A Compilation CD for the Ages
The Kinks Best Greatest Hits CD: “Ugly Pink” Is No Longer King
Get This Other Compilation CD Instead (While You Can)
There are far more Kinks compilations than catalog albums. 24 catalog albums vs. more than 33 comps. Wikipedia’s list of them is woefully incomplete and excludes what I consider to be their best one.
Picking one of these greatest hits CDs can be a difficult hit-and-miss proposition due to widely varying sound quality, differences in mastering, single versions vs. album versions, etc. I have chosen 11 of their compilation CDs to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each.
I selected these because I find that most of them have superior sound quality over the more recent compilations which suffer from over-compression, clipping, limiting and weird EQ. None of the ones here have noise reduction. With one exception, the artwork is pretty execrable, but I’m focusing on sound quality only. I personally would rather have a great sounding CD than a lesser one that has better artwork with a fancy booklet.
My goal here is to determine which Greatest Hits CDs offer the best listening experience. I have done the tedious comparisons, carefully a/b’ing a sampling of tracks from each of these CDs to help you determine which one you “need” and is available at an affordable price.
One track that is common among almost all of these is “All Day and All of the Night” and I have used this as a yardstick track for my comparisons. I have also compared several other tracks, including “Lola” and “You Really Got Me.”
All dollar amounts referred to are in USD.
This CD has noticeable differences in EQ compared to the other 10. It doesn’t sound bad, but my guess is that it is not a flat transfer. Did the engineer do a good job in re-EQ’ing? It’s OK, not bad if you hear it in a vacuum, but it is not a winner when compared to some of the other CDs.
Another tell that this has been re-EQ’d is that it has a lower dynamic range compared to some of the other CDs. Having a lower DR doesn’t necessarily mean that a song has added EQ, as compression and/or limiting could also factor into it. However, in this case, because I hear a unique EQ, it is likely that the lower dynamic range is due, at least in part, to added EQ instead of compression or limiting.
This CD unfortunately contains the version of “You Really Got Me” with reverb, not the proper dry mono mix. This oversight is a dealbreaker.
The sound here isn’t as “big” as Ugly Pink although the shared tracks have the same dynamic range. I can confirm from the waveforms that these are unique masterings. It sounds to me like it has a slight treble roll-off and a more recessed sound compared to some of the other CDs.
This CD has more hiss, especially apparent right before the opening chord of “All Day and All of the Night” which contains a full second of it. It isn’t terrible, but there are better options.
Many songs here suffer from added reverb, dampening the power of tracks like “All Day and All of the Night,” and “You Really Got Me.” I’m not sure what’s going on with that, because in my comparison to the electronically processed stereo version of “You Really Got Me,” I find that those have a slightly greater amount of reverb, so it looks like this has a unique (and lousy) mastering of at least some songs. For that reason, I would recommend avoiding this CD.
This is a great option for some tracks. It does not have the treble roll-off of some of the other CDs and has a lower level of hiss than You Really Got Me: The Best of The Kinks 1964–1967. However, it has 2 strikes against it: “You Really Got Me” is the version slathered in reverb. Second, it does not contain the single mix/version of “Lola.” Those are dealbreakers for me.
Packed with songs, great track listing, excellent sound on some tracks. It has the reverb’d version of “You Really Got Me” as well as the more common album version of “Lola,” not the single mix.
Certainly a trade-off, but worth consideration if those 2 things aren’t a dealbreaker for you (they are for me). The songs must have been chosen thoughtfully, as there is a good cross-section of hits, rarities and prominent album tracks on this 2 CD set. At the time of this writing, the past few sales on Discogs have averaged $20, which isn’t good. There are less expensive and better options.
The sound on this set is “smeared,” not as present-sounding as on some of the superior CDs, below. It also sounds like it has a treble roll-off, as the high end is less present than most of the other CDs here. It has a greater level of hiss than some of the other CDs. It contains the correct dry mono version of “You Really Got Me,” but it has the stereo, album “Coca-Cola” version of “Lola.”
