The Beach Boys, Their Twenty Two Greatest Hits (1973)
Ah, the specific – prosaic – compilation-album title. 22 hits you say? Better not be a bonus track! Better not cut off before the end either. I want to hear 22 songs by The Beach Boys and they better be their Greatest Goddamn Hits! My record collection was built on hits comps with titles like this – and I know now that that is because my record collection was (first) built on World Record Club and Music World compilations; second-handers from the plentiful chuck-out bins in record and book stores and the Salvation Army shops too. I bulked up and then, later, pruned a few out. At one point I reckon I had more Beach Boys compilations than I had other/proper albums by the band. That’s not the case now, I’ve ditched the plethora of hits albums – I have kept this though (and one or two of the others). Because this was really my introduction to the band. I realised, first hearing it, that I knew almost everything on it from the radio, from growing up, from film and TV, from music docos, from just knowing them, finding them. But it was still an amazing Greatest Hits album to find. Loving the songs, growing to love them so much. All 22 of them!

Sample Track: Don’t Worry Baby
The Vinyl Countdown is a document of every LP I listen to, brand new discoveries and old-old favourites; extremely pre-loved, previously abandoned or with the shrink-wrap having just been removed it’s all here at The Vinyl Countdown