Triple Albums Made Single

Way back in the olden days of December 2018, I posted an entry on this blog where I took eight double studio albums and slimmed them down to a single disc.

This time around, I’m tackling four triple studio albums and slimming them down, not to a double, but also to a single disc. That’s a lot of whittling. You can be the judge of the outcomes.

 

Green Day – “¡Uno! ¡Dos! ¡Tré!”

Besides listening to all the tracks, I went in search of consensus among others as to what are the best songs from the three discs. And believe me, the more you search the topic online the more you realize that no one agrees on everything. But it did appear that a few songs showed up on most lists I found and helped me narrow it down. Two of the original discs have 12 tracks and one has 13, so I decided to keep it at no more than 13.

1.       Nuclear Family

2.       Brutal Love

3.       Stay the Night

4.       Stop When the Red Lights Flash

5.       Let Yourself Go

6.       X-Kid

7.       Stray Heart

8.       Troublemaker

9.       Dirty Rotten Bastards

10.   99 Revolutions

11.   The Forgotten

12.   Oh Love

13.   Amy

 

Smashing Pumpkins – “Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness”

Most people probably think of this as a two-CD, 28-track album, but it was also released as a three-disc, 30-track vinyl album. With 30 tracks to choose from, it’s a lot to wade through. And consider the fact that another 30 or so songs didn’t make the final cut of the actual album (they were included later in a box set). So, to get this down to a single vinyl album, I decided to only use 10 tracks in total. And if you check various “best of” lists on the interwebs you’ll find that four tracks make nearly everyone’s list, and then it's kind of a free-for-all.

SIDE A

1.       Tonight Tonight

2.       Jellybelly

3.       Zero

4.       Bullet with Butterfly Wings

5.       Galapogos

SIDE B

1.       Muzzle

2.       Thirty-Three

3.       1979

4.       Thru the Eyes of Ruby

5.       Stumbleine

 

The Clash – “Sandanista!”

Some songs from Sandanista were obvious keepers, and some tracks seemed to me like just filler. When it came to determining the final cuts, I again went to the interwebs for various opinions on the best/worst tracks. Finally, I settled on what’s below. It was only after I completed this that I discovered a 12-track promo album called Sandanista Now! had been released (I assume to radio stations), and it only differs from my tracklist by two songs: I included "Something About England" and "Charlie Don't Surf" while Sandanista Now! excludes those songs but includes instead "Ivan Meets G.I. Joe" and "Sound of Sinners." 

SIDE A

1.       The Magnificent Seven

2.       Hitsville UK

3.       Junco Partner

4.       The Leader

5.       Something About England

6.       Somebody Got Murdered

SIDE B

1.       One More Time

2.       Up in Heaven (Not Only Here)

3.       Police on My Back

4.       The Call Up

5.       Washington Bullets

6.       Charlie Don’t Surf

 

George Harrison – “All Things Must Pass”

For this album, the obvious choice for me was to first remove the third disc of jams. And then I assembled what I thought were the best nine tracks. The first side ended up being exactly the same as the released album, and the second side was a mix of the rest. The leftovers would have been a great start on a 1971 or 1972 follow-up album.

SIDE A

1.       I’d Have You Anytime

2.       My Sweet Lord

3.       Wah-Wah

4.       Isn’t It a Pity (v. 1)

SIDE B

1.       What is Life

2.       Run of the Mill

3.       Beware of Darkness

4.       The Ballad of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let It Roll)

5.       All Things Must Pass