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Van Halen and Chaka Khan have no idea what they're stirring up by subtitling their new compilations Volume 1. Nothing stalls a career faster than releasing a hits package trumpeted as the first of many. Take Hall & Oates. ''They were optimistic,'' says RCA VP Michael Omansky, who worked on Rock 'N Soul, Part 1. ''It can be a curse, but it's more like a self-fulfilling prophecy.'' Hard to dispute, especially considering these casualties.
-- David Browne
Artist/Album Bachman-Turner Overdrive's Best of B.T.O . (So Far) (1976)
Top 40 Hits 6 Including ''You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet,'' ''Let It Ride''
Price of Tempting Fate Beefy Canadian lumber rockers disband three years and several flop albums later.
[Artist/Album]Best of Earth, Wind & Fire, Vol. 1 (1978)
[Top 40 Hits]7 Including ''Got to Get You Into My Life,'' ''Getaway''
[Price of Tempting Fate]Boogie wonderland shuts down; group cracks the top 10 only once in the '80s.
[Artist/Album]Stevie Wonder's Original Musiquarium I (1982)
[Top 40 Hits]13 Including ''I Wish,'' ''Living for the City''
[Price of Tempting Fate]Number of top 10ers since 1985 -- one -- not enough to fill a goldfish bowl, never mind an aquarium.
[Artist/Album]Hall & Oates's Rock 'N Soul, Part 1 (1983)
[Top 40 Hits]12 Including ''I Can't Go For That,'' ''Maneater''
[Price of Tempting Fate]Nonstop hit machine abruptly cranks to a halt; Hall currently selling new album via mail order.
[Artist/Album]Billy Joel's Greatest Hits, Volume I & II (1985)
[Top 40 Hits]7 Including ''Piano Man,'' ''My Life''
[Price of Tempting Fate]Using two volume numbers hasn't prevented Joel from squeaking into the top 10 just five more times since this anthology.
[Artist/Album]Bryan Adams' So Far So Good (1993)
[Top 40 Hits]14 Including ''Summer of '69,'' ''Please Forgive Me''
[Price of Tempting Fate]Latest set of amiable radio fodder, 18 Til I Die, doesn't even reach 18 before dying on the charts.
[Artist/Album]Michael Jackson's HIStory, Past, Present & Future, Book I (1995)
[Top 40 Hits]17 Including ''Beat It,'' ''Bad''
[Price of Tempting Fate]Despite hype matched only by the creation of the earth, HIStory becomes history in record time.
