Essential Hits
Essential Hits is a Sisters of Mercy greatest hits compilation album compiled by C.Syde65 in 2011. This compilation album features all the songs that I considered to be my favourite Sisters of Mercy tracks at the time of its compile date. A total of 13 songs that were just under 80 minutes altogether.
The 'normalise all audio files' box was ticked during the burning process of the CD, so that the volume of all the tracks would be set to a standard volume. This was very useful to help the song copies remastered in the 1980's and 1990's blend in better with the louder and clearer song copies remastered in the 2000's.
The 'no pause between tracks' box was also ticked, to prevent the Nero Express Essentials software from adding 2 second pauses between tracks, to free up more space on the CD - not that there wasn't enough space to fit 13 songs on the CD anyway.
This compilation was largely inspired by the 1993 greatest hits compilation album A Slight Case of Overbombing: Greatest Hits, Volume One, which is why many of the tracks from that compilation are also on this compilation. I basically reordered the tracks in approximate order of release and record date, instead of being in reverse chronological order of release like on A Slight Case of Overbombing.
While I do consider 'Body and Soul', 'Walk Away', 'No Time to Cry', and 'Under the Gun' to be among my favourite Sisters of Mercy songs nowadays, they weren't really among my favourites back when I first made this compilation. So those 4 songs weren't featured on this compilation. And in their places were 'Floorshow', 'Jolene', 'First and Last and Always', 'When You Don't See Me', and 'You Could Be the One'.
This compilation was originally compiled before I obtained the 2006 remaster of the British version of the album First and Last and Always. If I remember correctly, I was waiting to obtain it so I could include the British mix of 'First and Last and Always' instead of the Japanese mix. I don't regard the Japanese mix to be inferior to the British mix. But I typically use the British mixes of the tracks from First and Last and Always on compilations. The Kid Jensen Session version of 'Jolene' that was featured as a bootleg is the version of the song that I included as part of this compilation. If I remember correctly, I obtained it shortly before burning this compilation.
The version of 'Floorshow' that appeared as the opening track of the 2011 version of this compilation was a live version that was featured as a bootleg in 1990. The recording itself dated from 1985. Though until 2016, I mistakenly believed it to be the version that was originally released as a single in November 1982 and the Alice EP, explaining why it appeared as the opening track on this compilation, instead of as the 3rd track. This error was corrected in 2022, and the original single version was subsequently included on this compilation instead.
Instead of using the single edit of 'This Corrosion' and the copy of 'Dominion/Mother Russia' from A Slight Case of Overbombing, I used the album mix of 'This Corrosion' and the copy of 'Dominion/Mother Russia' from Floodland. Because both tracks fade into the next songs on Floodland which are 'Flood I' and 'Flood II' respectively, I used Adobe Audition to copy the first few seconds of those songs and insert them on the tail ends of 'This Corrosion' and 'Dominion/Mother Russia' respectively. I did this so that I could include everything of those 2 tracks that was on Floodland, disregarding the fact that they both contained the intros of 'Flood I' and 'Flood II' respectively.
Instead of using the radio edit of 'Doctor Jeep' and the copy of 'More' from A Slight Case of Overbombing, I used the album mix of 'Doctor Jeep' and the copy of 'More' from Vision Thing, disregarding the fact that the copy of 'More' is the same on both albums.
The copy of 'You Could Be the One' that are presented on the compact disc adaption of this compilation originated from MP3 files at 128 kbps, though I later converted all the MP3 files at 128 kbps of Sisters of Mercy songs that were on my PC at the time to Wma files at 192 kbps.
Track Listing
| Track | Title | Length | Year | Album | Author(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01) | Floorshow | 0:03:40 | 1982 | Some Girls Wander by Mistake | Craig Adams, Andrew Eldritch, Gary Marx |
| 02) | Jolene | 0:02:46 | 1983 | Entertainment or Death [Bootleg] | Dolly Parton |
| 03) | First and Last and Always | 0:04:02 | 1984 | First and Last and Always [British Release] | Andrew Eldritch, Gary Marx |
| 04) | This Corrosion | 0:11:04 | 1987 | Floodland [Compact Disc Reissue] | Andrew Eldritch |
| 05) | Dominion/Mother Russia [Transition] | 0:07:07 | 1987 | Floodland [Compact Disc Reissue] | Andrew Eldritch |
| 06) | Lucretia, My Reflection | 0:08:44 | 1987 | A Slight Case of Overbombing: Greatest Hits, Volume One | Andrew Eldritch |
| 07) | Vision Thing | 0:07:34 | 1990 | A Slight Case of Overbombing: Greatest Hits, Volume One | Andrew Eldritch |
| 08) | Detonation Boulevard | 0:03:50 | 1990 | A Slight Case of Overbombing: Greatest Hits, Volume One | Andreas Bruhn, Andrew Eldritch |
| 09) | When You Don't See Me | 0:04:54 | 1990 | Vision Thing | Andreas Bruhn, Andrew Eldritch |
| 10) | Doctor Jeep | 0:04:41 | 1990 | Vision Thing | Andreas Bruhn, Andrew Eldritch |
| 11) | More | 0:08:23 | 1990 | Vision Thing | Andrew Eldritch, Jim Steinman |
| 12) | You Could Be the One | 0:03:58 | 1990 | Vision Thing [2006 Compact Disc Reissue] | Andreas Bruhn, Andrew Eldritch |
| 13) | Temple of Love | 0:08:07 | 1992 | A Slight Case of Overbombing: Greatest Hits, Volume One | Andrew Eldritch |