic"

The Cars: "Tonight She Comes" (Greatest Hits, 1985)

Bob Dylan: "Watching the River Flow," "When I Paint My Masterpiece," "I Shall Be Released," "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere," "Down In the Flood" (Greatest Hits, Volume 2, 1971)

(All of these songs had been done by other artists - sometimes with different lyrics! - before Dylan himself recorded versions for commercial release.)

Bob Dylan: "Dignity" (Greatest Hits, Volume 3, 1994)

Daryl Hall and John Oates: "Say It Isn't So," "Adult Education" (Rock n' Soul, Part 1, 1983)

ABBA recorded hit singles for all three of their Greatest Hits packages. "Fernando" from 1976's Greatest Hits, "Gimme Gimme Gimme" from 1979's Greatest Hits Vol. 2 and "Under Attack" and "The Day Before You Came" from 1982's The Singles: The First Ten Years, which ended up their last recordings.

Barbra Streisand has added at least one new recorded for all of her Greatest Hit albums since 1978, and she's had a few of those.

Bjork recorded "It's In Our Hands" for 2002's Greatest Hits.

Donna Summer is the queen of this medium....
"No More Tears (Enough Is Enough)" and "On The Radio" for 1979's On The Radio
"Carry On" for 1993's The Donna Summer Anthology
"Melody Of Love" and "Any Way At All" for 1994's Endless Summer
"You're So Beautiful" and "I Will Live For Love" for 2003's The Journey

Heart scored their highest charting single up to that point when they recorded "Tell It Like It Is" for 1980's Greatest Hits/Live.

Janet Jackson recorded "Runaway" and "Twenty Foreplay" for 1995's Design Of A Decade.

Kylie Minogue recorded a few new songs for 1992's Greatest Hits and just recently recorded "I Believe In You" for the upcoming Ultimate Kylie.

Laura Branigan recorded "Show Me Heaven" and "Dim All The Lights" for 1995's Best Of Branigan.

Madonna recorded "Justify My Love" and "Rescue Me" for 1990's The Immaculate Collection.

Michael Jackson recorded an entire disc of new songs for the second disc of HIStory.

Olivia Newton-John's done this too. "Tied Up" and "Heart Attack" for 1982's Greatest Hits Vol. 2 as well as 4 new songs (one of which was the dance hit "I Need Love" for 1992's Back To Basics: 1971-1992

Prince's "Pope", "Peach" and "Pink Cashmere" were new songs for The Hits 1 & 2

Tina Turner recorded about 5 tracks for 1991's Simply The Best and has 3 new songs for her upcoming GH.

there's been quite a few other recent examples like No Doubt, Sheryl Crow, 98 Degrees, Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Shania Twain, etc...

Originally posted by BuffySlayer79
Michael Jackson recorded an entire disc of new songs for the second disc of HIStory.

Tina Turner recorded about 5 tracks for 1991's Simply The Best and has 3 new songs for her upcoming GH.



Michael Jackson's strategy was unique. Fans got the old songs and a whole new CD too.

The title song of Tina's Simply the Best was a relatively successful song. Clever title I must say.