Music boxes — Greatest hits and box sets are prime gifts for audiophiles

The idea came up more than a decade ago for "The Brit Box: UK Indie, Shoegaze and Brit-Pop Gems of the Last Millennium," according to John Hagelston, Rhino Records' associate director of media relations.

"It was right after Brit-pop peaked," Hagelston said by phone from his Los Angeles office. "(The bands) Blur, The Verve, Pulp and Oasis had sold the most albums of their careers, and I thought it would be a good idea for Rhino to come up with a two-CD compilation of these types of groups.

"But the idea was shot down. In fact, it was shot down a couple of times. The reasoning was that since the movement had just peaked, those who like the music would already have all the albums. In short, no one thought it would be a hot seller."

Well, fast-forward to 2004. "The idea came up again from someone else ... and I got pulled into it because I have a lot of knowledge of the music."

Hagelston told the compilation team that in order for the box to be done right, it needed to include bands that are considered the founders or the Brit-pop sound of the 1990s. "Back in the '80s there were all these independent-rock bands that are the roots of the music. So we wanted to make sure we included some of those bands in the set."

After meetings and discussions, the producers decided to make a four-CD set, featuring 78 songs that give a good, comprehensive history of Brit-pop. "What I looked for were those songs that were catchy and sounded British. There are a number of bands featured in this box set that have relatively long careers — Oasis, Blur and Pulp — to name a few. But there were also a lot of bands that had that special sound that only had one or two 'hits.' Those songs that had that '60s-pop feel, or close to it. So we made sure that we had some of those songs represented as well."

So in the company of such bands as My Bloody Valentine and Manic Street Preachers, the box includes The Catherine Wheel, Teenage Fanclub and The Mighty Lemon Drops.

Dave Newton, guitarist for the Mighty Lemon Drops, said he was honored that his former band's song "My Biggest Thrill" was included in the set. "Funny thing was the fact that the song was basically an extra track when we recorded it in 1986," Newton said by phone from Los Angeles. "We didn't think too much of it but it encapsuled what we were trying to do at that time. There were no overdubs and no fancy studio work. It was just us."