Idly looking at HMV and Amazon, I noted the former has a 3-6 day delivery of Hits and the latter is out of stock (available in Marketplace).
Now maybe they have sold like hot cakes this week (doubt it as Hits is about 3,000 in bestsellers), but I would have fully expected Island/Universal to have had a few copies produced anticipating some demand from the festival appearances.
Obviously there is some impact due to the Glastonbury dates as Different Class is around 200 in bestsellers, albeit selling at £2.99 which is probably helping the sales.
As Sturdy pointed out at the time, Hits probably flopped because in the absence of a big sales-driving event (such as a triumphal Glastonbury set, for example), to all intents and purposes Different Class is "Pulp's Greatest Hits", and everyone either already had that or could get it for about seven quid; it's been available for around the £3 mark for a while now.
(In hindsight, the quirky advert with the bodybuilder was the wrong tack to take if they wanted to sell lots of copies - a better approach would have been something like the Crowded House or Beautiful South best-ofs, something along the lines of "you know more Pulp songs than you think you do" / "you know Common People and Disco 2000, and they're here, but check these out too - Babies! DYRTFT! Lipgloss! and loads of other great stuff", the critics love it, etc etc. But no.)
Is there much call for physical Greatest Hits compilations these days? This isn't a rhetorical question, I'm genuinely curious - I'd have thought by now, most fans investigating an older band (and that's where we are with Pulp, sadly) would just cherry pick the MP3s they like? (In Pulp's case, with the deluxe editions, it's all available easily enough anyway).
Is there much call for physical Greatest Hits compilations these days?
Maybe. All their peers (Suede/Blur/Oasis) have done it a couple of times, and with double CDs to boot. I think it's the last throw for all record companies to get a physical release out. And for Pulp, given the fact that Hits was pretty much ignored it may prove to be the definitive compilation.
Asyou said there is more to Pulp than Different Class.
