There are several Greatest Hits packages in this edition; quickie releases designed to quickly get new fans up to speed or replace aging cassette tapes, or just to make money to pay off a divorce settlement or wring the last bit of blood from the stone after the band calls it quits. They have their place, and in at least a couple of instances, I was in that place. Or I needed to buy one more disc to get one free or something. It depends. Anyway, I managed to collect quite a few of these over the years:

♦The Bangles – September Gurls: This is one of those cheapie compilations that record companies put out hoping to sell a few copies at a low price point without expending a whole lot of effort. It came out sometime in the mid-nineties, during the Bangles’ break-up/hiatus. I own it largely because I still don’t have anything else in the Bangles’ catalog on CD, despite being a fan and having most of it on cassette or (at one point) vinyl. Track-wise, it veers pretty far from the “”Greatest Hits”” ideal (no “”Manic Monday”” or “”Walk Like and Egyptian””)…most of those are left off in favor of catalog pieces with Michael Steele on vocals (including the title track), which, frankly, is okay with me; she’s always been the most under-appreciated of the non-Hoffs Bangles. It does have “”Set You Free”” and “”Crash and Burn,”” both of which are favorites of mine. in fact, it would have been just about perfect if they’d included the band’s cover of “”Hazy Shade of Winter.””

♦Craig Kelley Band – Still Searchin’: I must have purchased this one during a summer catering gig; I’m pretty sure I saw these guys at least half-a-dozen times in those days. If I remember, the band’s live show was pretty energetic, though re-listening to this disc, I was kind of let down; it’s got that odd production quality where the guitar is tinny and buried in the mix; and the guitar wizardry was kind of Kelley’s “”thing””, as evidenced by the hidden guitar wankery track at the end (buried behind a wall of twenty-some tracks of five seconds of silence each! Ah, the 90s). I think the radio single that got Central PA airplay was “”Lorraine,”” which has a nice hook (and less of the weird mix); the rest of it didn’t leave much of an impression beyond the overt and sort of surprising praise music vibe on a couple of the later tracks.

♦Sammy Hagar – Unboxed: As evidenced by the BMG music service barcode, I got this one through mail order at some point in the mid-90s; it seems like the kind of thing I would have gotten to fill out the classic rock collection. This is a greatest hits package covering the period in Sammy’s career between Montrose and Van Halen. As such, it’s a little uneven sound-wise. Some of the older stuff comes off a little thin; “”Two Sides of Love”” almost has a Rick Springfield “”Working Class Dog”” vibe to it, whereas “”High Hopes”” and “”Buying My Way into Heaven”” are much, much heavier. It’s still kind of a stupid fun record, what with “”Heavy Metal,”” “”Three Lock Box”” and “”I Can’ Drive 55″” on it, as well as the total utter pretention of “”Eagles Fly”” which sounds like it’s trying to be inspirational and earnest, but pretty much makes no sense at all lyrically.

♦The Cars – Greatest Hits: Somewhere along the line, my eldest daughter latched onto this band, and requests this CD in the car all the time. I suppose I can understand why; it’s full of great pop hooks and is just weird enough to catch her attention (and this is before she saw what the band looked like in videos). I’ve never been a totally dedicated Cars fan, though I remember loving “”You Might Think”” and “”Magic”” on MTV when I was young, and this collection of those and all the rest of those 80s staple singles often hits just the right nostalgia spot, even if I didn’t see that scene in “”Fast Times at Ridgemont High”” featuring Pheobe Cates and “”Moving in Stereo”” in time for it to leave the impression it leaves on so many other young men who are slightly older than me, though that section of the rental tape was a bit more worn than the rest of the film. Go figure.