Since this is 3 CDs, it contains more music than the other entries here, and has a well thought-out, nicely representative selection. However, I wouldn’t recommend this title because of the crappy sound and the absence of the single version of “Lola.”
A good option for some tracks. No treble roll-off. Low level of hiss without using noise reduction. It has the correct true mono, dry version of “You Really Got Me.” It contains the mono single mix/version of “Lola.”
The volume of “All Day and All of the Night” is inconsistent, which differs from all of the other CDs. At about the 1:00 mark it starts decreasing in volume and stays lower for the rest of the track, clearly visible in the waveform. I’m not seeing such anomalies in the rest of the tracks though.
Another ding against this CD is that, for some unfathomable reason, it excludes “Tired of Waiting for You,” while including some of their lesser, earlier songs that weren’t hits, including the Talmy-penned “Bald Headed Woman,” which was also shoved onto The Who and anyone else Shel Talmy could bully at the time.
At the time of this writing, the past few sales on Discogs have averaged about $7.
This is the Big Daddy. It consists of the Ugly Pink CD, including all the same tracks in the same order and the same mastering (I compared waveforms to make sure that what my ears were telling me was correct, and they are the same), but whereas Ugly Pink only has 18 songs, this CD has 25, including the correct mono mix of “You Really Got Me,” the mono single version of “Lola” and 7 additional tracks that are all essential, missing from Ugly Pink.
At the time of this writing, the most recent sales on Discogs average a paltry $2.40. Clearly the fact that it has the same mastering as the vaunted Steve Hoffman approved Ugly Pink has either not been previously discovered, or not been publicized, as people have been paying $20 and more for Ugly Pink when they could be paying a little over $2.00 for this. Get it while you can, folks, because when word gets out, the price may skyrocket.
This find made the time-consuming comparisons of all these CDs worth it.
Another happy discovery! This has the same tonality and punch as Ugly Pink and I have to admit, on many tracks I’m not able to tell the difference. However, the waveforms are slightly different so it has to be a different mastering. It includes the correct version of “You Really Got Me” without the reverb, the mono single version of “Lola.” This is not a bootleg, despite being on a weird label. It was licensed out to Disky from Castle Communications, a legit label.
At the time of this writing, the Discogs sales have been averaging an even more paltry $1.10. If you’re an audiophile on such a tight budget (or is that a contradiction in terms?) that you can’t afford $2.40 for The Complete Collection CD, buy this dirt cheap CD now.
Also known as Ugly Pink, this has been the gold standard for many years and is recommended by audiophile engineer Steve Hoffman as being faithful to the master tapes, a flat transfer with the sound intended by the Kinks with no extra coloring. Here are 2 of his quotes, linked to his original posts on his forum.
This contains the correct, dry mono version of “You Really Got Me” as well as the single, “cherry cola” version of “Lola.” This does sound great, but at the time of this writing, the past few sales on discogs have averaged about $20.
There is now no reason to buy this when you can get an identical mastering with all the same tracks, in the same order, plus 7 additional essential songs by picking up The Complete Collection.
Here’s another one that audiophile mastering engineer Steve Hoffman recommends. It doesn’t duplicate tracks with Ugly Pink and it also has excellent sound. Worth it if you can find it for a decent price. At the time of this writing, the past few sales on Discogs have averaged $25.
I was surprised when I did these comparisons because I didn’t expect some of these CDs to sound as different as they do. The best option for the best sounding Kinks greatest hits CD is the first place winner, The Complete Collection (CCSCD 300). I would put Ugly Pink in second place, and The Kinks in third.
As always, your ears and your mileage may vary, but I think you will be very pleased with either of the above 2 compilations. There is no longer any reason to pay $20+ for Ugly Pink, when you can get something better for around $2.00.
