A Best of Us for the Rest of Us
| A Best of Us... for the Rest of Us | ||||
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| 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 | ||||
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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!"
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.
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."
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