Am I the only one who has noticed that every hits package or box set from Jacko always excludes "Scream?" Not that it is my all time favorite MJ track, but it was a big single and a duet with Janet so it makes sense from a marketing standpoint to include it in these types of collections; especially this box since the whole reason it even exists is to cull all of Jackson's singles with their original packaging and video. This set is called, "The Video Singles." Was "Scream" not both? So what gives? There must be some issue between Michael and Janet's record companies or Michael and Janet themselves. Or perhaps not a royalty dispute, per say, but just a way of saving money, not having to pay any at all, by simply deleting the track from these kind of collections. Whatever the reason, I don't miss the song a ton, but its constant exclusion is suspicious and, in the interest of having these things being truly complete, it is a bit of a rip off to have a box that boasts it has collected all of Jackson's singles AND videos in one box, and have an unexplained exclusion of a big hit, and popular video, such as "Scream." There are others missing here too ("Who Is It?," "Give In to Me," "You Rock My World," "Cry," etc - actually, MJ is touted as having 40 "hit singles," they may not all have coresponding videos, but there are plenty that do not represented here), but "Scream" is ALWAYS MIA on MJ compilations.
Anyway, on to the item itself; not that it needs much of a review: either you want all of Jackson's singles, with packaging replicated in their original form, their original b-side mixes and their corresponding videos; or you don't. Personally, I think it is a very clever idea and a cool thing for die hard fans. It's also a gorgeous set. BUT it is pricey! Yes, its 20 discs, and they are all dualdiscs, and there is a lot of artwork and packaging so it wouldn't be cheap; but is it worth it? That depends. Jackson's video are mostly all available on DVD collections and there are plenty of singles collections out there (The best, and the one that has all of these tunes on it, is "The Essential..." from last year which is jam packed with nearly every hit (even the lesser ones you may have forgot about) on a tight, but robust, great-looking 2-Disc package; the worst is "Number Ones," with its shabby edits and a song selection that omits so many hits you wonder what the point was of even releasing the thing in the first place. "History" is good if you only want the ultimate, biggest hits; but with MJ that is a broad category - a one disc hits set really doesn't do justice to any artist or group that has as many hits as Jacko - and, again, none of them include "Scream."). So for the songs and videos by themselves, there are cheaper alternatives than this box. But THE ULTRA HUGE fans will cherish having the original artwork of all these singles (I remember having a lot of these on .45 records back in the day when I was probably 5 years old - great to see some of the pictures on those jackets again) and the spiffy, show-offy box to display them in. The quality here, visually on the videos at least, also rivals past releases.
I don't think Sony expects anyone other than true fans to pick this up anyway. Especially at that price! But even if it were half that price, this is the kind of thing that is produced solely for a completist collector of the particular artist. If that's you, you need this set.
