Noel Gallagher names the “greatest singles band of all time”
While bands such as Led Zeppelin refused to release singles at the height of their career, others weren’t as proud and saw the medium as a vital mechanism to find their audience. Meanwhile, many groups continue to prioritise singles over albums, and Noel Gallagher believes that there’s one band whose catalogue is unmatched by this metric.
Admittedly, producing an impressive singles collection is more straightforward than creating an immaculate set of albums, given that there is no room for filler on the latter. However, nobody remembers if the occasional single fails to hit the height of other releases as long as enough songs strike a chord with listeners. Additionally, there’s no need for a coherent narrative to flow through each single, unlike with an LP.
Nevertheless, there’s nothing easy about creating a string of top-class singles over an elongated period, hence why very few groups achieve this feat. Throughout his own career, Gallagher has always ensured every album he releases offers strong singles, which, in theory, should incentivise people to seek out the entire record. However, his primary focus has always remained the whole body of work.
On the other hand, The Who doesn’t have a Definitely Maybe or What’s The Story (Morning Glory) in their arsenal like Gallagher. Yet, the band are still viewed as an iconic British act, which is wholly down to the strength of singles such as ‘Pinball Wizard’, ‘My Generation’, ‘Substitute’, ‘I Can See For Miles’, ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’, ‘Who Are You’ and ‘Magic Bus’.
If those aforementioned tracks were made within the same recording sessions, The Who would have had a timeless studio album in their back catalogue. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case, but thanks to their many greatest hits compilations, it’s possible to listen to their finest work back-to-back without sitting through their less riveting material.
While it’s prohibited for people to name compilations as their favourite album unless you are named Alan Partridge, Gallagher made an exception to the rule for The Who. Speaking to iTunes, he explained why The Ultimate Collection, released by The Who in 2002, is among his all-time favourite records.
Gallagher remarked: “Undoubtedly the greatest singles band of all time…laughable at how many truly great youth anthems Pete Townshend wrote…equally as laughable that is called the ULTIMATE collection and they’ve released about 20 ‘Best Of’s’ since!”
Furthermore, Gallagher again spoke about his love of The Ultimate Collection to The Quietus. While discussing the compilation, he honestly revealed: “I do not dig any of their albums. The only album that isn’t a hits collection I can sit through from start to finish is Live At Leeds.“
Gallagher elaborated on his selection: “On their studio albums, there is always some half-arsed concept hung on a few good tunes. But, The Ultimate Collection is … fucking hell. If you’re of a certain age and play guitar-based music, they’re up there with The Beatles to me.”
Listen to The Ultimate Collection below.
