best and worst DVD video collections (execution, not content)

[Dean Winchester]

there have been countless video collections released on DVD, many more than ever thought of back in the days of VHS, because having an artist and their 30+ videos together is easier to manage with the DVD button instead of having to fast forward a lot to get to the video you want to see.

some of the best (and reasons why):
David Bowie - Best Of Bowie -- he was doing videos a decade before MTV, and he's continued to remain relevant well into the twenty-first century. His video collection up to 1990 was released on VHS years ago but went quickly out of print. The DVD collects all of his videos (minus "This Is Not America", which was all movie clips and no Bowie) as well as a number of classic UK television appearences from the early 1970's. Add this in, a few nifty easter eggs (such as the complete, long-out-of-print Jazzin For Blue Jean short film) and it's a DVD for any true David Bowie fan

Olivia Newton-John - Video Gold I & Video Gold II -- I don't think anyone expected Universal to be so nice to us considering Olivia hasn't had a successful single or album since 1985's Soul Kiss and most of her catalog is out of print. This DVD resurrects long the long out of print Physical, Twist Of Fate and Soul Kiss video collections... remasters the videos and sound quality, gives nice colorful booklets as well as unearths some other hard to find videos of hers. I was disapointed that only two "The Rumour" era videos made the cut (she filmed a video album for the entire cd in 1988) and it really skimps on recent years, only one video past-1992, but nonetheless, the two collections are worth every cent and do a fantastic job representing Livvy at the height of her career

Beastie Boys -- I'm not a fan of theirs, but I have heard nothing but great things about their 1999 Criterion DVD

Erasure - HITS! The Video Collection -- Erasure has never been one of the greatest video artists, but they have never failed to deliver great electropop music over the past two decades. Warner released this video collection not only, collecting all (nearly 40) professionally released videos they did between 1985-2003, but also giving us a nice bonus disc featuring a number of live clips and alternate videos (ironically, the "alternate" In My Arms is the one I remember seeing on VH1 in 1997) as well as loading the set with a number of documentaries (over 2 hours worth) of the duo between 1991 to 2003. All with a retail for under $20.

ABBA - The Definitive Collection -- For a band that broke up only one year after the launch of MTV, this DVD is loaded with more videos than most artists who had their heydays in the 80's and 90's have ever made. You get all 30 videos ABBA filmed between 1974-1982, some campy, some great, all remastered, as well as five bonus videos (live performances, Spanish-only videos), a great bargain that pretty much contains every one of their hits.

some of the worst (and reasons why):
Prince - The Hits Collection -- a DVD repackaging of a useless 1993 video collection. Prince had made a good 40 videos I could count off the top of my head between 1979-1993, it almost felt like one of the execs at Warner had the names of all Prince's videos on the wall and just threw darts. A few nice "rarities" (I Wanna Be Your Lover, Dirty Mind, Uptown), A few blockbusters (Kiss, Cream, Raspberry Beret, 1999) but a lot of smash hits missing (When Doves Cry, U Got The Look, Gett Off). A video collection with no real rhyme or reason and not a very good representation of his Warner years, I'd like to see Prince release a massive 3 or 4 disc Criterion style video collection of everything himself.

Cher - The Video Hits Collection -- An extremely disapointing Cher video compilation released by Warner in 2004. Granted, a bulk of Cher's career happened pre-MTV, but the tracklisting is jumbled and useless, and a lot of videos were skipped (such as The Music's No Good Without You, Alive Again, Love And Understanding and the extremely rare pre-MTV Hell On Wheels) and the videos were in no particular order

Madonna - The Immaculate Collection and Video Collection 93-99 -- Madonna is arguably the queen of the video age, but both of her video collections thus far have been underwhelming. A number of movie clips are absent (Live To Tell, Who's That Girl, This Used To Be My Playground, etc...), other videos are also gone with no explanation (Erotica, Deeper And Deeper, Burning Up, You'll See, Justify My Love, etc...), she is in dire need of a 2-disc deluxe video collection DVD, maybe she'll get one after Confessions runs its course, it's overdue

Duran Duran - Greatest -- extremely overpriced and useless. Way too many missing videos (disc two only includes nine videos... even though it was covering the 1986-1997 era where they had a LOT of videos, just not as many hits) and relies way too much on the easter egg gimmick (easter eggs were fine on Bowie's DVD, but it was a great DVD worth it's cost even without the easter eggs). Duran were a great 80's video act, but the long-awaited video collection was a letdown.

