The Ben Maynard Program

EP. 105 "FRIDAY NIGHT LIVE"! The "Greatest" Greatest Hits Albums of All Time

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What if a single album could define an era, spark a memory, and convert a newcomer in one spin? We dive into the compilations that earned permanent residency in car stereos, living rooms, and playlists—records that are more than samplers, they’re time machines. From Queen’s precision-crafted anthems to CCR’s jukebox grit, from the Eagles’ California melancholy to the Beatles’ Red and Blue masterclass in evolution, we trace how the best greatest-hits collections tell a bigger story than any one studio album can.

We share how U2’s 1980–1990 compresses the sprint from post‑punk urgency to widescreen grandeur, why Billy Joel’s Vol. I & II plays like a perfect American songbook, and how Journey’s Greatest Hits quietly became a chart marathoner that refuses to leave. Along the way, we swap memories, chart stats, and the sequencing choices that turn a stack of singles into a seamless journey. We also spotlight Beach Boys’ Endless Summer for pure mood, and tip our caps to legends like Bob Marley’s Legend, ABBA Gold, Elton John, Stones’ Hot Rocks, Bowie’s Changes, Aerosmith’s early set, and Steve Miller’s radio rocket fuel.

If you’ve ever argued that a compilation can outshine an artist’s original albums, you’ll feel right at home. And if you’re new to any of these catalogs, consider this your curated map—built for long drives, house parties, and late-night nostalgia. Hit play, debate the canon, and tell us the one greatest-hits album you’d save first.

Enjoyed the ride? Subscribe, rate, and share with a friend who loves a good music rabbit hole. Your comments and reviews help more listeners find the show—what’s your number one greatest-hits pick?

Thanks for listening! Follow me on Instagram: benmaynardprogram
and subscribe to my YouTube channel: THE BEN MAYNARD PROGRAM
I also welcome your comments. email: pl8blocker@aol.com

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Hey there. Welcome into the Ben Maynard program. Thanks for being here. Hold on. Trust me, I've been working right up to the last minute here. Let me let me just adjust something here real quick. Come on. Trying to adjust the camera. Oh, I don't want to do that. There we go. Right there. Yeah. That works. So welcome in. Again, thanks for being here. It is Friday night, and what does that mean? That means we're live. We are live tonight. A little Friday night live action. Oh man, I forgot it. I got the Malort sitting over there on the other side of the studio. Well, before look, before we get into it, listen, a little bit of housekeeping to take care of. As you know, this program is available wherever you get your podcasts. It's a little bright in here. So just uh, you know, search the Ben Maynard program. Boom, it's right there, and go with it. Um, but subscribe to it, okay? You gotta do me a favor, subscribe to it. That way, anytime a new episode drops, doesn't matter what streaming service you're using, um, you'll get a notification. All right. However, just like tonight, it's Friday night, you can't resist some of this right here, and you're watching live on YouTube. Thanks for doing that. But you got to do me a favor. First thing you have to do is subscribe to the channel. Then you have to hit the notification bell. Again, you'll get um uh you'll get notified. I'm a little far away from the mic, aren't I? Yeah. And I didn't even test this stuff out. So who knows how this is gonna work. I'm literally, I was working right up to the last minute. Uh but um so you'll get notifications anytime a new episode drops. And uh then you have to give me a thumbs up because you're gonna like this episode, just like all the other ones, right? And then you have to leave a comment. I dig the comments and I do reply to your comments. And I've been getting comments on the last episode, and uh actually I've been getting comments on some previous episodes this week, too. So so hooray for me. Um uh last but not least, follow me on Instagram, all one word, Ben Maynard program. And uh, oh, and you can follow me on the TikTok, right? That's the Ben Maynard program. That's the handle for that one. And honestly, it's where I'm a little more active. I am trying to get a little more active on Instagram, but uh, I I may have explained to you before, Catherine actually runs that one. She has it set up. We need to either delete and start it again. I don't know how we have to do it. Remember, I'm just a dummy. But um, so I'm gonna I'll try to get a little more active on on Instagram as well. But but right now I am more active on TikTok than uh any of the other social media platforms. Or well, you actually can can send me a friend request on Facebook too if you'd like. I never ever promote that because it's not really it's more like my private page than it is um anything that having to do with uh the podcast here. But whatever, I don't care. As long as you're cool and you're a fan of mine, you like this podcast, you can send me a friend request. It's all good. So plenty of ways to take in this show for your dancing and listening pleasure. And with that, boom, it's Friday night. We're live. Like I said, I was working right up to the last minute getting stuff ready. And I'll explain in just a second, but I actually have to go back across the studio and get the Melort and my Mr. Spock shot glass. So timeout. Oh, yeah, there it is. Okay, there it is. It's all good now. Um, yeah. I had it uh for last week's episode. I didn't have the Malord on the table here. It was uh back on the desk in the studio. So I forgot to grab it. And this really, honestly, um tonight's episode is really kind of courtesy of my good buddy Raul Ortega. So thank you, Raul. This was his thing. It was a um, he sent me something on Facebook, and uh, so I replied to it, and I thought, wow, this will make a great topic for tonight. So yeah, I've got all of my work done right here, and we're