Jovitalk - Bon Jovi Fan Community - View Single Post - "You can't have a Greatest Hits without the GREATEST HITS"

Crushgen24/88 · 07-07-2010, 09:40 PM

So I posted an entry on my blog going into great detail about the new Greatest Hits album, and my opinions relating to said project. I wasn't going to post it here at first, but I figured what the hell. Feel free to totally disagree with me, and comment me here or there:

http://thelastsong2488.blogspot.com/...95422dc5cda007

Quote:

Over the last fews years, there's been an intense debate within the Bon Jovi fan community as to what the band should do about a new Greatest Hits album, and what it should contain. The debate has cooled recently, as said album has but has been delayed numerous times in favor of new studio records Lost Highway and The Circle. In recent weeks however, the rumors have picked up steam that said GH release will be released in time for 2010's Holiday Season, and the argument as exploded anew. Inspired by Anthony Kuzminski's latest Screen-Door blog Bon Jovi: Half Way There-The Greatest Hits, here's what I'd like to do with this blog is address most of the common concerns about the GH, talk about what I think the band should do, and how I think this set can be made to appeal to the die-hards.

Career Spanning vs. Post-Cross Road:
The most heated debate amongst Bon Jovi fans on this topic comes down to what time period a new hits record should feature. Many feel that the band should simply release a "Volume 2" to their 1994 Cross Road compilation, and only include songs from 1995-2009. Now I can understand why many fans feel this way, but I honestly believe they're thinking with their hearts, not their heads. Now, Bon Jovi have released enough albums in this period to piece together a single-disc compilation, especially if the band includes the rumored new tracks. But really, there would only be two or three tracks there to really appeal to casual fans. With the shape that the record industry is in now, it makes no sense for the band to minimize their appeal like that, especially when a majority of fans buying this compilation will want the hits they recognize, which (ESpeCIALLY in America) essentially boils down to "Livin On A Prayer", "You Give Love A Bad Name", "Wanted Dead Or Alive", "Bad Medicine", "Always", "It's My Life", and "Who Says You Can't Go Home." The Post-CR approach would remove 5 of those songs, which is a horrid idea in my opinion. Honestly, and putting all of my own bias on songs aside, the most lucrative Bon Jovi Hits Collection would probably look something like this:

1. Runaway
2. In And Out Of Love
3. You Give Love A Bad Name
4. Livin' On A Prayer
5. Wanted Dead Or Alive
6. Bad Medicine
7. I'll Be There For You
8. Born To Be My Baby
9. Lay Your Hands On Me
10. Keep the Faith
11. In These Arms
12. I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
13. Bed Of Roses
14. *NEW SONG*
15. *NEW SONG*

1. Always
2. Someday I'll Be Saturday Night
3. Something For The Pain
4. This Ain't a Love Song
5. These Days
6. It's My Life
7. Thank You For Loving Me
8. Misunderstood (US) / Everyday (Rest of The world)
9. Have a Nice Day
10. Who Says You Can't Go Home (US featuring Duet Version W/ Jennifer Nettles)
11. (You Want To) Make a Memory
12. Lost Highway
13. We Weren't Born To Follow
14. *NEW SONG*
15. *NEW SONG*

Tiered Approach:
While I think the above tracklisting is the best option for the band, I think the potential for a tiered release approach is interesting. For those unfamiliar, a tiered release would be releasing several different versions to appeal to everyone from the most casual fan to the die hards (who I'll get to later on). In this scenario, I can see something like this:

Single Disc (For The Most casual of fan)
1. Runaway
2. You Give Love a Bad Name
2. Livin' On A Prayer
4. Wanted Dead Or Alive
5. Bad Medicine
6. I'll Be There For You
7. Born To Be My Baby
8. Bed Of Roses
9. Always
10. It's My Life
11. Have A Nice Day
12. Who Says You Can't Go Home (US has duet)
13. Lost Highway
14. We Weren't Born To Follow
15. New Song

Double Disc (For someone wanting something more than the single disc)
1. Runaway
2. In And Out Of Love
3. You Give Love A Bad Name
4. Livin' On A Prayer
5. Wanted Dead Or Alive
6. Bad Medicine
7. I'll Be There For You
8. Born To Be My Baby
9. Lay Your Hands On Me
10. Keep the Faith
11. In These Arms
12. I'll Sleep When I'm Dead
13. Bed Of Roses
14. *NEW SONG*
15. *NEW SONG*

1. Always
2. Someday I'll Be Saturday Night
3. Something For The Pain
4. This Ain't a Love Song
5. These Days
6. It's My Life
7. Thank You For Loving Me
8. Misunderstood (US) / Everyday (Worldwide)
9. Have a Nice Day
10. Who Says You Can't Go Home W/Nettles (Duet in US)
11. (You Want To) Make a Memory
12. Lost Highway
13. We Weren't Born To Follow
14. *NEW SONG*
15. *NEW SONG*

Box Set (For the "completist")
Disc 1 and 2 are the same as the above Double Disc set.

Disc 3 ("Fan/live favorites")
1. Tokyo Road
2. Edge of a Broken Heart
3. Never Say Goodbye
4. Livin In Sin
5. Blood On Blood
6. Dry County
7. These Days
8. Just Older
9. Captain Crash and The Beauty Queen From Mars
10. The Radio Saved My Life Tonight
11. Last Man Standing
12. We Got It Going On (LIVE)
13. Whole Lot of Leavin'
14. When We Were Beautiful
15. Hallelujah (LIVE)

Disc 4 (DVD)
Preferably a live DVD, but could also go in the direction of all the band's music videos, or even the brilliant Access All Areas documentary from 1990.

The Die Hard Question:
Any Bon Jovi Die Hard reading this will notice that NONE of my ideas (even the Box Set concept) aren't super friendly to us, but frankly they're not supposed to be. A Greatest Hits collection is purposely built to bring in people who DON'T own every album a band as ever released. Now personally, while I'd love to have something catered very specifically to us, I can understand why we wouldn't get one this time. For starters, we've already gotten our major gift in the 100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can't Be Wrong Box Set, which featured essentially 4 full discs of never heard tracks, now it seems that the band is ready to cash in on their legacy. Now, speaking of legacy for a moment, I've heard the common complaint thrown about that a new GH would be whoring said legacy, but I completely disagree. Bon Jovi have never been one to do that release-wise, and in fact have only released Cross Road as far as compilations go. The only other releases that even come close are This Left Feels Right (Which is an "acoustic" re-imagining) and Tokyo Road (A compilation of the band's "rockier" tracks that was only released in Japan) Now, with all that being said, there are certainly ways that the band could make this collection appealing to Die Hards, and for evidence I prompt you to look no further than Fall Out Boy's 2009 hits comp. Believers Never Die. I know the idea of even using Bon Jovi and Fall Out Boy in the same blog will piss some of you off, but hear me out in this. The BND comp features every single the band released, all of which are owned by someone who has their discography. However, it also features 2 new songs, two hard to find rarities, a DVD featuring all of the band's videos, commentary by the band on EVERY video, new cover artwork, a large photo-filled booklet, and liner notes from each member of the band. I'm not saying these are the exact things that Bon Jovi should do, but rather simply the idea that a lot of work was put into the release.

Well, I think that's about it for now. I welcome any and all ideas and criticisms.