(1980) 12 Gold Bars

While Status Quo's original U.K. label, Pye, never balked at reassembling the band's back pages for a string of compilation albums, Quo themselves waited until 1980 before authorizing their own collection of past hits, serving up 12 of the 13 British hits they'd enjoyed since joining Vertigo in 1972 and notching up their tenth successive Top Three album in the process. Although the chronology is absolutely skewed, 12 Gold Bars, Vol. 1 is the ultimate beginner's guide to the band's last eight years of glory. 1978's "Accident Prone" is the only hit omission and, with a chart peak of number 36, deservedly so. From the scything bonhomie of "Paper Plane" and "Caroline," past the chart-topping "Down Down" (still the all-time archetypal Status Quo record), through the party-down mania of "Rockin' All Over the World" and "Whatever You Want," and onto the wide-open arrangements and avenues explored by "Wild Side of Life" and "What You're Proposing," 12 Gold Bars doesn't simply recollect a golden era in the history of Status Quo -- it also reaffirms their claim to be one of Britain's most successful Top 40 acts ever. ~ Dave Thompson