Pink Floyd Music:

A Collection of Great Dance Songs Track Listing:
1. One of These Days
2. Money
3. Sheep
4. Shine on You Crazy Diamond
5. Wish You Were Here
6. Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 2

Editorial Review:
For those who spent the whole of the 1970s actually living on the dark side of the moon rather than listening to it, A Collection of Great Dance Songs offers an opportunity to hear some of the most timeless, thoughtful, and influential rock music ever made by rich, bitter Englishmen. The album's title certainly seems less deceptive now, considering just how much of the Floyd's instrumental ambience eventually seeped into the techno and dance scenes of the '90s. Initially released during one of those yawning epochs between studio albums (namely, The Wall and The Final Cut) this best-of collection cherry picks from Pink Floyd's 1970s material--the era when the band (and they were a band in those days) bestrode the stadiums of the world like light-show leviathans and sold records by the tons--and is only undermined by the omission of sprawling masterpieces such as "Echoes" and "Atom Heart Mother" (such were the time limitations of the old vinyl format). Never mind the dance floor, this a great portable Pink Floyd collection for long car journeys. --Kevin Maidment

A Collection of Great Dance Songs Reviews:
Pink Floyd Sampler
2009-06-12 - Basicsally, "Collection", is a sampler of Pink Floyd's music from the 1970s. Each album from "Meddle" to "The Wall" is represented here. This album by no means should be considered a greatest hits collection.

There are only six tracks on this collection and it does not fully represent Pink Floyd as a greatest hits package. There have been other greatest hits packages that do a better job of representing the band.

All in all, Pink Floyd fans might want this to add to their collection. New fans who might be curious about Pink Floyd, might want to purchase this album for a good introduction to the band.

"Money"- For all it's worth.
2009-03-14 - An interesting compilation of tracks here. Bought this on vinyl when it was first released on LP. I probably sold more Hi-Fi from the remixed "Money" on "Dance Songs"(track 2), than ANY other demo I had. It is a COMPLETELY different song from the original release of '73. This cut alone makes this disc worth it's weight in gold. Phenomenal !

Technically the third Pink Floyd compilation album
2007-11-10 - Pink Floyd's 1981 best-of A Collection of Great Dance Songs is a fairly good compilation if you ask me.
Released in November of 1981, the album has a nice mix of songs from 1971-81.
The first compilation was 1971's Relics and the second was 1973's A Nice Pair which re-packaged the group's first two efforts as one double album.
Half of the tracks are altered in one way or the other on ACOGDS, so it is a pretty good collectors album for people who have most Pink Floyd albums, as opposed to a lot of other compilation albums that are boring because the songs are the same exact version as they were on their original album.
The reason for this album was that Floyd's label in America, Columbia wanted a best-of. Since Floyd were not a band known for hit singles, they were a band known for hit albums. The Floyd album covers, this one included, are always cool to collect.
This compilation starts with the standard version of "One of These Days" (a/k/a One of These Days I am Going to Cut You Into Little Pieces) is a good classic spooky song, which is always a good song to be on an album and is the version from Meddle. "Money" is great. The version of Money on Dance Songs is done by guitarist/singer David Gilmour with James Guthrie co-producing and engineering (as David Gilmour plays guitars, bass, keyboards, drums, vocals and produces himself save Dick Parry's saxophone) because Capitol/EMI in the US and Canada would not let the band license the song to the band for the compilation for fear it would kill Dark Side of the Moon's sales so David re-recorded this track note for note (some parts of the solos and the drumming are different and you can tell soundwise the recording is from 1981). "Sheep" is the original version found on the album Animals.
"Shine on You Crazy Diamond" is altered here to include Parts 1, 2, 4 and 7. "Wish You Were Here" is the regular standard version. "Another Brick in the Wall (Part 2)" has the single mix intro and the album version ending so a unique version here.
There are a whole lot of Floyd compilations, but I'd have to say this is one of the best and was the only best-of to sell well in the US as it hit the US Top 40 hitting #31 and going Gold in two months of release, eventually Double Platinum (two million copies in US sales).
The remastering on this 2000 Capitol remaster was superbly handled by James Guthrie and Doug Sax as the remaster was done back in 1997 for when Columbia Records (outside Europe) initilally released these remasters.
If you want to get a good Floyd compliation but don't want to pay $30 for Echoes, get this collection.

Bargain bin: 5,000 stars for the music, -1,234,567,890 for running time
2007-07-22 - It's like Syd Barret never joined Pink Floyd. It's like anyone wants to hear a ten-minute edit of Shine On You Crazy Diamond in favor of the full version or a remix of Money above the original. Pink Floyd is the essence of the album band, so anthologizing their material is a tough job. The least they could've done was tried, though.
Yeah, I know, restrictions of vinyl and all that. Even with the mere hour allotted to vinyl records, there's still a good fifteen-plus minutes left over on this album, fifteen-plus minutes that could've been used to work in, say, Comfortably Numb. Or maybe it would have been ideal to expand this to double-album length to accommodate some of Syd's stuff with the group (Astronomy Domine; See Emily Play; Arnold Layne; Bike; Interstellar Overdrive; Lucifer Sam; Jugband Blues... I could go on and on here), or to allow overlooked classics like Hey You, Run Like Hell, Mother, Young Lust (One of their coolest songs EVER, and a wickedly punning title too), Us & Them, Time, Brain Damage/Eclipse, Echoes (preferably in the full version), and numerous others. But then, what's the purpose of a Pink Floyd compilation in the first place? If you need one, go with Echoes: others should look into Piper at the Gates of Dawn; Meddle; The Dark Side of the Moon; Wish You Were Here and Animals. Yes, One of These Days, the ORIGINAL Money, the FULL Shine On You Crazy Diamond, Sheep, Wish You Were Here and Another Brick in the Wall, pt. 2 are among the bare Floyd necessities, and the only reason this pathetic collection gets more than one star. But you simply need more than this! Much more.

Many of my Favorites on One Album
2007-03-10 - This oddly titled album is really a greatest hits collection of some of Pink Floyd's most powerful songs. None of these are dance tunes in the traditional sense. All of them are powerful. Some are modified and tweaked, so you get a different slant on some favorites.

You start with One of These Days - a powerful instrumental piece of strength and anger. "One of these days I'm going to cut you into little pieces," growls the singer. Follow that with Money, the classic tune about how people grub their entire lives for money - but in the end, money can make you pretty miserable.

Move on to Sheep, talking about how people tend to have herd-like tendencies. In Shine On you Crazy Diamond, it talks about how fresh people are when they're young, and how this is something we should strive to maintain as we grow up. The more poignant Wish You were Here is understood easily by anybody who is missing someone they care for.

You end up with the ultimate song of power for this band, Another Brick in the Wall Part 2. Played at just about every school around the world, it's not just about schoolkids, but about all of us in life, being squished into roles we have no interest in playing. Does anybody really need sarcasm and hostility laden down on them? I think not!

A great collection of songs with incredible lyrics and intricate melodies. Highly recommended.