gonna get into it and have some fun. Yeah, I don't know. Maybe, maybe Raul is gonna have to uh gonna have to be on the payroll uh because uh he's like producing the show now. So we'll see how that works. Um but all good stuff. But before we do that, before we do that, oh yeah, and and the Malort. Okay, so the Melort Challenges is is back because it is Friday Night Live. And for those of you who are newbies and you're not aware, um, if you if you call in, or I'll even take your comments because when when you guys call in, it doesn't really translate too well over the microphone. Um, one of these days I'll get a new um I'll get a new board and I'll be able to plug my cell phone right into it. So if you call in, it'll just come right in through the board and it'll sound just like you're calling into the radio, uh a radio station, okay? So um anyway, yeah. Wait, what what'd you say? He says, uh come on, you gotta remember, Rob. I'm I'm across the studio here. I'm across from my laptop. He says, uh, oh yes. He says, he says, I'm your uh I'm your non-paid hype man, and and he is. He is very, very supportive of this podcast, and I greatly appreciate it. He uh the guy just roll he pumps me up all the time uh when it comes to this podcast, and I so appreciate it because he's such a great guy. Uh good a good guy, a good man, and a good soul. Uh so uh again the Melort Challenge, send me uh uh your music trivia, and if I get the answer wrong, then I've got to take a shot of this great Melort right here. Ooh, it's so bad. And I do have the Mr. Spock shot glass right here as well. It still has that black um bean-boozled bean in the bottom of it. It's it's stuck because there's see, it's stuck because there's a film at the bottom of the glass, and uh it probably has some dust on it too, or whatever was floating around in the studio. Uh, so the bean is stuck. So I have to eat the bean also. Anyway, uh, yeah, so before we get into the great topic for tonight, let's do this a little bit. Let me bring this over here a little bit closer to me. Bring my iPad over. Okay, so why don't we do this and let's go over our, you know, like national days, you know, what we're celebrating our today, like today is national handbag day. Let me get something off the screen here. You can't see it, but I can. Today is national handbag day. See, if you're a guy like me, you would just call it a purse. But it's a handbag. You know, for all the all the the ladies out there, it's a handbag, not a purse. Um, so you know what? I'm so lucky though, because Catherine is not a handbag girl. That is great. So it doesn't cost me like anything at all. She's she's happy she's happy with with any old thing, and she doesn't really carry one around. She has a small, small handbag she'll carry around from time to time, but mostly she's got this case for her cell phone, and on the back side, it's got a compartment where she can put her ID and maybe a credit card or two in there and locks it in. It's got a strap, she wears it over her, over, you know, like a crossbody, and she's good to go. It's awesome. So lucky me. Um, what else do we have here? What else do we have? Oh, I was at the store earlier, too. Mmm. That sucks. National Angel Food Cake Day. Is that not some good stuff too? Although, I honestly though, why is it why would it be in October? You would think that Angel Food Cake would be, or you know, National Angel Food Cake Day would more would fit more in the summer, June, July, August. Because Angel Food reminds me of summer, strawberry shortcake. You know, you you get those little angel food cups and you put strawberries in them and you top them with whipped cream. Oh, that just reminds me of summer and being a kid. Man, we should just dig that stuff. Oh, so good. I'm hungry now. All right, it's also national cake decorating day. Angel food cake or strawberry shortcake, national cake decorating day. Come on. Oh man. Try your hand at some cake decorating. Well, you got to get me a cake first and then I'll get busy. It's also National Hug of Drummer Day. Yeah. National Hug of Drummer Day. So to all the drummers out there, here's a big old bear hug for you. Yeah, so anyway, there you go with that. Let's see what we can come up with next. Well, how about a little this day in history? Let's what do we have? I want to try to do this in some kind of an order here. Um it's hard because there's some scribbling over this stuff. Oh, okay. Well, we'll start with 1968. I don't want to go back too too far. We'll start in 1968. Apollo 7, the first manned Apollo mission, is launched with astronauts Walter M. Shearer, uh, Shearer Jr., Don F. Eisel, and Walter Cunningham. Under the command of Shearer, the crew of Apollo 7 conducted an 11-day orbit of Earth, during which the crew transmitted the first live television broadcast from orbit. That I was a little too young for that, but that was probably incredibly cool. Uh yeah, former president Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham marry on this day in 1975. Um, they met in 1972 while they were both studying at Yale University, and um, they both worked for George McGovern's uh presidential campaign in 72, and then uh they married and settled in Arkansas, where Bill Clinton became the governor and then became the president after that. Uh what else in 1975? Uh let's see. What do we have? Um about Bruce Springsteen scores his first pop hit with Born to Run, his first radio hit. And that's actually a great, that's actually going to be a great segue into what we're gonna talk about tonight. Uh um the epic single Born to Run became Bruce Springsteen's first ever top 40 hit, marking the start of his eventual transition from a little-known cult figure to international superstar. By 75, 26-year-old Bruce Springsteen had two heavily promoted major label albums behind it, but nothing approaching a hit at that time. So we did talk about uh Bruce Springsteen and Born to Run a few weeks back when we were um when we were featuring the music of 1975, and that