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Just bought The Very Best Of Roy Orbison; it's not, they are all rerecordings.
Fortunately Roy was such a great singer - I think the best ever, and Elvis Presley agreed - that his rerecordings are pretty good but still not the originals which are always, always the best.
Ditto The Essential Bruce Springsteen - live versions.
If artistes HAVE to do it (usually mercenary reasons) please at least mark the package clearly.
I agree entirely, JK.
Although I did here a re-recording of One Night by Mud which had a slightly more Bluesy arrangement than the original, and I liked it a lot. That seems to be the one exception though.
I loved the Soft Cell albums from 81 - 84, as they were very raw. They re-recorded a few tracks for a compilation in the 90s and they were way too sanitized, too perfect, no soul.
There is a lot of this about especially in those super value box sets with about twenty cds for a tenner. The 100/101 hits compilations are the best for oldies and have some great stuff on them, all original hit recordings.