The Ultimate Yes: 35th Anniversary Collection by Yes
The Ultimate Yes: 35th Anniversary Collection is a triple compilation album by progressive rock band Yes, was released in 2003 in the United Kingdom and in early 2004 in the United States, and covers the length and breadth of the band's thirty-five-year career. Released on Warner Music in the UK as a double CD, the United States edition - on Rhino Records - included a bonus disc of acoustic recordings of old and new material recorded in October 2003. One song from the third disc, "Show Me," is based on a recording from the "Fragile days," according to Jon Anderson in Yesspeak Live: The Director's Cut. Both editions also feature a different track listing and running order. The Ultimate Yes: 35th Anniversary Collection entered the United Kingdom charts at number ten upon its mid-2003 release, giving Yes their highest charting album there since 1991. The album was certified Gold by the British Phonographic Industry (for over 100,000 copies sold in the UK). In the United States, it reached only number 131. With a range of material from 1969's Yes to 2001's Magnification - and beyond - The Ultimate Yes: 35th Anniversary Collection supplants earlier non-box set retrospectives such as Classic Yes and Yesstory.
Although his 1979 multi-platinum breakthrough, <i>Off the Wall</i>, was already Michael Jackson’s fifth solo album—after his bro-band run with the Jackson 5 and then The Jacksons—it didn’t achieve the pop-crossover goals that the singer desperately wanted. So, in true all-conquering fashion, the future King of Pop set out to beat himself when <i>Thriller</i> was released on 30 November 1982. And with his trusted producer Quincy Jones back behind the boards, Jackson—just 24 years old—delivered his crowning achievement, one that even he would fail to top. <i>Thriller</i> held the No. 1 spot on the Billboard Album charts for 37 nonconsecutive weeks, and spawned seven singles—all of them smashes, including the chart-toppers “Billie Jean” and “Beat It”. <i>Thriller</i> would then sweep the Grammys, and eventually become one of the best-selling albums of all time. Most crucially, it defined the modern pop blockbuster, creating a blueprint for everyone from Usher and Justin Timberlake to Beyoncé, and, yes, his own baby sis, Janet Jackson. From the Paul McCartney-blessed pop of the hit first single “The Girl is Mine” to the Eddie Van Halen-revved head-banging of “Beat It”, Jackson’s crossover moves opened up the eyes and ears of the industry—and audiences around the world—to what music could sound, look and feel like if we blurred those old colour lines. “Billie Jean” is a gripping psycho-study of the paranoia and persecution that the superstar was already feeling—yet it still maintains the mysterious allure of an artist who we never really got to know. Meanwhile, the album’s opening throwdown, “Wanna Be Startin’ Somethin’” is Jackson at his fiercest and funkiest, picking up right where <i>Off the Wall</i> left off—and shoring up his R&B bona fides. Then there’s the title track, a spooky spectacular that’s impossible to separate from its iconic video—and that still thrills us every single Halloween.
