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My husband and I own a number of compilation CDs for various decades. The compilation CDs we have purchased have been purchased for a reason. Sometimes, we end up buying a compilation CD where we have almost all of the songs already; however, the songs we don't have on these compilations are songs we haven't seen elsewhere, and are rather hard to come by.

A perfect example of how much songs repeat between compilations would be 1980's compilations. Songs such as Naked Eyes' "There's Always Something There to Remind Me," Belinda Carlisle's "Heaven is a Place on Earth," Kajagoogoo's "Too Shy," REO Speedwagon's "Keep on Loving You," and The Fixx's "One Thing Leads to Another" are just a few examples of the songs that seem to regularly appear on 1980's compilation CDs. While compilations of 1950's, 1960's, and 1970's music also have problems with many of the same songs reappearing, it doesn't seem to be quite as prevalent as it is with the 1980's compilation CDs.

One thing to be careful of when buying a compilation CD is whether or not the compilation is using the original recording by the original artist. There are a number of compilation CDs out there where they either use re-recorded versions done by the original artists, or they have completely different singers record their own versions of the songs. Generally, the re-recorded versions tend to not be as strong as the original versions of the songs. While some may argue that these make these not be the "same old versions" that appear elsewhere, but they just aren't the versions of the songs that listeners fell in love with when the song was popular.

When deciding whether or not to buy a compilation CD, you have to take some things into account. First, how much song duplication is there when you look at what CDs are already in your music library. Then, you need to consider the songs that don't duplicate from other sources. Are the songs ones that you would enjoy listening to? Are they songs that you like, but you have had a hard time finding elsewhere? Also, you can even take a look at the songs that do duplicate with your collection, because it might turn out the version on the compilation CD might be different from the version you have; for example, the compilation might have a radio edit or a remix of the song that's different from what was originally released. While many compilation CDs may contain many duplicated songs for you, compilations are still worth looking at when you see them in the store. If you take the time to look, you might find a song you've been really wanting in your collection for a long time and had never been able to acquire.

Learn more about this author, Lesley Aeschliman.
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