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Let's go with one of the first surprises promised. The unreleased "Greatest Hits" "12 to the best", in its primary version. So let's start by the beginning of the year 77...
In March the last studio work: "Let There Be Rock" had been published and at the moment there was no intention of returning to the studios, despite the fact that the international edition was delayed until July. The numerous tours and diverse commitments of the group, broke the norm of publishing two albums per year, as had happened during the two previous seasons of 1975 and 1976.
In view of this, at the end of the summer, Albert Productions proposed to Atlantic Records to elaborate a "Greatest Hits", composed of all songs released to date in singles, with the exception of "Whole lotta Rosie", song that the group liked to play live for the response of the audience.
Let's go with one of the first surprises promised. The unreleased "Greatest Hits" "12 to the best", in its primary version. So let's start by the beginning of the year 77...
In March the last studio work: "Let There Be Rock" had been published and at the moment there was no intention of returning to the studios, despite the fact that the international edition was delayed until July. The numerous tours and diverse commitments of the group, broke the norm of publishing two albums per year, as had happened during the two previous seasons of 1975 and 1976.
In view of this, at the end of the summer, Albert Productions proposed to Atlantic Records to elaborate a "Greatest Hits", composed of all songs released to date in singles, with the exception of "Whole lotta Rosie", song that the group liked to play live for the response of the audience.
This "Greatest Hits", which was going to be called "16 of the best", for being the number of songs that would appear in the double lp, would come out first in Australia for the end of the year and the beginning of the next in the rest of the world: (the international version) .
The order passed, once again, into the hands of the producers Harry Vanda and George Young, after making new mixes, the album was shown to Albert Productions, which thought better about reducing the content of the album Bit.ly/78AChx , so that ¡16 of the best ", it was postponed.
Here´s the original set list proposed by the first version of this unreleased "greatest hits":
SIDE ONE: (18:34)
1. It's A Long Way To The Top. (4:59)
2. High Voltage. (4:03)
3. Problem Child. (5:22)
4. Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be. (4:10)
SIDE TWO: (18:01)
1. T.N.T. (3:33)
2. Whole Lotta Rosie. (5:18)
3. Love At The First Feel. (3:07)
4. Let There Be Rock. (6:02)
SIDE THREE: (18:23)
1. Jailbreak. (4:33)
2. The Jack. (5:50)
3. Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap. (3:48)
4. Ride On.(4:10) (Unreleased version)
SIDE FOUR: (18:24)
1. Live Wire.(5:15) (Unreleased version)
2. Dog Eat Dog. (3:30)
3. She´s Got Balls. (4:49)
4. Baby Please Don´t Go (*).(4:48)
Four of the selected songs were eliminated from the original tapes: "Hell ain'ta bad place to be", "love at the first feel", "Ride On" and "Live Wire", leaving six on each side .The project was approved, with publication date in March of 1978, so Albert Productions proceeded to print the first vinyls and copy the first cassettes.
But when everything was ready, their distribution was paralyzed because the new studio work "Powerage" was finished and the group did not want both jobs to leave at the same time despite the fact that "Powerage" ended up publishing in early May, even so " 12 of the best "was postponed to the end of the year.
The promotion tour of the album "Powerage" was very successful and the group felt really good with it, so they recorded several of the concerts for the release of a possible live album after the summer. When it was time to choose whether to publish "12 of the best" or the live one, after listening to the powerful result of the mixes made at the concert of the Glasgow Apollo Theater and the shocking cover and back cover photo that had been taken during the " soundcheck "at the Paradise Rock Club, Boston, MA, USA, on August 21, 1978, as the title" If you want blood, you got it !, ended by canceling "12 of the best".
Albert Productions ordered to destroy all existing copies, although some of them were saved because they were delivered to the staff associated with the group, managers, relatives, friends and some members of the press.
"12 of the best", has become a myth, find one is difficult and buy it even more for its high price. In this reconstruction, I used original material included in the master tapes; how it has been tried to reconstruct all the artwork.
I hope you liked this first surprise. See you soon.
