I had to laugh during the Styx part. At first I was sticking up for Kilroy in my head. I love that record. Then when you said it was made for 8-year-olds, I realized I was 8 when it came out. Well played, sir. Well played.

The big warning that Kilroy would be terrible was.... It was Styx.

I consider The Doors-American Prayer to be their 7h album of essentials. It doesn't evoke disco music as you hinted. It's a brilliant last hooray from Mr. Morrison posthumously.

The worst thing about all these remixes and remasters is how they make it so hard to know if you're buying something faithful to the original (Movies do this with their director's cut crap as well).

One last thing: Jeff Lynde rerecorded his ELO albums because he had the publishing rights but not the rights to the original masters.

Robert Plant asked Phil to do it. Phil had reservations. Phil Collins wrote an interesting autobiography where he had a whole chapter on the Live Aid debacle. I don't think it was Phil's fault.

Kilroy is a take it or leave it record. "Don't Let It End" is an underrated Top 10 pop hit power ballad that got only a few to NO spins on Album Rock radio stations back in the day. Many people think "Mr. Roboto" is WAY too poppy and new wave for a band who began as a full blown prog-rock band. No mention of Yes's 1991 flop "Union" or Genesis's 1997 bust "Calling All Stations"?

My take on the super deluxe box sets (as a teenager) is that I like them doing the more obscure albums. Not only does it stop them repeating the same albums over and over again for different anniversarys, but it is also good for fans of obscure albums. Personally, I love NSD, and the Tony Martin era is super underrated for me, so I would love to hear outtakes from that

Correction: Led Zeppelin never played Wearing and Tearing live, not even for the Atlantic Records 40th anniversary concert in 1988. Instead, two years later Plant and Page performed the song at the Knebworth benefit concert in the summer of 1990. It was Plant´s name on the bill, but Page came on to perform a few Zeppelin numbers to close out his old singer´s performance that day. They actually did a decent rendition of Wearing and Tearing, with Plant almost blowing out his voice towards the end of the song.

As someone who had all those Doors' original albums sonically imprinted in my DNA, I get your point, though I can live with the ''40th anniversary mixes'' ,as interesting alt versions. (thankfully held on to all my original CD issues) and don't mind the variations and added reverby ambience, though L.A Woman admittedly suffers the most and is for my $$$, the most egregious of the lot. On the positive side, I think the debut actually improves upon the original, as it has Light My Fire at the correct mastered speed, only previously available as the horribly truncated original 1967 single version.

Wow! When Robert Fithen said about going to a 'break' at around 12:06 into the video, two commercials popped in for: 1). Firestone; and 2). T-Mobile; and then the video continued with Robert commenting about the Beatles remixes. In all my years of KZfaq viewing, I have never witnessed such well-timing when it came to commercials breaking into a KZfaq video. xD

I don’t think Phil Collins screwed up Led Zep’s Live Aid appearance as much as Jimmy being possibly drunk and definitely out of tune, with a flanger on the whole time, and Robert being hoarse from a week of solo shows plus the rehearsal. Phil might have messed up during Whole Lotta Love, but it was minimal.

"Kilroy was here" was a big thing to write on bathroom walls and school textbook covers all across America.

I just had to stop in the middle of your vid to say THANK YOU for shining a light a bit on the resurgence of vinyl. Besides the nostalgia factor. I never purchased the Aerosmith or Metallica titles you showed that had “the bar” of volume knobs maxed out. But THIS may have been one more factor in the cd market getting slapped down by vinyl. I grew up with vinyl, but with the advent of cd’s in the 80’s I never looked back. I’m perplexed by so many that DID.

When it comes to artists doing "covers;" John Lennon did well with the 1975 LP release of "Rock N' Roll." That album was a collaborative effort by Lennon and Phil Spector. A lot of drama in the production of that album; loads of info online about that.

20:00 - I one owned a Beach Boys album titled "Good Vibrations" It was put out by the Pickwick label. Their method of 're-channeling': highs on the left channel, lows on the right!

So far I agree with 95% of everything in this video - just those Beatles remixes... I got into the Beatles in 1979 when I was 11 and my dad gave me one of his copies of Let It Be. But this new Let It Be is astounding to me. Much like Pink Foyd's Animals, they just a different beast all together.

You got that right I remember hearing about a survey or test or study in which early Beatles music was played to and for young children in parks and playgrounds - it had an overall calming affect a happy mood affect. What I remember is that this was in the early 80s the children were preschool to 1st and 2nd grade. could have been late 70s me born 1949

A good covers album? Bowie's Pin Ups. Not great by Bowie's standard, but great by anybody else's.

