A Best of Us for the Rest of Us

A Best of Us... for the Rest of Us
Greatest hits album by Reel Big Fish
Released July 20, 2010
Genre Ska-punk
Label Rock Ridge Music
Producer Aaron Barrett
Reel Big Fish chronology
Fame, Fortune and Fornication
(2009)		 A Best of Us... for the Rest of Us
(2010)		 Candy Coated Fury
(2012)

A Best of Us... for the Rest of Us is a greatest hits compilation from ska-punk band Reel Big Fish.

Due to the band's former label, Jive Records, owning the master recordings of all their old material, almost all of the songs on the album are re-recorded versions.

Despite frequently being called a compilation, the release only features 20 reissued tracks. 58 of the tracks are either all new versions or complete re-recordings of previously released material. Some of the reissued tracks have noticeably been remastered as well. Only a single song ("Are You Sure This is Cool") saw its debut here, and it had been recorded in 2007, but was previously unavailable.

Coincidentally, A Best of Us... was released mere months after Skaboy JFK, another ska hits compilation by Reel Big Fish's former Jive Records labelmates and then-current Rock Ridge Music labelmates the Cherry Poppin' Daddies, which also featured several re-recordings of earlier songs due to the same conflict over master recordings.

The album title is a reference to the Seinfeld episode "The Strike" in which Frank Costanza shouts "A Festivus for the rest of us!"

Release History

The album was initially released on July 20, 2010 and sold exclusively through Best Buy stores. The physical album featured 22 tracks, plus a "Skacoustic" disc of 14 acoustic versions of Reel Big Fish songs.[1]

The album was later released digitally through Amazon MP3 and iTunes with four bonus tracks and without the acoustic tracks.

On June 21, 2011, the album was re-released as A Best of Us... for the Rest of Us: Bigger Better Bonus Deluxe Version, a three-disc deluxe edition of the album. This edition was exclusively a physical release as well. The first disc is the same as the one from the standard version, except the two covers ("Take On Me" and "Brown Eyed Girl") have been moved to the third disc and replaced with original songs ("All I Want Is More" and "The Fire"). This means that on the 3-disc edition, the first disc is composed of all original material. The first disc is labeled as "The Singles."

The second disc features the "skacoustic" recordings from the standard version of the album, with a different version of "She Has A Girlfriend Now" (now featuring vocals by Nicole and Simone Olivia of Tip the Van) and 8 additional acoustic tracks. The third disc, "The Best Songs We Never Wrote", consists of only cover songs, including two that were previously released on the first disc of standard edition.

On November 28, 2011, a digital edition of the twenty-two track version of the Skacoustic disc was released on its own through iTunes and Amazon. Prior to this release, the Skacoustic disc was exclusive to physical copies.

On May 15, 2012, a digital edition of "Bigger Better Bonus" was released on iTunes with 64 of the 65 then-released tracks and an additional 14 tracks, including the 7 songs from Fame, Fortune and Fornication that had not already appeared in the collection. The iTunes version features all 78 songs as one disc. The only track excluded from this version is the initially released acoustic version of "She Has a Girlfriend Now" featuring Laila K of Sonic Boom Six, making that track exclusive to the original 2010 physical edition.

Track listing

Disc 1: A Best of Us... for the Rest of Us

All tracks written by Reel Big Fish (except where noted otherwise). 

No. Title Length
1. "Sell Out"   3:53
2. "Take On Me" (Originally by a-ha) 3:19
3. "Beer"   3:51
4. "She Has a Girlfriend Now" (featuring Katrina Kinzler) 3:07
5. "Everything Sucks"   2:53
6. "Trendy"   2:38
7. "I Want Your Girlfriend to be My Girlfriend Too"   2:48
8. "In the Pit"   2:43
9. "The Set Up (You Need This)"   4:19
10. "Somebody Hates Me"   3:24
11. "You Don't Know"   3:15
12. "Suckers"   3:39
13. "Where Have You Been?"   4:00
14. "Good Thing"   3:24
15. "Ban the Tube Top"   3:08
16. "Don't Start a Band"   3:18
17. "Your Guts (I Hate 'Em)"   2:01
18. "Another F.U. Song"   1:03
19. "New Version of You" (New Version) 3:20
20. "Party Down"   4:07
21. "Slow Down" (Single Version) 4:20
22. "Brown Eyed Girl" (Originally by Van Morrison) 3:03

Disc 2: Skacoustic

No. Title Length
1. "Sell Out"   3:56
2. "Beer"   3:51
3. "Take On Me" (Originally by a-ha) 3:14
4. "She Has A Girlfriend Now" (featuring Laila K of Sonic Boom Six) 3:04
5. "Another F.U. Song"   1:03
6. "Your Guts (I Hate 'Em)"   1:55
7. "Suckers"   3:39
8. "Where Have You Been?"   4:01
9. "Don't Start A Band"   3:17
10. "S.R."   1:37
11. "241"   2:41
12. "The Kids Don't Like It"   3:24
13. "Scott's A Dork"   3:04
14. "Nothin'"   2:06

Disc 3: The Best Songs We Never Wrote

No. TitleOriginal artist Length
1. "Take On Me"  a-ha 3:19
2. "Brown Eyed Girl"  Van Morrison 3:03
3. "Kiss Me Deadly"  Lita Ford 3:46
4. "Boss DJ"  Sublime 3:08
5. "Boys Don't Cry"  The Cure 2:16
6. "Another Day in Paradise"  Phil Collins 2:40
7. "Nothin' but a Good Time"  Poison 3:00
8. "Monkey Man"  Toots & the Maytals 2:27
9. "Veronica Sawyer"  by Edna's Goldfish 3:23
10. "Give It to Me"  The J. Geils Band 3:01
11. "Stray Cat Strut"  The Stray Cats 3:16
12. "Unity"  Operation Ivy 2:43
13. "We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful"  Morrissey 2:25
14. "Talk Dirty to Me"  Poison 3:42
15. "We Close Our Eyes"  Oingo Boingo 3:52

Personnel

Reel Big Fish

Additional Musicians

References

  1. ↑ "Reel Big Fish detail A Best of Us for the Rest of Us. Punknews.org. June 23, 2010.

External links

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