was just great, great stuff there too. So an awesome segue. Thank you, Raul. An awesome segue. Raul sends me this message on Facebook this morning, and it says um something to the effect of what's the greatest, greatest hits album ever, something like that. And I stopped down and I thought about it, and I was like, wow, there's a lot of greatest hits albums out there, and and I mean great. In fact, I I forgot to add one to this list that I have here. So we'll see how it all plays out. And uh, so I just started I I I just started uh doing some some homework here and some greatest hits packages came to mind. I saw Raul post a couple, so yeah, you'll be happy to know again because of your production skills, Raul. Um, I've got a couple of your recommendations or your suggestions right here in my list. So let's get into that. Let's without further delay, let's just get into that. Let me take a sip of water first, okay? Because I'm doing a lot of talking. And you know, if you guys out there, if you jump aboard and you want to leave a greatest hits album, uh uh, maybe one of your favorites in the comments, that would be Swell. So I started with this one, no particular reason, but I did. Um's it's I think it's called the Best of U2 1980 to 1990. And that's a that's a good one. It really is. That's kind of before, or not kind of, it is before YouTube kind of went off the rails. I was just a tremendously huge fan of U2 in the 80s, uh, liked all their stuff. But as I said, when we turned the decade into the 90s, they kind of went off the rails and really shifted direction musically and then really seemed to shift direction even socially. Okay, but we're not here to get into that. The album itself was released in 19 uh 1998. And I'll uh I'll run down the track list, but but before you uh before we get into that, uh the uh it's certified double platinum, the last at least the last time it was certified. And I don't know when that was, but I'm sure that it's it's probably gotta be bigger than double platinum just because of the songs that are on it. And I'll run down that track list again or run it down for you. Um starts off with Pride in the Name of Love. That's off of the Unforgettable Fire album. Great album, great, great album, and really kind of like an album that it didn't put them on uh they kind of got put on the map with the previous album War, but this one really kind of even put them at another level. It made them um it made them an arena headliner at this point. Um that album Unforgettable Fire released in '84. Okay. Song two, New Year's Day off of the war album. Uh track three, with or without you, that's from the Joshua Tree. Great album. That's the one where they just went absolutely bonkers worldwide with Joshua Tree. Uh, track four, I still haven't found what I'm looking for. Another great song off of Joshua Tree. Track five, Sunday, Bloody Sunday, off of the war album. And then we have Bad, that is off of the Unforgettable Fire album. And if you haven't heard the live version of Bad, that is really, really good. You should check that one out. It's off, they put out a few EPs after the Unforgettable Fire. I think there's an EP. I think it's called Alive in America, and it has the it has that live version of Bad on there. It's so good. All right, track number seven is uh Where the Streets Have No Name off of the Joshua Tree. And then just a great song and a great track that they used to open up all their shows to back in the in the 80s, and that is I Will Follow off of their debut album, Boy. Man, that is a really, really good song. So good. And then uh track number nine is the title track from The Unforgettable Fire. Track 10 is the uh is the sweetest thing. And I'm trying to remember, this is like a newly recorded version. I think maybe they just snuck that one in there because that what I don't think that one came out in the 80s, not from everything I can remember. Um and then track 11 is Desire off of Rattle and Hum. Track 12 is When Love Comes to Town, also off of Rattle and Hum. It's an okay song. It's it's it's a um it's a duet with um BB King. That's right. I think it's BB King, yeah. But it's an okay song. Desire's a good song. Um and then this one actually is really, really good. Uh track 13, Angel of Harlem, off of Rattle and Hum. And then track 14, All I Want Is You off of Rattle and Hum. And then I don't know why, but there's a 15th track. It's called The Hidden Track, and it's the title song from the second album, October, from you two. And that is actually the only there's it's weird. You they've got 15 tracks on here, and only two songs are are from their first two albums, which I love those first two albums. I think they could have put uh at least a couple more tracks off of uh certainly off of boy. Okay, so moving on to the next one um released in 1981. This one, uh, the last time of certification has gone nine times platinum. I'm sure it's probably sold more than that now, especially when you know that this is Queen's greatest hits. All right. Um 15 tracks. 15 tracks on here, and just so good. So good. And it starts right off with Bohemian Rhapsody. Probably the um not the the it's not really the biggest song. It might be, it might be the biggest song for Queen. I would say it's probably We Will Rock You, We Are the Champions, because that gets played nonstop all the time. Well, so does Bohemian Rhapsody. But um, but certainly if it's not the biggest, it's one of their biggest. Track number two, uh oh, I'm sorry, and that one is off of A Night at the Opera. Uh track number two, another one bites the dust. That is from the 1980 uh 80 album The Game. And let's see, track number three is Killer Queen. That is now everybody digs that one. That's off of Sheer Heart Attack from 1974. Love this one, so good. Track number four, Fat Bottom Girls, off of the jazz album from 1978. And let's see, track number five is Bicycle Race, also from the jazz album from 1978. Now in 1978, I'm 13 years old. Well, depending on the time of year, depending