Robert, I forgot to mention this prior but...do you recall back in the '80's when you'd go into a dept. store, and they'd be playing the Muzak overhead through the cheap speakers? Well, I don't know where why or when it was done but my friend and I heard a Muzak version of 'Stairway to Heaven'-we had to do a double take b/c it was in-between a Muzak version of Oliva Newton John's 'Magic'...sh!t you not! It was either in JC Penny's or Sears

Sorry Jimmy (Page), but you can't blame the drummer for that guitar solo.

Robert, I think you’re having way too much fun doing those drum sounds.

This was hilarious, and very well done. May I suggest two other terrible ideas: "Let's do a public casting to find our new singer" (Genesis, INXS) and "Hey let's call King of Mono Phil Spector and hire him to produce our stereo records filling every channel"

One thing I totally agree with you about is the whole "electronically reprocessed for stereo"nonsense we were subjected to in the 1960's and 1970's. Sometimes they boosted the treble on one side and the bass on the other to create the artificial "stereo" effect. Sometimes they did worse things. I have an album on Guest Star Records. in which they got hold of a mid-1950's Duke Ellington record of "Stomp, Look and Listen" from the defunct Bethlehem label and simply cross-faded between the channels to create an artificial call-anbd-response effect between the eections of the band. Blecch! Also there are seven authentic Doors albums recorded and released when Jim Morrison was still alive, six studio and one live. The studio ones, in sequence, are "The Doors," "Strange Days," "Waiting for the Sun," "The Soft Parade," "Morrison Hotel" and "L. A. Woman." And if you want to talk about bad record. concerts that should have been aborted, one was the other three Doors continuing as a three-piece after Morrison's death and making two of the worst albums of all time, "Other Voices" and "Full Circle."

Ace Frehley had the BEST solo lp out of all of the Kiss members. I wore the grooves off of it when I was 11 years old...could be also that I had a wicked crush on him too😅😅

"The Clash" were a regression to a period before they were born, when rock and roll got labeled "rebellion" (don't tell anyone: it was actually about capitalism and fame -- getting rich and famous) and kids actually bought into that, so ever since rock and roll has been imbued with that establishment "anti-establishment" attack.

I will completely agree with you on the Giles Martin Beatles remixes, except the Revolver one is pretty damn good.

All in all I agree with you on a lot here. I can’t believe you didn’t mention Paul Simon’s Graceland, The Remixes. WRETCHED! Also, your shirt probably should’ve been aborted too, but I give you props for wearing it out like that. ;)

It sounds like a lot of these belong on a “remixes that should never have happened” video rather than one about concept albums.

I think you make a very good point about executives and such not giving young people enough credit. People are smart enough to understand that art belongs in its particular context. Nobody expects an album from 1975 to sound like something from 1985 or 2015 or whatever. We don't need old films to be 'touched up", either. We want to see them as they were, so we can imagine ourselves in that special time and place when they were created. I'm not a young person anymore but growing up in the 80s and 90s it was definitely something i started to notice. THe ZZ Top thing is totally inexplicable

When i was young, i was a guitarist totally into Jimmy Page...I had a drummer friend in my neighborhood that was totally into Genesis and Phil Collins...We tried a couples of times to play together...never worked...didn't mix well at all...too different world...

I think i must have been on too much dope during the Gary Extreme Van Halen edition. Thank god I survived the dope, thank god for the dope in some aspects and thank god i took too much to miss the Van Gary edition. Great Job again!!!

Do we really want to live in a world without Mr. Roboto?

Great video! I still have my picture disc of 'Smashes, Thrashes and Hits' that I bought in 1989 at Sound Wherehouse.

David Bowie's Pin Ups is a great covers album. They were all 60s songs that he loved😎😎

"This Is England" is a keeper from 'Cut The Crap', but yes, bin the rest. They should have made good quality recordings of their busking tour ...

Regarding the Led Zeppelin réunions: the reason Collins was there was he had been in Robert Plant’s band before and recorded with him. It was supposed to be just a Robert show at first. And they didn’t play “Black Dog”. Also, in the 1988 reunion they didn’t play “wearing and tearing”, that was in 1990 on a Robert plant appearance at Knebworth. There’s a guy on KZfaq who has recently done a series of videos on Led Zepp in the 80s, you should search for those.

Not clearly labeling a remix has to be a crime.

I'm not familiar with the album Kilroy was here...but I've got to admit, i think Mr Roboto is fun!

The The, did an album of Hank Williams covers. Its great, also, he released an album of people covering his songs and they are superb. So, in conclusion, not all cover albums are bad.

