Complete Madness is the first greatest hits album by the English ska/pop group Madness. It was released on 23 April 1982[1] and included Madness' biggest hits from their first three studio albums and the stand-alone singles. Complete Madness spent 99 weeks on the UK charts,peaking at number 1.
This compilation includes the original 7-inch single mixes of most tracks ("House of Fun" being an exception). The vinyl and initial CD releases have shortened fade-outs for many tracks,to reduce the running time of each side of the original LP version. The first time the songs appeared in full for this compilation was on the 2003 Virgin CD reissue.
The original Australian version of the album,issued some months later than in the UK,replaces "In the City" with 13th UK single "Driving in My Car".
Music video
An accompanying video cassette was also released,containing all thirteen of the group's music videos up to that point (the twelve UK singles plus "Bed and Breakfast Man",which was a single in Canada),with specially filmed introductions to each video,together with the car commercials the band had done for Honda in Japan.
Reviewing Complete Madness for AllMusic,Stephen Thomas Erlewine deemed the compilation "thorough and thoroughly entertaining,encapsulating exactly why Madness were significant and,more importantly,how much fun their 'nutty sound' was",while also serving as "definitive proof that Madness were one of the great singles acts of their era."[2]
Track listing
The following track listing is for the original 1982 UK release (Stiff Records,HIT-TV1).
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