on exactly when the jazz album was released. So I'm 12, 13 years old, and I go and I buy the jazz album. It's got a gatefold. It's only a single di a single album, but it's got a gatefold in it, and then it's got um uh a poster. It's got a poster on the inside you pull out and fold it open, and it's you know, pretty, pretty large, certainly large enough to hang on your bedroom wall. And for a 12, 13-year-old boy seeing this uh poster of these gorgeous women all on bicycles. They're they're they're sitting, they're they're not they're not riding at the time. So like they've come to a stop. And so they're sitting, they're kind of sitting on the bicycle, maybe one leg down, holding it still. And some are drinking water out of the squeeze water bottles. They're all topless. Every last one of them, topless. Now, why? I don't I understand the bicycles because the song bicycle, right? Now, why the girls? Why is there is is is there a poster of probably honestly, it had to be 50 to 100 women in this poster, all topless. You know what that does to a 12-year-old boy. Forget about it. We don't even have to talk about it, we don't have to discuss it. Crazy good stuff. I just that's all I'm saying. Okay, great stuff, great stuff, not good stuff, great stuff. Okay. Uh let's see, track number six. We got a little off, we got we got a little off course. Let's get it back, right? Okay, track number six, you're my best friend from A Night at the Opera. And track number seven, also from the jazz album, Don't Stop Me Now, which honestly that didn't really become a huge song. It's it's actually really big now until um I think it was just before the Queen Biopic Bohemian Rhapsody was released. It I think it had one of the cruise lines was using it on their ads. I believe that's what if boy, if it if it's not, correct me. All right, leave it in the comments and tell me I'm full of it. Uh, let's see. Then track number eight, save me, from the game. Track number nine, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, such a good song uh from the game. And then so many people just dig this one also, and it is, it's a great song. Track number 10, Somebody to Love off of a day at the races. That was the follow-up to A Night at the Opera. Night at the Opera, Day at the Races. I think both of those might have been the Marks Brothers movies. Uh, let me see. Track number 11, Now I'm Here, from Sheer Heart Attack. That was in 1974. Track number 12, Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy, from A Day at the Races. And let's see, track number 13 from Play the Game. Or I'm sorry, from the game, the the title track, play the game. Track number 14, Flash. That is really a cool song from the soundtrack of the uh movie from this of the same name. I think it was actually just called Flash, not Flash Gordon, even though the character's Flash Gordon. Um, track 15, Seven Seas of Rye from Queen Two, the second album. Track 16 and track 17 are We Will Rock You, We Are the Champions from News of the World. Let me look at this here really quick. I think those two songs, We Will Rock You, We Are the Champions, yeah, are the only two tracks from the News of the World album. News of the World albums is so good. It is such a good album. Such a good album. All right. Moving on to the next one from uh 1976, released in 1976 from Credence Clearwater Revival, their album Chronicle, the 20th Greatest Hits, or the 20est. Who learned me how to spoke? The 20 greatest hits. Uh at the time of the last certification, it had gone 12 times platinum. That is awesome. That is awesome. And just so you guys know, if you don't, if you're not aware, uh to get a uh, you know, you have you have gold certification, which is half a million copies, you have platinum certification, which is a million copies, and then it goes double, triple, so on and so on until you get to 10 million copies, and then it's diamond certified. So this is diamond plus certified. Uh so 20 tracks. Let's gotta run them down pretty quick here since there's 20. First song, Susie Q. Everybody knows that one. Uh track two, I put a spell on you. I that's a that's a uh cover version. Track three, Proud Mary. Track four, Bad Moon Rising, and I should go back to Proud Mary. What a cool song! What a cool song. Somewhere, somewhere out in my loft on a bookshelf, there's a cassette tape of me singing Proud Mary with my brother and a friend, Alex Uyoa. In the 80s, in the 80s, they had these um these little recording studios. And uh, we were actually in San Francisco. Uh, we were down at Fisherman's Wharf. We'd gone up to San Francisco, I think it was in September uh sometime. The Dodgers were playing the Giants, and they were in that pennant race um uh in '88. You know, that was the year they won the World Series. And we'd gone up to San Francisco to see a couple of games. So we're out one night at um, like I said, at Fisherman's Wharf, and there's studio by the bay. So the three of us go into that studio and we cut our version of Proud Mary. You may or may not ever want to hear it, and it may or may not see the light of day. But uh yeah, it was fun. I thought, of course, we we we broke it down because there's three verses, you know, there's one verse, the chorus, second verse, the chorus, then the uh then the break, and then the third verse. And so we split it up. Um, I think my brother took the first verse, Alex took the second, and I followed up, took the last verse. But uh, yeah, good stuff. I killed it, of course. Um, what'd you say? What do we have here? CCR my oh, my favorite band growing up. Yeah, that's right. Well, here we go with the track listing. So we left off with Bad Moon Rising, track four, then Lodi. Track six is Green River. It's man, it's just like reading this track listing. It's like you these songs were always on the radio. Uh track seven, commotion, track eight, down on the corner. Willie and the poor boys are playing, bring a nickel, tap your feet.

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Man.