Haha 😂 Brilliant vid, Robert! “Cut the Crap” is just a dreadful and cruel joke. “Load” was titled perfectly. OMG, the super deluxe boxset sh’t. 🤷‍♂️🙄 Re-channeled stereo… Absolutely fantastic, Robert! Loved this vid!

I had Technical Ecstasy on cassette and played it to near breaking point in my car - but yer , I don't need a 5 lp boxset of it.

if you really don't know why Led Zeppelin chose Phil Collins to drum for them it's because he and Robert Plant were collaborators and Collins ruled the pop charts then. Everybody begged Zeppelin to play again, so they did then people complained.

I disagree with some things. Do not discourage record companies from releasing any outtakes, cause yes I do buy them. Your videos are always fun and interesting so I give thumb up anyway.

Damn, I thought Michael from the In Groove is the Scotty Kilmer of VC, you the man!! Keep it coming brother, I truly believe musicians should just retire when they have run out of their voice.... Peace from down under

I love remix slamming. Just so dumb. Who thought these classics needed any sort of tweeking. As Jerry Reed said,"If it ain't broke, don't fix it". The ZZ Top drums are atrocious. Great Video.

Another thing to stay away from that should gave NEVER BEEN A THING was those Madacy compilations you find at BestBuy & WallyWorld by The Countdown Singers, Countdown Orchestra, Countdown Mix Masters, and etc. where they do covers & sound-a-like songs of popular songs from different years and such. If you don't pay attention, you could think it's by the original artists but it's not but you have to loom on the back, at the bottom somewhere in small writing that it's by this group of cover artists.

No, the reason Led Zeppelin would have chosen Phil Collins as drummer for Live Aid is because he was as good as Bonham. People forget this because of his later career. But his drumming with the Peter Gabriel version of Genesis and with Brand X is outstanding. The problem was having two drummers, which just confused Collins, as they'd had no time to prepare and work out who was doing what unlike when Collins drummed on occasion in tandem with Chester Thompson.

This video is awesome! Bang on for all these. Black Sabbath Technical Ecstasy deluxe album box set hahahah lol

Flowers by Echo and the Bunnymen suffered from loudness distortion. I had to return it.

Easily the worst brickwalling I have ever heard was the CD re-release of hard rock band Holland - Little Monsters, quite a bit worse than Death Magnetic. I would also like to nominate using nude underage girls on album covers ala Blind Faith and the Scorpions

Love your takes, Robert. One of the only all-covers albums I loved was Siouxie and the Banshees "Through The Looking Glass" (1987). Very thoughtfully done and it's ADDITIVE. I put that in CAPS because most crappy covers add nothing to the song. You know a band does a good job when the original bands commend the effort. Kraftwerk's Ralf called the version of "Hall of Mirrors" on this album "extraordinary". Iggy Pop loved the version of "The Passenger" on here. It's all great stuff and shows that the band's influences were not so much punk but people like John Cale, Roxy Music, Lou Reed and Television. And, it sure took some balls for the band to do some far-out covers like "Trust In Me" from the friggin Jungle Book and Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit". Whacky. But, somehow it works and sounds wonderful.

It would be nice if the record companies would issue the original mixes as well as the remixes. Hint hints (Apple/ Universal). That way there's a choice and people aren't subjected to pay high flipper prices.

I agree on the Beatles remixes, give me the original mono and stereo mixes and call it a day!

I so often wish that before the solo albums were about to be pressed, someone would have had a moment of clarity and convinced the band to take the best ten songs and just make it a regular Kiss record. Hot take: "That's the Kind of Sugar Papa Likes" and "Hooked on Rock 'n' Roll" would make my cut.

I wish I could put gifs in the comments because I would use one that says “F**kin A”, finally someone makes a video about this, even though I differ on The Beatles remixes, but I remember for a while they were trying to modernize 60’s music in the 80’s by having this weird drum overdub on them, an idea that should never have been.

Speaking of cover songs...The The Hanky Panky is an album of all Hank Williams covers and is one of my all time favorite albums.

11:05 Kiss Double Platinum from 1978 had remixes as well! I would play the record and go "WTF"???

Ha! I was an 8-year-old who LOVED Mr. Roboto. That was my first record I bought.

I think some of the remakes are driven when artists are signed by a new label and the new label wants a chunk (mechanicals) of their catalog.

I actually have "Cut The Crap" on cassette somewhere in this apartment. I liked "This Is England", and the other tracks which I thought had a punk rock sound. As for re-records and remasters (If it ain't broke, don't screw with it!), I wished Blue Oyster Cult didn't put out "Cult Classic". "ETI (Extra Terrestrial Intelligence)" was one of the major victims on this re-do compilation. The heavy guitars were severely cut, and replaced with acoustic piano. I didn't care for the re-done "Burnin For You" either.

