When The Best Just Isn’t Good Enough

Posted by on . 3 comments.

I was watching television on a lazy Sunday afternoon when a commercial for Wrangler jeans came on. Trying to reinvent itself again as a brand for more than cowboys and K-Mart shoppers, Wrangler went all out with images of NASCAR’s Dale Earnhardt Jr. set to the music of mainstream America’s favorite female rocker, Sheryl Crow. Usually this kind of thing would zip past me without affecting any of my thought processes, but then I noticed the MTV-style attribution on the bottom of the screen…the track was from an album “The Very Best of Sheryl Crow”.

Now, don’t get me wrong�all artists are entitled to suck on the financial teat of a greatest-hits album. But this isn’t just “The Best Of”…it’s the “Very Best Of”, implying that the tracks contained within are somehow one step above mere greatness and reach into some sort of perfectionist realm.

Remember, this is Sheryl Crow we’re talking about here.

However, a quick search on amazon.com shows that she’s not alone�the term “very best of” got 2009 results, ranging from Al B Sure to Supertramp to Cher to (cough) David Hasselhoff. And, strangely enough, some of the artists had different “Best of” and “Very Best of” albums competing with each other for consumer dollars.

Marketing departments…gotta love ‘em.

Comments

  1. Ellogoods says:
    August 23, 2004 at 5:11 am

    I have never purchased a “Best of” let alone a “very Best of” CD of any artist. I don’t see the point in getting a CD with all the songs I have heard before ad nauseum because they are popular with radio programmers, I generally like those tracks that do not get all the airplay as well as the “pop” ones. And not only that, but a CD is like an entire entity , a thing all to itself that is meant to be heard like that with those songs in a particular order.

  2. tom says:
    August 23, 2004 at 8:35 am

    at least *good* albums are like that. sometimes there are artists who cant make an album for shit, but whose singles are simply brilliant. busta rhymes is the best example i can think of. horrible filler crap on his albums inbetween brilliant pop songs.

  3. sac says:
    August 23, 2004 at 9:00 am

    Funny you should bring this up, as I am preparing a blog as we speak entitled, “The Very Best of Sac.” It will be featured in the upcoming ads for Jordache jeans, which are making a comeback if you haven’t heard.