The Best... Album in the World...Ever! is a compilation album brand from Circa Records (trading under the 'strategic marketing' brand name of EMI Records/Virgin Records).[citation needed] It was the brainchild of marketer Stephen Pritchard at Virgin Records.[1]
Usually the album's title is made of the main title, genre and maybe issue number (so albums would include The Best Ibiza Album in the World...Ever!, The Best Rock Album in the World...Ever! etc.). However, on a number of indie music collections, the genre aspect was replaced by a full list of artist names. Due to this, these were just normally listed as The Best Album in the World...Ever!, and featured many Britpop acts, as well as dance acts such as Chemical Brothers.
Although most albums use the Album in the World...Ever! suffix, some towards the late 1990s change the suffix to Anthems...Ever!, with a plural on the theme (example the album The Best Celtic Anthems...Ever!). Some even just use ...Ever! as a suffix (such as The Best TV Ads...Ever!)
Many of the albums in the series were compiled by Ashley Abram.[citation needed]
History
The series started with The Best...Dance Album in the World...Ever! (1993) which was a success, spending four weeks at number one on the UK Compilation Chart and ending up as the third biggest selling compilation of the year. The Dance strand led to a fourteen volume subseries. Other successful subseries included Air Guitar, Sixties, Club Anthems and the aforementioned alternative rock Best...Album in the World Evers.
The Best Club Anthems...Ever!, featuring house, big beat, techno and electronica was released in 1997, and there have been 16 sequels. One difference from The Best Dance Album in the World..Ever! and The Best Club Anthems...Ever series is that Club Anthems originally had its tracks mixed, although this stopped beginning with 2003's Very Best Club Anthems release.
The Best Air Guitar Album in the World...Ever!, referred to in retrospect as Air Guitar I, released 5 November 2001, was compiled by Brian May. A sequel was released in November 2002 and another in November 2003, the latter proclaiming itself to be the last Air Guitar Album in the World...Ever!. Both sequels were again compiled by Brian May. In 2005, a 3CD The Best of the Best Air Guitar Album in the World...Ever! was released. Whilst Air Guitar III proclaimed to be the final volume, the liner notes written by May in The Best of the Best start with "OK, we lied."
Sometimes, the albums have captured a moment of popularity for things other than music, such as The Best TV Ads...Ever!, a compilation released in May 2000 of songs from current and famous TV adverts, which was released just days after the "100 Greatest TV Ads" poll from Channel 4 and The Sunday Times aired on the former. Furthermore, many other albums with a similar concept followed from other labels, including Switched On from rival label Telstar, Classic Ads from Universal, Commercial Breaks from Beechwood Music and the similarly titled Commercial Break from Castle Music.
The series was immensely popular, and most of the volumes performed well in the compilation charts, with some even making number one. The series started to become subject to popular culture parodies, such as spoof band Shirehorses titling their first album from 1997 The worst...album in the world...ever...EVER!. Blur, who appeared on some of the albums in the series, were originally going to title their 2000 compilation Blur: The Best of as Best Blur Album in the World Ever.
The series originally featured a globe on each album cover, to represent the world, as referred to in the album titles. When the Anthems...Ever! and the simply ...Ever! titles started to appear in 1997, the globe didn't usually appear on the cover. The globe continued to be featured on in the World...Ever! covers nonetheless, although in 2001–02, it started to become absent from the album covers of in the World...Ever! albums too, as it is absent from the Air Guitar covers and one of the Dance covers.
"Blue Monday" has been shortened slightly from its original 12" version, while the following track "How Soon is Now?" has been extended slightly. Both songs come to approx. 6:40 in length.
There are 28 credited artists in the full title of the album.
The Prodigy are credited as simply 'Prodigy'. The Chemical Brothers are credited as simply 'Chemical Brothers'.
Although the Dave Clarke remix of "Chemical Beats" is featured, this is only mentioned in the booklet, and the back cover just simply lists "Chemical Beats" without mention of the remix.
There are 28 credited artists in the full title of the album.
Having given Oasis two songs on every album in the series, this is the first volume not to feature any of the band's music; it does however feature The Chemical Brothers' "Setting Sun" which is co-written by Noel Gallagher and features him on lead vocals. The following Volume 7 also featured no Oasis songs.
Unusual for compilation albums, the "Brimful of Asha" featured on disc two is the original version, not the Norman Cook remix which reached #1 in the UK charts.
The band Air are credited as Air French Band.
There are 16 credited artists in the full title of the album.
This volume features repeats of songs featured in previous volumes from the series; The Stone Roses' "What The World Is Waiting For" featured on Volume 3, and Mansun's "Wide Open Space" featured on Volume 5, although the version of "Wide Open Space" here is a remix by Paul Oakenfold.
The Best Funk Album in the World...Ever!
This is a double tape or CDcompilation of 1970s funk and blaxploitation soundtrack music. The album is a de facto follow up to the EMI/Virgin release Superfunk though it was decided to list the album under the stronger Best..Ever brand name.