Frank Zappa’s Joes Garage was the same concept as Styx but was a killer album.

I'm with you on the remixes (except the album on your wall "Destroyer Resurrected" really blew me away, and destroyer is on of my all time favorites). Another cash grab is most "remasters", and unfortunately vinyl rereleases not taken from the analog tapes.

Actually, the 40th Anniversary Atlantic Records show for Led Zeppelin consisted of Kashmir, Heartbreaker, Whole Lotta Love, Misty Mountain Hop, and Stairway - five pretty banging tunes IMO, with Jason Bonham on drums. Robert's voice not 100%, and Jimmy slightly sloppy here and there, but overall a pretty good show. The Live Aid gig was simply a rushed non-rehearsed affair that no one was ready for - and probably should've been aborted. To this day Jimmy Page still laments that gig.

Mark Kozelek did a cover album of Bon Scott era AC/DC songs. He did all of them in a slowed down acoustic/sleepy way, but it's one of my favorites. He also did the same thing with Modest Mouse songs - not as good though...

Led Zep got Phil Collins because he was playing with Robert Plant at the time, (even live - I saw them in concert together) not because of the fill from "In the Air Tonight."

2 good cover albums I can think of--Not Fade Away (Remembering Buddy Holly) from 1996 and True Life Blues: The Music of Bill Monroe. Red on Blonde by Tim O'Brien is pretty fantastic too

Box sets of albums that the bands didn’t even like like Technical Ecstasy by Black Sabbath is interesting. It’s like memorializing their worst moments in 24k gold. Interesting 180 approach from the bands who try to hide their worst albums like the Clash with Cut the Crap. I’m guessing the difference in approach has to do with how much the artists need money lol

TOTALLY AGREE. THE BEATLES WORKED ON A TRANSISTOR RADIO. LEAVE IT ALONE

ANOTHER awesome video Robert🔥and I couldn't agree more. Sadly there are a lot of people out there who actually enjoy these titles 😝

Chris Rea was another one who remade old songs - okay I guess to introduce new fans to things they might've missed, but still not a patch on the originals.

Aww man, the Giles Martin Beatles remixes were great! Other than that, I agree with everything else. 😅

I agree with much of what you've said. I remember watching Live Aid in '85 and wondering what the hell Phil was doing with them. Excellent bio by Phil as someone mentioned Also - the new Elvis movie soundtrack has rapping and "re-imagining" some of Elvis' classic songs. Terrible. Horrible. Sad. One that should have been aborted as well.

Sometimes the remix are because the artist wants to make more money off his or her hits. If they go in and remake them, then they make all the money when they sell them at shows. Not saying that they’re doing a good job of remaking them, but that’s why. I too liked the love remix album that Giles Martin did. I thought that was pretty creative. Other than that though, I am with you I hate remix albums

Great content! Well done

I heard about Cut the Crap by The Clash, but somehow just never got around to it. I didn't buy it, I didn't even borrow it from anyone. I stop with Combat Rock.

I don't why everyone disses Phil Collins for his performance with zeppelin. He's a great drummer. People forget this. Everyone thinks of him as the pop star. Genesis started out as a progressive rock band right there with yes, king crimson, ELP. I watched the performance on MTV live back in 1985. I don't remember it being that bad. Of course I haven't seen it since.

I 100% agree with you about the Giles Martin remixes. Its disgusting that he was able to do this to these masterpieces. Painting a mustache on the mona lisa.

maybe its best to hear the Beatles in mono, because i do like the remixes, example the original stereo version of “She’s Leaving Home” sounds like a warped tape dragging as compared to the original mono version and now the new remixed stereo. i hated that draggy, slowed down, warped tape sound of the original stereo mix. there’s other examples but this one stands out to me.

Phil played in Robert Plant's band and on one of his solo albums in the early 80's. That's probably why they asked him for live aid

KILROY should have worked, but Tommy Shaw and Dennis DeYoung were not getting along and it just did not add up, plus it might look a bit racist now with the robots having 'Japanese' faces? Collins and Zep were on the same record label, so that's probably why he was picked. The loudness on CDs was partly to cover up its limits as digital was getting better, then Napster came in when the DVD-Audio vs. Super Audio CD war and killed that. As for all those remakes, re-recordings (esp. unidentified) and altering of hit records and original recordings, it is as bad as colorizing black and white films. Another hilarious, informative video. Thanks!