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Uh track nine, Fortunate Sun, track ten, traveling band. Oh track 11, Who'll Stop the Rain? Mmm, that is that might that might be my favorite CCR song. Uh track 12, Up Around the Bend. Track 13, Run Through the Jungle, track 14, looking out my back door. Come on, are you serious? Track 15, long as I can see the light. 16, I heard it through the grapevine. 17, have you ever seen the rain? Another well, they're all fabulous, but just I don't know. I like those rain songs. Have you ever seen the rain and and and who'll stop the rain? Uh 18, hey tonight, 19, sweet hitchhiker. Jeez, and then track 20, somebody never comes. Man, oh man, just killer stuff, just killer stuff right there. Holy Toledo. Um, if you hear some, I look the ringers off of my phone, but I got my iPad up here, and then of course the laptops on the other side of the studio. So I'm getting text messages. I'm getting a haircut tomorrow. So I'm getting text messages from the girl cutting my hair. She's like, I'm gonna see you tomorrow morning. Yes, I'll be there. All right. Um, the next one released also in 1976. One of um, not just one of the greatest uh selling compilation albums or greatest hits packages, but one of the greatest selling albums of all time. And that's the Eagles' greatest hits, 71 to 75. Last time it was certified, it was at 38 times platinum. 38 times. That's almost four diamonds right there. Crazy. Usually, usually um Michael Jackson's thriller and um and the Eagles' greatest hits are like trading places for one and two. I think Michael Jackson's is a is is a little out of reach at this point, but uh 38 times platinum, and then I think and I think the number three album might be rumors from Fleetwood Mac, and number four uh is either Eagles Hotel California or like ACDC Back in Black. Just bananas. And just right there, those four or five albums that I just you know that I just named. Are you kidding? Are you serious? If you're of my age and my generation, that's nuts. Nuts. Just those albums alone. Okay. Uh so it's funny. This one only has 10 tracks on it. But Eagles um greatest hit, 7175. Track one, take it easy. So good. Track two, Witchy Woman. I'm gonna have to stop saying that because I can say it for every one of these songs. Track three, Lion Eyes, which I remember telling you guys about when I was going over the singles from 75, and Lion Eyes was one of the one of the um top 30 popular songs from 75. I didn't get it. I didn't get the songs or the the lyrics of the song, but as I got older, I figured it out. She's a cheating girl. All right, track four, already gone. Track five, Desperado. Just man. Track six, one of these nights. Track seven, tequila sunrise. Has anybody ever uh anybody out there ever had a tequila sunrise? I've never had a tequila sunrise. And you know I like my tequila, but never had a tequila sunrise. And I don't I don't like margaritas, but I guess I'd be willing to try. I don't really know what's in one, but give it a shot. Track three, take it to the limit. Man, Randy Meisner. So good, such a great song. Um what did I say? Track that was track eight, track nine, peaceful, easy feeling, and then it finishes up uh track ten, best of my love. Man, so so good. I said I was gonna stop saying that. I guess I'm not. Well, this one's kind of like almost no um slouch right here because it's probably sold more, and these are in no particular order, but there were actually two released two greatest hits packages released in 1973. Both were double album packages, one was uh red and one was blue. They had almost the same picture, but uh it was like the same the same album cover, the same shot, but one was this band like a few years prior than on the second album cover. And if you know, you know it's the Beatles, 1962 to 65. I think that was the red cover, and then 1960 uh 66 to 1970, I think it was, and that was the blue cover. So we're gonna run them down. What's like I said, what's a what's crazy is that they were both double album packages. So you're talking like 20 plus songs on each one. So let's run down the red album. At the time of the last certification, it was 15 times platinum. That's crazy. All right. Cut one, love me do. Cut two, please please me. Cut three, from me to you. Cut four, she loves you, and she does love you. Cut five, I want to hold your hand. Cut six, all my loving. Cut seven, can't buy me love. You guys ever see that movie? I think it was like 1988. Yeah, 88. What is it? Patrick Dempsey is the star of the movie. It's it's one of those teenage movies. Good, good, uh, good movie. Check it out. Good movie. Um, and then uh we've got if you have to flip over the album, the first uh first song on side two is A Hard Day's Night. Number two is And I Love Her. Number three, Eight Days a Week, Number Four, I Feel Fine. Number five, Ticket to Ride. Number six, closes out the album with Yesterday, which I think that song has like 500 different cover versions of that song. Something it's absolutely crazy. Uh so album number two, since we generally talk albums, side one, help. Two, you've got to hide your love away. Uh cut three, we can work it out. Cut four, day tripper, cut five, drive my car, because baby, you can drive my car, and track six, Norwegian Wood. So let's flip that album over, go to side two. Cut one, number nowhere man, then Michelle, then in my life, then girl, which later on, bet you didn't know, later on, on the Double Fantasy album from John Lennon, that was his very last album that he released right before he was murdered, uh, in 19 um 1981 or 19 1980. 1980. Um, no, no, no, no, no. Yeah, yeah, it was 80. That's right. It was the fall of 80. So, yeah, because that album celebrates like 45 years this uh this year. Um the song Woman was like the the more mature version of the song Girl. Check my math on it, all right. Uh, let's see, track five on album number two, side two is paperback writer, then track three, Eleanor Rigby, and the album closes out with Yellow Submarine. All right. Now, the blue album from 66 or 67, something like that to 70. Uh, another, like I said, double album set. This one, 17 times platinum. Are you serious? Come on. 17 times platinum. All right, album number one, side one, cut one, strawberry fields forever. Penny Lane, then Sgt. Pepper, Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. Then, how about with a little help from my friends? Now, we all know Ringo's version of that song, and it's good, but seriously, Joe Cocker owns that song. That is his song, and everyone knows it. Even Ringo Star knows it. That is Joe Cocker's song. Uh, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds is track five, track six, a day in the life, and