The concept of the album is similar to the Harmless collections and to BMGGlobal TV's Blaxplotation album series.
The Best Christmas Album in the World... Ever!
This is a double CD album of various Christmas music, originally released in 1996. In 2000, a new edition was released, The Best Christmas Album in the World... Ever! (new edition).
These were a series of albums compiled by Brian May from Queen that ran from 2001 to 2005.
Despite the first volume only entering at #5, it achieved at least Gold status, whilst the second volume received Platinum status.
Volume 1 (2001)
The first volume was released 5 November 2001, and entered the compilations charts at #5. It featured twenty tracks on CD1 and twenty one on CD2. It opens with an exclusive version of the Queen song "Tie Your Mother Down" subtitled "(Air Guitar Edit)", which features a different intro (a snippet of the song "We Will Rock You") than the original version (which was sometimes credited separately from the song). Also on the album was another Queen song, "Bohemian Rhapsody", the four-minute edit of the Lynyrd Skynyrd song "Freebird", and many other songs, including a rare appearance from The Jimi Hendrix Experience.
After the success of volume 1, the second volume was released November 2002. Like volume 1, there was an exclusive on the album: Brian May's cover of "God Save the Queen" recorded on top of Buckingham Palace in 2002. Also featured was Queen's "One Vision" and many pop punk and nu metal songs which were fairly recent at the time of release. Brian May had help in compiling the album from several other musicians, alongside Ashley Abram (who normally compiles all The Best...Ever! series).
Volume 3 was released November 2003. Intended to be "the last Air guitar album in the world... ever!" according to the liner notes, there was later a "best of the best" album. Volume 3 featured a rare recording of the Pink Floyd song "Have a Cigar" by the Foo Fighters with Brian May. Queen's "Now I'm Here" also featured. The liner notes feature small quotes about each song/artist by May. Volumes 1 & 2 also did this, but focused mainly on the guitarist, rather than the song.
In 2003, the success of Volume 1 meant the album was released in the US by Hollywood Records. It was given the new name World's Greatest Air Guitar Album. The album cover featured the same image, but was moved, alongside the new album text.
Volumes I & II (2003)
Following the success of Volume 2, Volumes 1 and 2 were compiled into a box set, released in the same original CD boxes, but a slipcase had been placed over them displaying new artwork. The cover subtitles the set 4 CD Deluxe Limited Edition.
Best of the Best (2005)
In 2005, the series returned with a 3-CD album titled The Best of the Best Air Guitar Albums in the World Ever. Due to the fact volume 3 claimed to be the last volume, the liner notes (written by Brian May) note "OK, we lied". Most of the songs had already appeared on volumes 1, 2 & 3, but there were some which didn't, such as The Darkness' "I Believe in a Thing Called Love" and an exclusive Queen + Paul Rodgers live performance of "Fat Bottomed Girls".
The first volume was re-released in Portugal in 2002 with new artwork.
In 2004, a 1-disc edited version of the first volume was released to unknown ventures with different artwork.
The Best Scottish Album in the World...Ever!
This album was released 9 June 1997. It is notable for being perhaps the only widely available compilation album that features Wolfstone, who feature with their song "Battle", credited as "The Battle". At the end of the second disc is the Dunblane cover of the song "Knockin' on Heaven's Door". All royalties from the recording of this song were sent to charities. The previous compilation Hits 97 also sent royalties from the song to charity.
This is a sub-series in the series which ran from 1997 to 2006.
Here is a list of albums in the series:
The Best Club Anthems ...Ever! (1997)
The Best Club Anthems 2 ...Ever! (1997)
The Best Club Anthems III ...Ever! (1998)
The Best Club Anthems 99 ...Ever! (1999)
The Best Club Anthems 2000 (1999)
The Best Club Anthems ...Ever! 2K (2000)
The Best Club Anthems 2001 (2000)
The Best Club Anthems 2002 (2002)
The Best Club Anthems Summer 2002 (2002)
The Best Club Anthems 2003 (2002)
The Very Best Club Anthems ...Ever! (2003)
The Best Club Anthems 2004 (2004)
The Best Club Anthems 2005 (2005)
The Best Club Anthems 05 (2005)
The Best Club Anthems Classics (2005)
The Best Club Anthems 2006 (2006)
The Best Club Anthems 80s Anthems (2006)
Every album from the first volume to The Best Club Anthems 2003 was digitally mixed. Starting with The Very Best Club Anthems ...Ever!, The songs were unmixed.
The same album also started another tradition which was slightly different packaging. Previous volumes featured a border on the cover with small circles in each corner, although this new tradition was short, and the border re-appeared for the last three albums in the series, starting with The Best Club Anthems Classics.
The series was very successful. It offered a third alternative to the Now Dance series, with the other alternative being The Best Dance Album series.
