Best of John project

[sue d.]

Solo... he doesn't have the rights to Petra songs.

[trodLAN]

If John is going to release a best of CD, I think it should contain the following trax:

FROM SHAKE:
Wake the dead (5:30)
Show me the way (4:18)
Inside of you (4:44)
The road to calvary (4:50)

FROM UNFIT:
Save me (3:37)
God is to big (3:42)
Can't get away (4:18)
I killed a man (3:57)

FROM GRAFTING:
Stand (4:08)
Only Men (4:26)
The Grafting (3:51)
Gravity (4:16)

ca. 50min.
As we can see – there is still room for new songs !!!

I am not sure if it's wise to give out a "Best Of CD with tracks from The Grafting. I think the CD is to new, and at least "Swine" and "Grafting" are available everywhere.
But on the other hands, it's not easy to make a best of CD from only two solo albums.

I would prefer if John had re-released "Shake", and also put out an whole new very hard rocking solo album.
That would sell !!!
If this best of CD is released digitally, I am afraid people would only buy the new tracks, and the physical CD would only sell to "die hard fans".

[Enosh]

A best of? Seriously? After only three albums? (Puts hand on forehead and shakes head in disbelief.) I'm sure for somebody that doesn't have one of them, they will buy it. But anybody whos a fan already has this limited amount of songs. Where's the need for this?

[St_Augustines_Pears]

A best of? Seriously? After only three albums? I'm sure for somebody that doesn't have one of them, they will buy it. But anybody whos a fan already has this limited amount of songs. Where's the need for this?

Heck, I've seen bands that have had only two albums put out a best of/greatest hits collection!

Best of/greatest hits albums give people who have never bought an individual album by an artist a great opportunity to try them out. You get a selection of songs from different album...an overview of their career (in this case, John's solo career). Plus you get three new songs!

I'll be buying this...and John's Christmas album as well.

[Preacherman777]

Maybe it's just easier and cheaper than making a whole new album. Yeah, I don't see the need for it either. Would much rather have a whole new album of rockers. Then maybe a best of after that. I think a whole new album of rockers would do much more right now to re-establish him as a solo artist, than a best of will. Best of albums tend to send a message that the career is over and here's the best of what I/we did.

[Shell]

On the other hand, there were all those "Best Of" CDs/albums that Word (I think) released just about every time Petra did a new CD... I bought most of those but only a couple of them were really good.

Best of collections are useful in that they're a good alternative to getting some of your favorite songs from a band/artist on one CD rather than buying a bunch of CDs.

I'd be glad for anything John might release, although I would love to have a CD of all new music too. I know next to nothing about the music biz though, so I don't know all that is involved in putting out a new CD...Other than it does cost dollars.

[rexreed]

Star Song was the worst offender at releasing greatest hits. Off the top of my head I remember them releasing Petrafied (neat title wasted if you ask me), Petraphonics, War and Remembrance, Power Praise, Petra Means Rock, as well as an Early Years release. They did something similar to Whiteheart.

[Shell]

War and Remembrance and Petraphonics were good. The others really weren't. I mean, if they're going to do that, at least make it a good CD.

[Enosh]

That's what I'm saying. TOOOOOOO MANY "BEST OF" albums for me.

War and Remembrance was the best of everything!

I remember the early years cd. John on the cover, yet didn't sing one song on the cd. Stupid and lazy marketing!

[brent]

Sue, anyone can record any song they want to, as long as they pay the copyright owner. I am sure that the owners of the Petra tunes will take his money. However, I am glad John is doing his own stuff.

Re: cheaper to do them again, believe it or not, sometimes it is the only option. Not many artists can re-release copies of masters. So the work around is to cover your own song and pay people their percentages.

[St_Augustines_Pears]

A question for Sue...

Does John have a track listing in mind yet?

Including "Ready To Go" (from RENEWAL: THE ART OF COMMUNITY) and "Hope Marches On" would be great. Also, "The Hard Way" from SHAKE...very underrated song.

[CatNamedManny]

StarSong was all about the money. They owned the rights, so they released a billion compilations to make as much as they could off the Petra name after Petra left the label. I would imagine it would be a lot harder to do that today. If I'm a big fan, and I really like the tracklisting on a compilation, I'll just create an iTunes playlist instead. I guess that's why we have the new tracks, etc.

[sue d.]

Sue, anyone can record any song they want to, as long as they pay the copyright owner.

I know... I just meant that it's less costly to use the material that you own rather than paying another entity to use theirs.

Does John have a track listing in mind yet?

He has a few thoughts, but not firm yet. And the songs you mentioned are not on the prelim list.

We'll keep you posted as things progress!

[Dan]

StarSong was all about the money. They owned the rights, so they released a billion compilations to make as much as they could off the Petra name after Petra left the label. I would imagine it would be a lot harder to do that today. If I'm a big fan, and I really like the tracklisting on a compilation, I'll just create an iTunes playlist instead. I guess that's why we have the new tracks, etc.

I believe the star song compilations stats are exaggerated, it was only in the millions.

[executioner]

A question for Sue...

Does John have a track listing in mind yet?

Including "Ready To Go" (from RENEWAL: THE ART OF COMMUNITY) and "Hope Marches On" would be great. Also, "The Hard Way" from SHAKE...very underrated song.

I would hope that "Ready To Go" and "Hope Marches On" are not included in this mix; I felt that both were really lackluster at best and wouldn't truly show what John could do. I do think the production value of both are not that great.