that side of the album, track number seven, closes out with All You Need Is Love. So let's flip over the album and go to side two. I Am the Walrus, Hello Goodbye, The Fool on the Hill, Magical Mystery Tour, Lady Madonna, Hey Jude, and Revolution. Man, just I mean, just from the the the first set, the red album, nuts. We're getting into the second one. This is absolutely insane. But I think the Beatles released like 12 albums between '62 and 1970, something like that. Because after after 1965 or 66, they didn't tour anymore. They were just like studio rats. That was it. They spent all their time in the studio writing and recording, writing and recording. All right. Album 2 Side 1 starts with Back in the USSR. Then While My Guitar Gently Weeps. Track 3, O blah di obla. Track 4, Get Back. 5, Don't Let Me Down. Uh 6, The Ballad of John and Yoko. Then the album side closes out with track seven, Old Brown Shoe. Now, some of these, some of these I might even recognize because they were like they were like B sides that weren't on particular albums. Let's see. Then we turn the album over, go to side two, cut number one, Here Comes the Sun, so good. Number two, cut together, or cut together, come together. Three, something. Four, Octopus's Garden. Five, one of my all-time favorite Beatles songs, Let It Be. And probably because that song is the one that just kind of really that that was like the the it point in my little musical life. Okay. I always dug music. Um, let me finish this first. Cut six, across the universe, cut seven, the long and winding road. And then that closes out the blue album. But getting back to Let It Be, uh, I haven't told the story in a long time. We picked up, we pick up a lot of new audience members, so I'm gonna tell it now. But so it's like 1972 or so, and maybe 73, right in that area. And I always liked music. And I remember I had one, I had one album at the time. It was, I don't know if anyone remembers the actor Johnny Whitaker. He was in that television show with Brian Keith. Yeah, because you guys remember who Brian Keith is too, right? And Sebastian, uh, what no, uh, what was the guy's name? It was uh gosh, can't remember his name. He was he played Mr. French. The show was called Family Affair. So Johnny Whitaker was one of the kids on that program, and then he was um he was on that program, Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, a Saturday morning program from Sid Marty Croft. Remember, you had Lydsville and Land of the Lost and Puffin's stuff and all that, though those shows. So he so Johnny was into music and he and he put out an album. Actually, on that show, Sigmund and the Sea Monsters, he uh sang songs on on the on the program from time to time. Well, all those songs he put together on an album. So I had the album and I would play it on our family stereo. And my I remember my parents for Christmas one year, they bought me this guitar that um it was it was a plastic guitar, but it had real strings, not nylon strings. Just the body of it was plastic. And so I would get out, I'd put on Johnny Whitaker, and I'd get out and I would mine the songs. And I remember taking a hairbrush and I would I would sing and I would pretend that all these little girls out there were sitting on the floor listening to me sing or watching me sing, you know. But I remember this my mom had had the single for The Beatles Let It Be. And I remember we had, like I said, we our family stereo was this big giant console stereo, all made of real wood, which is what they were back then. They were just a piece of furniture in your house, like like televisions used to be. And so she sat on the floor and she's putting, dropping the needle on on the single on Let It Be. And I'm watching her do this, and she's sitting on the floor, and she has a typewriter in front of her. And as the song's playing, she's pounding away on the typewriter, typing the lyrics to the song on goldenrod paper. How nuts is that? Now, she didn't get it all in one shot. She was a very fast typer, though. But um so she had to, you know, play it a couple times. But I remember taking that sheet of goldenrod paper, and I kept it, and I would put the single on and play it over and over again, and I would sing the lyrics to Let It Be. And that was kind of, I mean, yes, Johnny Whitaker, you know, started it, but that song, The Beatles, Let It Be, that just man, that launched me into a whole new world when it came to music. And uh, I've had just this tremendous um relationship with music since. It's just it's so special to me. All right, let's move along. So the next one, released in 1974, is The Beach Boys Endless Summer. It's a two-album set. It's got 20, 21 songs on it, something like that. I don't, I don't know. But I remember buying this album when I was like 11 years old. Um, my good friend, my good friend John, John Calvota. Uh, unfortunately, he passed away four years ago. Um, but he introduced me to the Beatles. We met when we were 10. He introduced me to the Beach Boys, not the Beatles. We met when we were 10, and he loved the Beach Boys. So um, he introduced me to it, and and I don't remember, I think he may have had Endless Summer. I know he had some other Beach Boys albums, you know, all the original ones, but I and our we were I just remember going into our favorite record store in Uptown Whittier Lovells and seeing the Beach Boys Endless Summer, and I was like, I gotta get it. I didn't even know it was a greatest hits package, not in you know, 74 when it was released, and and I probably picked it up in 75, 76. So I didn't realize it was a greatest hits package. I just knew it was the Beach Boys, and man, I just played it and it was awesome, just awesome. And uh so side one of album number one is uh uh starts with surfing safari, then surfer girl, how about catch a wave, and warmth of the sun. It closes out with surfing USA. Seriously, and you know I'm looking at something here because we're looking at writing credits. Surfing USA Chuck Berry gets a co-write for that one. You know what? I'll bet it's because of the like the guitar lick, because it probably sounds similar to um Johnny be good, maybe. Maybe that's why he gets a co uh co-write on that. I don't, I don't, I don't know that if he actually sat down with Brian Wilson and wrote out the lyrics to that. Um let me see. What do we got here? I got a couple comments coming in. One, of course, is from my uh my lovely wife. Uh she says, oh yeah, she says, yep, I love CCR. See, she's not here. And you came back with oh yeah, we need to uh what do we do? What do we need to do? Did you say we need to make shots? I don't know about that. So uh side two on album one, be true to your school. That's just so good. Little Deuce