Songs you first heard in "greatest hits" commercials

[DRW50]

These used to be commonplace. I don't see them around as much now. These are generic albums like "hits of the year" or "best of classic soul" or "50's forever" of whatever, or specific greatest hits ads. Anne Murray and Conway Twitty both had one standing in front of a background, singing.

Here are a few songs I heard for the first time in these ads.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAbt_6B2Izc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KJn0T7JYis

I don't have the ad for this but it used to run in of compilation ads all the time. For many years I'd never heard the full song

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZAaA0Z-c-I

[SFK]

Oh man, totally, way too many to even list. To this day, a line will remind me of one of these songs and I'll launch into a full on medley because I only knew the bits and pieces from these commercials. Also, tons of misheard lyrics, e.g., "Even the nights are Pedro", "On the closer side of town" ("Hold me closer tiny dancer"), and so on...

Remember Roger Whitaker? He had tons of these commercials when I was growing up.

Kenny Rogers and Barbara Mandrell had Time Life music "singing on a stool to Jesus" commercials too. Kenny's gravelly wannabe Cocker "When a Man Loves a Woman" was hilarious.

[All My Shadows]

I remember one of our local affiliates used to air a different TimeLife music infomercial every night at 10pm. I used to watch that like it was an actual show! Classic Soul Ballads, the Soul Story, and Classic Soft Rock were my favorites.

Here's the first part of Classic Soft Rock:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvK1SyUVae8

[EricMontreal22]

Ha while I know some Air Supply songs well (All Out of Love, Making Love Out Of Nothing At All), I think I hadn't heard all of Even The Nights Are Better until now--but I swear I saw that same advertisement as you. I still find myself sometimes watching the Midnight Special TV infomercial they air -- probably because the clip of Last Dance catches my eye when I flip by.

[Max]

I love those greatest hits commercials, and Time Life always had the best collections. Here are some commercials for their defunct Rock 'N' Roll Era Collection:

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/hk3mX2SReIA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/uKxWx0mVI-w" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/mV81zYvDr9c" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/PviZoNxe3KI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[Becki]

Well, I knew all the Conway Twitty songs because, after all, I was born and raised in the south and country music was what we listened to.

The one I remember the clearest was Roger Whittaker. I had never even heard of him before those commercials. I still don't think I've heard the complete song for any of the ones they played on it.

[JackPeyton]

do the early-mis 90's rap/hiphop songs count from those Monsta Jamz collections? Becuase i love them and download a lot of those songs when i see them.

[DRW50]

Sure.

This is another one that was always (no pun intended) in those ads:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTF97_ve118

[MissLlanviewPA]

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you one of the greatest parts of my later childhood through TV:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1g6fzsEzHI

And the longer version, albeit in French:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oJ8SioFmqY

Pretty much every song in these, many of which are still faves of mine, I first heard in one of these commercials.

And because I can, PURE MOODS! Definitely heard many of these for the first time because of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMi5-qpE51k&feature=relmfu