Madonna: Immaculate Collection and GHV2

Later I will regale you with everything you need to know about Madonna's new greatest hits collection, Celebration, released today in the United States in multiple physical and digital formats. But first, I want to look back at her other greatest hits collections in order to provide proper context for the new set.

The Immaculate Collection (1990)

Simultaneously perfect, yet deeply flawed, The Immaculate Collection was a landmark greatest hits album that represented one of the '80s most essential pop artists at the top of her game. Yet a closer inspection of the choices is cause for some head-scratching. On the one hand, it deftly collects 15 of Madonna most beloved hits, which stood as a testament to the best of '80s dance pop (plus the brilliant 1990 hit "Vogue").

Yet, in a rather remarkable move, most of the songs of have been remixed and thus are present in neither their original album or single versions. While editing for length is to be expected, many of the songs boast minor remixes that likely go unnoticed by a casual listener--some additional percussion in "Borderline," an extra keyboard effect on the "Like a Virgin" chorus, etc. Slightly more dramatic were the inclusions of edits of "Holiday" and "Into the Groove" based on their You Can Dance remixes. Perhaps the boldest move was including a dance remix of "Like a Prayer" that is quite different from the album or single.

As such, The Immaculate Collection could legitimately be said to be a remix album, rather than a greatest hits, since it includes no album or single versions of the any of the songs included, save for the two new tracks. It's an unusual choice in retrospect. Why not just start with the single versions and edit for length as necessary? Still, in 1990 I thought it was amazing, as it put almost all my Madonna favorites together in one place, gave me "Crazy for You" for the first time, the dance single version of "Express Yourself," which I'd always preferred, and two great new tracks.

GHV2 (2001)

As compared with The Immaculate Collection, GHV2 was disappointing. It was better from a purists perspective, since this time all the tracks were either album versions or single edits, but the omissions were more pronounced: no "I'll Remember" or "This Used to Be My Playground," yet we got "Drowned World" and "What It Feels Like for a Girl." "Don't Cry For Me Argentina" appeared in its original ballad version rather than the popular Miami Mix promoted as the single. "Human Nature's" profanity was edited out. And there were no new tracks, which was a shame, for it meant the collection got little promotion. Probably the best thing about this set was the single version of "Deeper and Deeper," which is slightly different than the Erotica album version. Despite these disappointments, this is probably still a good deal for a casual fan who wants to explore Madonna's '90s work, but isn't ready to commit to her albums, since Celebration gives short shrift to this era of Madonna's career, including only eight tracks on the 2-CD version and a measly 3 on the single disc set.