Coop. Oh, and probably my favorite Beach Boy song of all time. All time in my room. Just oh, it's such a killer song. And then uh track four on side two of album one is shut down. Track five is fun, fun, fun, because she'll have fun, fun, fun till her daddy takes her t-bird away. Oh, I see. See, I it's too far away. Oh, you know what? I'm gonna do hang on one second here. Hold on one second. I'm gonna do something and see if look at that right there. From I can't even read that, but that's from Raul. From oh front, Ben Maynard. Back, so good. Okay. And he said we gotta make shirts, not shots. There it is, right there. We need to make shirts. We should do that, huh? We should do that. All right. Yeah, I gotta try to use these little features that pop up. Um, okay, so album number two, side three, I get around. So good. Girls on the beach, Wendy, Let Him Run Wild, and Don't Worry, Baby. Don't worry, baby. So good. Side four on uh which is so that's side two on album number two starts with California Girls, and I got a little story on this one, man. So my I told you my friend John introduces me to the Beach Boys, okay? His neighbor having us little like uh they were having they wanted to have us a little like variety show, so we cleaned out their garage and um set things up. I actually had my mom take me to Sears and go shopping, and I bought outfits for this variety show because we had some sketches and and we had one musical performance, and that was John and I singing California Girls Acapella. It was horrible. It was terrible. We were so scared and and uh and afraid of doing this, or so scared to do this, that we never looked, we had a little audience, probably about six people. We never looked at them, we stood and we looked at each other the whole time as we were singing. Man, crazy. But whatever. There's no recording of that. Sorry. You might get you might hear something of Proud Mary, but you're not gonna hear California girls. All right, so track two is Girl Don't Tell Me, Help Me, Rhonda, You're So Good to Me, and All Summer Long. And then I guess uh there was a re-release, and I know you're thinking, where the heck is this song? Um there was a release, uh, I mean, uh Good Vibrations was added to the set, but that's because this compilation was, I think, everything from 62 to 65 or six for the Beach Boys, so it it didn't initially include um good vibrations. All right, absolutely nuts on this one. This was a recommendation from my good buddy Raul. What'd you say there? Oh no. Let me see. What did he say? Oh no, owns a t-shirt company. Oh, crazy. All right, we may have some swag coming. You never know, people. You never know. You can buy your own the Ben Maynard program t-shirt. Yeah, wouldn't that be great? Could start funding this podcast here. Um, okay. Released in 1985. So good, so good, so good. 23 times platinum. Absolutely bananas. Billy Joel's greatest hits, volume one and two. Now, how do you have volume one and two when you release them at the same time? I don't know. When it's like the same, the same package where the Beatles had the red album and the blue album, they weren't sold together. This is volume one, volume two, all sold together. I don't know. So um let's see. Album one, track one, we start off with the with piano man. Killer, killer, killer, killer song. And then I dig this version of the version on here of this song, say goodbye to Hollywood, which is the live version. Really like that one a lot. And then the cut three, New York State of Mind. Four, The Stranger, and five, just the way you are. Because I dig you just the way you are. Uh let's see, side two, because we flipped the album over. Track one, moving out. Man, that's so good. So good. Um track two, only the good die young. Three, she's always a woman. Track four, my life. Love this one, so good. Track five, big shot. So that one's so good. And then uh track six, you may be right from the Glass Houses album. That's such a good song. And then so now let's change albums. Put on album number two, side one of album number two starts off with it's still rock and roll to me. That was a number one song for Billy. Then there's Don't Ask Me Why.

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Hmm.

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We're getting into like two of my absolute favorite songs from uh from Billy Joel. Pressure from the Nylon Curtain album. That is a killer song. And then Allentown. Man, that one is so good. Then Billy's tribute to uh Vietnam Veterans, Goodnight Saigon. Uh then we'll go to uh we'll flip that album over, go to side two of album number two. And uh we've got Tell Her About It, Uptown Girl, The Longest Time, and then two unreleased songs, You're Only Human and The Night Is Still Young. So uh just I mean, just hit after hit after hit after hit. Now, um what do we have here? Oh yeah, okay. So I guess I'm gonna close out the my my my research here, so we have some more. But um this one was released in 1988, and this one actually is is is quite special, and I'll get into it in a second. Not only is it my favorite band of all time, okay. We all know that. You know, it's like 1A, 1 and 1A with Kiss and Journey. All right. And this one here, released in 1988, has gone 18 times platinum, and it's Journey's Greatest Hits. Um, it starts off with Only the Young, then Don't Stop Believing. Now Only the Young was released. I should back up, only the Young was released on off of the Vision Quest soundtrack. Um, so you guys know that one. I wasn't on a uh studio album uh from the band. Then Don't Stop Believing. Everyone knows that's from Escape. Wheel in the Sky, that's the um pre-Jonathan Kane days. That's off of Steve Perry's debut album with Journey, that's Infinity. Then track four, Faithfully off of Frontiers. We know it, we all know that one. Five, I'll be alright without you, so good, off of Raised on Radio. Six, Any Way You Want It, off of Departure. Or if you want to get funny, it's off of the soundtrack to Caddyshack. If you've seen that movie, you know it's when Ronnie Dangerfield breaks out. Uh I mean, he basically has a party right on the fairway of one of the holes, and he they're playing Journey any way you want it. All right. Uh next song, Who's Crying Now? So good. Then Separate Ways, uh, then lights and loving touch and squeezing, then open arms, then off of Raised on Radio, Girl Can't Help It. I love that song. Love that song. Then Send Her My Love from Frontiers, and we close it out with Be Good to Yourself from Raised on Radio. Oh, wait a second. No, no, no, no, no. No, we don't close it out. Oh, you know what I did? I skipped over. I did skip over one song because I wanted to mention something. But it does, it does close