[vashti1999]

Originally Posted by HUNG UP!

some of the best (and reasons why):
David Bowie - Best Of Bowie -- he was doing videos a decade before MTV, and he's continued to remain relevant well into the twenty-first century. His video collection up to 1990 was released on VHS years ago but went quickly out of print. The DVD collects all of his videos (minus "This Is Not America", which was all movie clips and no Bowie) as well as a number of classic UK television appearences from the early 1970's. Add this in, a few nifty easter eggs (such as the complete, long-out-of-print Jazzin For Blue Jean short film) and it's a DVD for any true David Bowie fan


some of the worst (and reasons why):
Prince - The Hits Collection -- a DVD repackaging of a useless 1993 video collection. Prince had made a good 40 videos I could count off the top of my head between 1979-1993, it almost felt like one of the execs at Warner had the names of all Prince's videos on the wall and just threw darts. A few nice "rarities" (I Wanna Be Your Lover, Dirty Mind, Uptown), A few blockbusters (Kiss, Cream, Raspberry Beret, 1999) but a lot of smash hits missing (When Doves Cry, U Got The Look, Gett Off). A video collection with no real rhyme or reason and not a very good representation of his Warner years, I'd like to see Prince release a massive 3 or 4 disc Criterion style video collection of everything himself.

I agree with both of those. I got the Bowie dvd for the videos I knew, and seeing the ones I hadn't been familiar with was great. One thing I was hoping would be included that wasn't was the Little Drummer Boy duet with Bing Crosby, but aside from that it's a great collection.

I was disppointed with the Prince collection when I first got it on VHS, so when they didn't add anything to the dvd I was pissed. I'm waiting for a complete comprehensive Prince music video collection.

Add to the good collections:
Culture Club - Greatest Hits: 17 videos, chronological tracklisting plus a full length 1983 concert

Janet Jackson - Design of a Decade/From Janet to Damita Jo : The Videos - put these together in one package and you'd have a great Janet collection, though you'd still be missing the vid for "Doesn't Really Matter"

[Dean Winchester]

yea, with Prince, I know it was released as a tie-in with the Hits 1/Hits 2 collection, if anything, they should've gone the "ABBA Gold/More ABBA Gold" route and released two VHS tapes containing every track on the cd on the said videotape, and then merged them on DVD, there still would have been way too much missing, but it would serve more purpose than the 15 tracker that we have and a lot more key videos would've been included.

Janet's collections are great too, I wish we'd have seen the Dream Street video with the cast of Fame though.

[Dean Winchester]

not a "video collection" per se, but one I am disapointed in is Who's That Girl. I received my review copy of it today, and while it's nice to finally own a widescreen copy of the movie (I've had it on a used VHS tape I bought from a rental joint when I was 11 or 12), I was a little disapointed that Warner couldn't just add in the "Who's That Girl" video as a bonus feature. The song was a #1 hit, I would've loved to see the video again and it's not on Madonna's Immaculate Collection DVD.

on the other hand in the "videos as an extra" dept., Purple Rain comes to mind as a movie DVD that was brilliant in the music video department, with no less than eight music videos, granted that about half of them were nothing but film clips, but the intention was great and it was a very nice extra that was worth rewatching.

[Dean Winchester]

while not a definitive video collection for the band (actually, 95% of their videos are spread over two overpriced collections that were direct replications of old VHS collections), Def Leppard's "Rock Of Ages" is a fantastic deal for $10-12. 19 videos, including basically all of the Pyromania and Hysteria hits from the 1980's as well as a generous helping of their 90's and recent material (even though Adrenalize should've had more than two videos on this, the album was a #1 that spawned a number of hits), the best part of the collection is band commentary on every video included, and it's actually pretty insightful commentary. It's a great bargain for $10-12 if you like Def Leppard, but don't want to spend nearly $50 on the two previously released DVD's. I like it when video collections contain artist commentary.

[Janice Johnson]

Michael Jackson's Number Ones DVD. Short version of BAD Panther part cut out of Black Or White, Fast version of Smooth Criminal(NOT the one from Moonwalker movie), Chris Tucker part cut out of You Rock My World, NO SCREAM video, "Video" Man In The Mirror with virtually NO Michael in it, just about 2 seconds of Michael in a HUGE crowd where you can barely see him, and a bunch of pictures of famous world helpers and sick hungry people. NO special features whatsoever, and no LYRICS added to the videos.Fans of Michael say that SONY made this just to get money off of him and Michael had virtually NO say in this DVD.

[Dean Winchester]

there's been so many MJ DVD's on the market, Sony should just release one definitive two-disc collection with ALL the videos from Off The Wall through Invincible with the uncut versions of Bad, Thriller, You Rock My World, Black Or White and so forth, and maybe throw in the Moonwalker version of Smooth Criminal as an easter egg when you click the 8-minute "except" video (kinda like how on David Bowie's DVD, if you click on a certain picture when accessing "Blue Jean" from the main menu, you get to access Bowie's 25 minute "Jazzin' For Blue Jean" mini-movie, which the MTV video was excepted from).

I don't agree or like MJ's personal life very much but if Sony ever threw together a definitive MJ video collection DVD with all the videos uncut, it would be a must-own DVD for me.

However, the Man In The Mirror video with only two or three seconds of Michael is the version that MTV/VH1 played, so I see nothing wrong with the inclusion of that because that's the clip that Epic and Michael delivered in early 1988.

[Janice Johnson]

Ignore this post.

[Janice Johnson]

Originally Posted by Dean Winchester

with the uncut versions of Bad,

I would buy a DVD that ONLY had the uncut video of BAD, behind the scenes of the uncut BAD, and audio comentary by Michael and Martin Scorsece.................. .