Bonus Tracks On CD Re-issues/Hits that are GOOD

[METALPRIEST]

A recent Def Leppard thread gave me this idea.

Many people have the same feeling that when an artist puts out a greatest hits package or a remastered re-release on CD....that the "bonus" tracks or "rare" cuts are never as good (or not good at all) when compared to the rest of the album.

This also includes the dreaded EP.

So here is a thread for posting songs that are these "bonus" tracks that are pretty darn good.

MANOWAR: GOD OR MAN

From the Thunder In The Sky EP

 

[aeroplane]

Nice to know my comments in that Def Leppard thread inspired this!

I remember spending a fortune to buy the cd reissues of every Motley Crue studio album, even though I already owned the original releases of all of them (up to New Tattoo). In the early 2000's, Motley Crue reissued their entire catalog up to that point with 3-4 bonus tracks per album, which is a pretty good number. It was a mix of demos and unreleased songs that didn't make the original albums.

Like an idiot, I was excited about the prospect of bonus tracks on these reissues. So I bought them all, got rid of my old copies and spent around $100 in the process.

Needless to say, pretty much every bonus track across the entire series of those Crue studio albums SUCKED. The demos sounded terrible and the unreleased tracks that didn't make the cut the first time around were all disappointing. I was pissed and felt completely taken, but it was my own damn fault for wasting money on reissued stuff.

I learned my lesson that day.

The only band I know of who consistently delivered good bonus tracks was Judas Priest.

Like Motley Crue, Judas Priest reissued their entire catalog on cd in the early 2000's and put 3-4 bonus tracks on each of the albums in the process. Very same thing the Crue did. However, many of the bonus cuts on those Priest albums were shockingly good, whether it was demos, live tracks or unreleased songs. Pretty much across the board, Priest had some great stuff they were saving for those bonus tracks.

That was the only time I've ever been really thrilled with a band's "bonus" material.

I will also opine that pretty much all the "new" songs on BOTH Van Halen greatest hits releases stink.

 

[Gabble Ratchet]

I'm gonna go ahead and say that nearly all of Genesis' unreleased songs in the bonus CD's of their series of box sets are easily album quality

 

[Groovy Man]

These 3 songs come to mind, because I just heard them recently...

Simon & Garfunkel - You Don't Know Where Your Interest Lies
from the album, Bookends (1968)



Lynyrd Skynyrd - Georgia Peaches

from the album, Street Survivors...



And Mott The Hoople covering the CSN&Y classic, ''Ohio'' from 1970 --bonus track from the first Mott album...

 

[AboutAGirl]

Quite possibly one of the most successful Hits Bonus Track of all-time, it instantly became one of Tom Petty's all-time biggest hits and he's probably played it at ever live show since (sans Mudcrutch).



Though to be fair, the other track they did (the cover of Something In The Air or whatsit) wasn't very popular. I think they replaced it on a later edition of the Hits disc.

There's also Neil Young's 2-disc Decade set which sort of sets the bar for this type of stuff, featuring a whole slew of quality rarities including some of my all-time favorites like Campaigner, Winterlong, Down To The Wire and of course Sugar Mountain which was only available as a b-side up until that point.

 

[TrekkiELO]

Electric Light Orchestra

Balance of Power (2007)
Out of the Blue (2007)
A New World Record (2006)
Face the Music (2006)
On the Third Day (2006)
ELO II (2006)
No Answer (2006)
Time (2001)
Secret Messages (2001)
Discovery (2001)
Eldorado, A Symphony (2001)
Flashback (2000)

Signed,

Rick