Styx Kilroy was the first one to come to mind. Saw them on that tour. The anticipation of seeing the band as they entered the stage got thwarted by a slow moving play. Love Styx, but I can see how this broke up the band.

I hear a man talking, but I cannot see him. He may be blending into the background.

I haven't listened to much in the way of albums of all cover songs but I enjoyed the Melvins album Everybody Loves Sausages. All covers, each song with a guest (like Jello Biafra and Trevor Dunn). I like the cover of Station to Station with JG Thirwell on vocals.I dig the channel.

In 1982 There was the wildly popular The Who's Greatest Hits album with the British flag cover where the top song "We Don't Get Fooled Again" was so butcher edited in the true ( K-Tel ) sense of the word with the famously iconic lead guitar and keyboard solos being hastily edited out. That cut version of "Fooled" was, for a time in the early to mid 1980's was very popular even getting regular rotation on FM rock radio much to my disliking. Thankfully by the late 80's the original uncut version of Don't Get Fooled Again returned to radio and the general public as well.

Hate to tell you, Let It Be Naked is the most artificial, remixed Beatles product ever made. Most songs consist of multiple different takes stitched together. between that and removing all traces of any between-song studio chatter, false starts, or bits like the brief warm-up run through of "Maggie Mae" or the jam excerpt "Dig It" it kills any notion of "capturing The Beatles live and raw" in the studio, which makes removing Spector's overdubs completely pointless.

Those Ozzy records with new drums and bass was weird, like those Zappa albums you mentioned. Those were the absolute worst

I do agree about the covers albums and the new recordings of the older material. Another artist doesn't have to put his spin on an older classic song. Here is the exception, if an artist does a cover song in concert that the audiences really like, then put that arrangement on a live album.

Those rechanneled albums are hilarious and I got some of them on cassette back in the day. I couldn't imagine why anyone would do taht except for one thing: often they would have the rhythm section entirely on one channel and the guitar in another channel. I imagined they did this so that people could play along with the music on their own instruments. I don't think that was in their heads but it was the only logical reason I could think of to explain why an album would be distributed like this when I was ten years old or something. I hate when people blame the new member for bands' albums going wrong, because often it's not the case. I mean, Van Halen III is awful, but people were ok with Gary joining the band and were ready for them to deliver something badass. it didn't happen, and then it seemed like gary got a lot of the hate as a result -- I don't think that's fair and I believe he was just doing what was expected of him in the studio. Phil wasn't a terrible idea for a led Zeppelin fill-in drummer, though it made me laugh when you suggested it was all because of that boom-boom-crash fill in "In the Air Tonight". But he did great drumming in Genesis in the 70s as well as the fusion band Brand X. Finally, I think cover albums are ok, and serve two purposes: 1. They're for the fans of the band doing the covers who are genuinely curious about what their influences are; 2. They help people get more into those older bands. Say what you will about the Spaghetti Incident, but it helped the younger generation discover bands like the UK Subs, nazareth, the Dead Boys, etc -- and unlike the Beatles, a lot of that stuff wasn't getting played on the radio, so hearing GNR cover those bands was exactly the way youngsters in 1993 would have heard of them for the first time.

I remember buying Tecnical Ecstacy in 1976 when it was released and was extremely disappointed. What a piece of crap, virtually unlistenable. A box set of that?.....no thanks. Saw Black Sabbath live later that year ( Dec.76 Niagara Falls N.Y. with Ted Nugent opening) and they were still good as a live act.

How about duet albums with dead people (Sinatra, Nat King Cole, etc)? There's just something creepy about these.

😂, you probably loved Stars On 45, back in 1981, speaking of adulterated Beatles music.

I also found The Beatles when I was 10 or 11 also through the cartoon they had.

I left some critic in other videos, but here you are spot on for me, agree, agree 100%

Hello again, nice program idea but are you really angry? I am into garage/psych so I shall try Hot ones by Standells Greetings from Sweden.......

Phil Collins did both shows because, like it or not, he was THE biggest artist in the mid-80s. I remember being sick of him at the time.

I quite liked LZ's performance at Live Aid - it was what it was - Queen's performance was totally over-rated

You should have invited The Coathangers over to assist you with your choices.

Excellent!!! Now You Have To Do Is make Sure No One Is Following You!!!!ight Want To Check Your Phone And Home For Any Bugging Devices!! You Are The Man!!!

I was in a shop some years ago when this a cover of Skating Away..by Jethro Tull appeared on the tannoy (are they still called that? Probably not). Some teenage girl wittering over a 90s-style production. Lots of programming. I had to put down my stuff and leave by the nearest exit.