out with Be Good to Yourself. But side one closes with Ask the Lonely. I skipped over it. Talking about Rodney Dangerfield and Caddyshack. Ask the Lonely is a really good song that the band still plays on a fairly regular basis when they're out touring. But it's from uh a movie soundtrack, Two of a Kind. The movie Bombed. It was with John Travolta and Olivia Newton John. Movie did terrible, but that song carried on and it did it pretty well. Now, I kind of closed out with with um Journey's Greatest Hits because what's really cool about that album is not, I mean, obviously it's 18 times platinum to this point, but that that album has spent um, I think it's the number two album in music history with the most consecutive weeks on the Billboard Top 200 album chart. It is, I think it's over 900 weeks right now, consecutively. Um the only album that has spent more consecutive weeks on the Billboard Top 200. I don't know if it's still on there now, but it's uh I got it right here. What is it? It's oh, it's Legend, the best of Bob Marley and the Wailers. That album has spent, I think that's the number one album. It used to be Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon, but then Pink Floyd, it and I think Pink, I think Dark Side of the Moon is on the Billboard Top 200 chart still, but it dropped off for I think one or two weeks, and then it got right back on the charts. So it it lost its consecutive streak um record, but I think Bob Marley's is still uh I don't know if it's still going, but I but Bob Marley's I think is number one. But I but this is really weird. No, it's not weird, it's interesting. In 2010, I'll go from 2010 to last year, 2024. Uh the Journey's greatest hits was uh number 106. On the Billboard Top 200 album chart. In 11, 2011, it was 102. So it actually moved up, gained traction. 2012, it dropped down to 117. 2013, it dropped to 145. 2014, it climbed to 103. So it, I mean, it's awesome. Now 2015, it moved all the way up to number 78 on the Billboard Top 200 album chart. Being that in 2018, the album was already over 20 years old. It's like what 27 years old or something at the time. And it moved up to 78. 2016, it dropped down to number 88. 2017, it dropped down to 92. Then in 2018, it climbed to um number 90. But this is what's funny. The top in 2017 and 2018, the on the top rock albums for the year, Billboard's top rock albums for the year of 2017, Journey's Greatest Hits was number 11. Is that nuts or what? And then in 2018, it was number eight. That's just silly. Man. So 2019, Journey's Greatest Hits was number 70 on the Billboard top 200 albums. And on the rock album chart, it was number 11. 2020, it dropped one position down to 71. 2021, it climbed five positions to 66. 2022 dropped to 93. 2023, climbed to 87. And last year in 2024, Journey's greatest hits at whatever 24 or I mean uh uh 34, 35 years old at that time. No, 36, I think. 36, 36 years old or whatever it is at that time with number 99 on Billboard Hot Uh Billboard Top 200 album chart. That's just that is nuts. That is absolutely nuts. Um, but some of the others, some of some more top um greatest hits packages or albums, Aerosmith, greatest hits released in 1980. Um, one I I didn't forget, but it's like you can only do so much. Changes from David Bowie, so good, so good. Um, I mean, obviously, the legend, you know, uh legend, the best of Bob Marley, you know. I mean, come on, Elton John's greatest hits uh from 74. Um Simon and Garfunkel's Greatest Hits, you know, from 1972. Then um even ABBA Gold, their greatest hits package. One of the one of the biggest selling albums, uh, greatest hits albums. Uh let's see. Then you have um, I mean, even uh well, let me see. Oh, yeah, Hot Rocks from the Rolling Stones, 64 to 71. Yeah, that was released in 1971. So there's there's a whole slew of greatest hits packages. I forgot one too. I was gonna I was gonna actually add it to the list and I I forgot it. And it's a tremendous album, it really is. It's only got 10 songs. It's I think it's 10, 10 songs, that's it. But it's uh Steve Miller band, the best best of the Steve Miller band. And I think that album was released in 78. Um after right after he released what was the album? Uh Book of Dreams. So it came on the heels of that. So it's got Swing Town on it and stuff, but so good, so good. You know, Take the Money and Run, The Joker, Rockin' Me, uh, Swing Town, Jet Airliner. So that's such a great song. Jet Airliner. Um what else? What else is on that one? Um shoot, The Steak. Yeah, the steak. That's a great song, too. Just so, so good, such, such good stuff. And I I forgot. And I think it was like 659. I was like, oh, wait a minute, I forgot Steve Miller. So anyway. Um, all good stuff, all good stuff, and and thanks to my uh my new producer, Raul Ortega, for uh the idea on this one. A non-paid member of the staff. What can I say? What can I say? We have no budget here, but anyway, so nobody left any greatest compilations or greatest hits compilations in the uh comments. Nobody hit me with any music trivia, so I'm Malort free. Thank you for that. I appreciate it. With that, listen, I'm gonna let you guys go because it's still early and you guys go out and have a good old time the rest of the evening. Okay, so we'll close it out with that. As you know, this program is available wherever you get your podcast. Just search the Ben Maynard program. Uh, boom, it's right there. And go with it. But when you do that, you have to subscribe to it, okay? Subscribe to it, and and then you'll get notifications anytime a new episode drops. Uh, but if you're here tonight, you're hanging out on Friday Night Live and you're having a good time, mostly because you can't resist all this right here. Thanks for doing that. I greatly appreciate it. But subscribe to the channel. Again, you'll get notifications every time a new episode drops. Then you have to give me a thumbs up. I dig those. I need them. And you have to leave a comment. Comments are great, and I reply to them. You guys know that. Uh, then uh, well, last but not least, follow me on Instagram, all one word, Ben Maynard program, or on the TikTok. The TikTok, right? It's the Ben Maynard program. And um, yeah, let's get it done. All right. So, with that, we're done. We are out of here. Thanks again for joining me. Thanks again for having some fun. And uh again, taking a trip down like memory lane with all this great music we've been talking about. You know, it's so good. And if you've got any of these in your collection, bust them out and start listening. All right, there's you got a whole slew of them to choose from. So listen, again, thanks. I greatly appreciate it. I'll see you guys next time. This is the Ben Maynard program. Tell a friend.