Snap! (album) explained

Snap!
Type:Compilation album
Artist:The Jam
Cover:Snap!_(The_Jam_album).jpg
Released:14 October 1983
Genre:New wave[1]
Label:Polydor
Prev Title:Dig The New Breed
Prev Year:1982
Next Title:Greatest Hits
Next Year:1991

Snap! is a greatest hits album by The Jam, released on 14 October 1983, one year after the group disbanded.[2] The double-album includes all sixteen of the band's UK singles, plus some B-sides, album tracks and rarities. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic called it "one of the greatest greatest-hits albums of all time".[3] A shorter version, removing the 8 non-singles, was released as a single CD in 1985 as Compact Snap!.

Editions

Initial quantities of the album included a limited edition 4 track EP, Live, recorded at Wembley Arena during the farewell tour of 1982.[4] Featuring the tracks "Get Yourself Together", "Move On Up", "The Great Depression" and "But I'm Different Now", the EP is notable for the fact that these songs were never re-issued on any other Jam compilation.

A shorter version, with 8 tracks less than the original so that it could fit on a single CD, was released in 1984 as Compact Snap!.[5] The omitted tracks were the non-single tracks "Away from the Numbers", "Billy Hunt", "English Rose", "Mr. Clean", "The Butterfly Collector", "Thick As Thieves", "Man in the Corner Shop" and "Tales from the Riverbank". The result is that Compact Snap! is a collection of all The Jam's singles, with the exception of "Just Who Is the 5 O'Clock Hero?". The CD was repackaged in 1990 as All The Choice Cuts for the Australian market as part of the Polydor Startrax series.[6] Compact Snap! has a similar track listing to The Very Best of The Jam with "Smithers-Jones" replacing "Just Who Is the 5 O'Clock Hero?".

Universal Music re-released the album in its entirety on CD in 2006, initial copies including the limited edition live EP.[7] Cover Artwork by Simon Halfon

Track listing

Limited edition bonus EP (all tracks previously unreleased and recorded live at Wembley Arena, 2 & 3 December 1982)
  1. "Move On Up"
  2. "Get Yourself Together"
  3. "The Great Depression"
  4. "But I'm Different Now"

Charts

Snap! spent 30 weeks on the UK album charts, which debuted and peaked at No. 2 for two weeks.[8] The shorter version, Compact Snap!, also charted in the UK, peaking at No. 39 in July 2005.[9]

Chart (1983)Peak
position
Australian (Kent Music Report)70[10]
UK Albums (OCC)2

Notes and References

  1. Web site: New Wave . Stephen Thomas . Erlewine . Stephen Thomas Erlewine . https://web.archive.org/web/20101025110745/http://allmusic.com/explore/essay/new-wave-t727 . AllMusic. . 25 October 2010 . 4 May 2014.
  2. Web site: TrouserPress.com :: Jam. trouserpress.com.
  3. AllMusic review
  4. Web site: Sexton . Paul . 2023-10-22 . 'Snap!': The Jam Crackle On Their First Hits Retrospective . 2024-04-02 . uDiscover Music . en-US.
  5. Web site: The Jam – Compact Snap!. discogs.
  6. Web site: The Jam All The Choice Cuts . . 30 June 2023 . en . 1990.
  7. Web site: Jam album set to be expanded | NME. 23 January 2006.
  8. Web site: Snap! Full Official Chart History Official Charts Company . officialcharts.com . en.
  9. Web site: Compact Snap by Jam . 1 April 2024 . Official Charts.
  10. Book: Kent, David. David Kent (historian). Australian Chart Book 1970–1992. illustrated. Australian Chart Book. St Ives, N.S.W.. 1993. 0-646-11917-6. 153.