Here's another one we had missed from Universal Netherlands' Collected series:

Description
EU-only three CD collection from the acclaimed singer/songwriter. This set features tracks from his early days as an unknown singer/songwriter up through his critically successful days in the '80s and '90s and beyond. 57 tracks total.

Tracklist
[CD1]
1. Sure As I'm Sittin' Here
2. Hangin' Around The Observatory
3. I'm Tired Of Your Stuff
4. Radio Girl
5. Sharon's Got A Drugstore
6. Pink Bedroom
7. It Hasn't Happened Yet
8. I Look For Love
9. Something Happens
10. Riding With The King
11. Girl On A String
12. She Loves The Jerk
13. The Love That Harms
14. Lovers Will
15. Say It With Flowers
16. The Usual
17. She Said The Same Things To Me
18. Living A Little, Laughing A Little
19. Memphis In The Meantime
20. This Thing Called Love
21. Lipstick Sunset
22. Learning How To Love You

[CD2]
1. Have A Little Faith In Me
2. Thank You Girl
3. Tip Of My Tongue
4. Georgia Rae
5. Tennessee Plates
6. Slow Turning
7. Drive South
8. Already Loved
9. One Step Over The Line (The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band)
10. Stolen Moments
11. Child Of The Wild Blue Yonder
12. Real Fine Love
13. Bring Back Your Love To Me
14. Ashland City
15. Don't Go Away Mad (Little Village)
16. Buffalo River Home
17. Perfectly Good Guitar
18. Cross My Fingers

[CD3]
1. Something Wild
2. They All Leave Town
3. Little Goodnight
4. Perfectly Good Guitar (Acoustic)
5. True Believer
6. Too Live To Leave
7. Dust Down A Country Road
8. Cry Love
9. Graduated
10. Love In Flames
11. Don't Know Much About Love
12. Icy Blue Heart (Live)
13. Angel Eyes (Live)
14. Your Dad Did (Live)
15. Georgia Rae (Acoustic)
16. What Do We Do Now (Acoustic)
17. Have A Little Faith In Me (Acoustic)

Amazon USA
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00729WI70/?tag=imwan-20

Amazon UK
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00729WI70/?tag=imwan-21

so i am going to assume (hate that word) that COLLECTED is the new hip way to sell old music........without calling it a box set and having to put together a nice little booklet with a few other goodies thrown in for good measure.

soon every artists over the age of 40 will have a COLLECTED collection!

It's not new, Renny. Some of these Collected sets go back several years. I've just been catching up.

If you would put aside your distaste for compilations and check out some of the tracklists, you might be pleasantly surprised. The third discs on some of these sets do a good job of rounding up stray tracks that aren't usually found on best-ofs.

Why would somebody hate comps and greatest hits albums so much?

You don't have to buy them and it's a money-making thing.

This is called a music BUSINESS.

If I had a friend who owned no John Hiatt albums but decided to investigate and became a fan through a comp or best-of and then started going to see him live and maybe buying some studio albums I'd be thrilled.

Also, for the millionth time, the artists have little to no say over these items, especially overseas.

i don't really hate comps linda, i just hate when essential tracks are left off of them and when they add a new track or two to try to sell the fans the album.

the true fans (usually me when it happens ) already have all the songs on the comp, and basically forcing me to buy a CD for 1 or 2 songs just pisses me off. spotify has been a godsend for these things, when they get them.

for example:

i have every song on these 3 john hiatt CD's except the acoustic stuff (not sure if they have been on an album or not).

the bad company is another good example, 1 new song, and i have all the rest. they did that with the live album and the 2 CD comp.

and there are so many others.

and, IP, i don't buy them if i already have everything on them, you are right, no one is forcing anyone to buy anything.

Now Renny...you are 100% CORRECT about the way these things are often slapped together.

Although we have thousands of examples here's one off the top of my head...

In 1997 Boston issued their only best-of Greatest Hits (always love those imaginative titles).

Off the top of my head I think Boston had 10 hit singles and yet 3 were missing in "We're Ready" (a Top 10 hit), "Can'tcha Say (You Believe in Me)/Still in Love" (a Top 20 hit) and "I Need Your Love" while a weak album track like "Party" appeared as did TWO versions (one, a useless edit of a new song called "Higher Power" which was a damn good song).

The album was remastered around 2010 or so and they had a chance to fix it.

Did they? Nope! "I Need Your Love" was added and so was "I Had a Good Time" and some songs were dropped, but the other hits remained absent despite the fans complaining.

So, whether you like those songs or not, they should be on an album called Greatest Hits!

So, we are in total agreement about how carelessly these collections are usually cranked out!

a rare occasion for sure.