The cover of the Steve Miller Band’s “Greatest Hits 1974-78” — an illustration of a horse with a fiery mane and sparkling eye against a cool-blue backdrop — is burned in the minds of generations whose familiarity with the group’s music came by way of the album. Though featuring songs from just three of the band’s 11 records released at the time, the 14-times-platinum set represents the artist about as well as any studio LP. Here are 10 other mega-selling greatest-hits collections that performed similar roles and made lasting connections.
Bob Gendron has been obsessing over music, albums and audio ever since he landed a job at an indie record store at age 13. A longtime contributor to the Chicago Tribune and the first Associate Editorial Director at The Coda Collection, he was also the longtime Music Editor at The Absolute Sound and performed the same role at TONEAudio. Gendron is the author of “Gentlemen” (Bloomsbury) and a coauthor of “Nirvana: The Complete Illustrated History” (Voyageur). His writing has also appeared in DownBeat, Rolling Stone, Revolver and other outlets.