W2 1⁄2 Years is a 1993 box set by Elvis Costello. The Rykodisc (US) and Demon Records Costello reissues (1993–1995) would ultimately include his eleven studio albums released from 1977 to 1991 on Columbia and Stiff Records, Radar Records, F-Beat Records and Demon Records plus a reissue of the G.B.H. soundtrack, the Live at the El Mocambo album and The Very Best of Elvis Costello and The Attractions 1977-86, a greatest hits collection.
WArchives and Artifacts (2005) is a box set by the band Death Angel, consisting of remasters of their first two albums The Ultra-Violence and Frolic through the Park, as well as a bonus CD, and a DVD with video recordings of the band and a music video. There was an error in the first pressing of the box set. The bonus tracks meant for Frolic through the Park ended up on The Ultra-Violence disc, while three tunes from the third disc ended up as bonus tracks on Frolic through the Park instead. The songs from the "Kill as One" demo tape, which were meant to be a bonus on The Ultra-Violence, were excluded altogether. This error was corrected on the second pressing by Rykodisc.
WB-Sides and Otherwise is a collection of B-Sides and previously unreleased songs by Morphine, put out in 1997 by Rykodisc.
WBBC Sessions is an album of BBC studio recordings by the band Cocteau Twins released in 1999 by Bella Union in the UK and Rykodisc in the US. The album spanned the band's career from the early 1980s through the 1990s. Much of the first disk was taken from a series of early 1980s Peel sessions. The second disk contained several tracks recorded during the group's performance on the 1980s Radio 1 series Saturday Live. The compilation peaked at No. 87 on the UK Albums Chart.
WBesides is a compilation album by the alternative rock band Sugar; it contains various B-sides from the group's previously released singles. It also has live and remixed versions of existing tracks from the band's two full albums and one EP, as well as several studio and live versions of tracks that had been unavailable on any of their previous albums. In addition, the CD included a QuickTime video for the single "Gee Angel", although this was not advertised on the CD packaging.
WThe Best of Mickey Hart: Over the Edge and Back is a retrospective album by Mickey Hart. It was released by Rykodisc Records on April 23, 2002, in two formats — CD, and DVD-Audio. It contains music excerpted from six of Hart's albums – Diga (1976), The Apocalypse Now Sessions (1980), At the Edge (1990), Planet Drum (1991), Mickey Hart's Mystery Box (1996), and Supralingua (1998). It also contains one previously unreleased track.
WThe Best Of Morphine, 1992–1995 is a greatest hits compilation by the band Morphine, released on the label Rykodisc in the year 2003.
WBig Star was an American rock band formed in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1971 by Alex Chilton, Chris Bell, Jody Stephens, and Andy Hummel. The group broke up in early 1975, and reorganized with a new lineup 18 years later following a reunion concert at the University of Missouri. In its first era, the band's musical style drew on the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and the Byrds. Big Star produced a style that foreshadowed the alternative rock of the 1980s and 1990s. Before they broke up, Big Star created a "seminal body of work that never stopped inspiring succeeding generations", in the words of Rolling Stone, as the "quintessential American power pop band", and "one of the most mythic and influential cult acts in all of rock & roll". Big Star's first album—1972's #1 Record—was met by enthusiastic reviews, but ineffective marketing by Stax Records, and limited distribution stunted its commercial success. Frustration took its toll on band relations: Bell left not long after the first record's commercial progress stalled, and Hummel left to finish his college education after a second album, Radio City, was completed in December 1973. Like #1 Record, Radio City received excellent reviews, but label issues again thwarted sales—Columbia Records, which had assumed control of the Stax catalog, likewise effectively vetoed its distribution.
WBorn to Choose is a compilation album, released in 1993 on Rykodisc. It was released as a benefit album, with proceeds going to support NARAL, the Brooklyn Women's Anti-Rape Exchange, and Women's Health Action and Mobilization.
WChangesbowie is a compilation album by English rock musician David Bowie, released by Rykodisc in the U.S. and by EMI in the UK in 1990. The compilation was part of Rykodisc's remastered Bowie reissue series, replacing the deleted RCA Records compilations Changesonebowie and Changestwobowie.
WCheap Thrills is a compilation album by Frank Zappa, with material from previously released albums.
WClassic Puppets is a 2004 compilation CD by American rock band the Meat Puppets. It is composed of material from 1981 to 1989.
WEarly Trax is a compilation album by an American rock band Ministry, released on October 12, 2004, by Rykodisc.
WHardcore Devo: Volume One is the first of two collections of demos by the American new wave band Devo. It was originally released in August 1990, on the label Rykodisc. It was out of print for over twenty years; however, it was re-issued on Superior Viaduct in 2013 both as a vinyl release and a CD containing both volumes and bonus tracks.
WHardcore Devo: Volume Two is the last of two collections of demos by the American new wave band Devo. It was originally released in August 1991, on the label Rykodisc. It was out of print for over twenty years; however, it was re-issued on Superior Viaduct in 2013 both as a vinyl release and a CD containing both volumes and bonus tracks.
WThe Lost Episodes is a 1996 posthumous album by Frank Zappa which compiles previously unreleased material. Much of the material covered dates from early in his career, and as early as 1958, into the mid-1970s. Zappa had been working on these tracks in the years before his death in 1993.
WLove, Laughter and Truth is a compilation album consisting of previously unreleased material by American stand-up comedian and satirist Bill Hicks, released by Rykodisc in 2002. The material on the album was originally recorded by Hicks himself for personal use but was reviewed after his death by the Hicks Estate, after which it was decided to release the previously unreleased bits on this album. The material comes from recordings made from 1990-93 in Denver, San Ramon, West Palm Beach, San Francisco and Pittsburgh.
WMystery Disc is a compilation album by Frank Zappa. It was released on CD in 1998, compiling tracks that were originally released on two separate vinyl records and included in the mail order Old Masters box sets, which were released in three volumes between 1985 and 1987. The CD omits the last two tracks from the 1985 LP, "Why Don'tcha Do Me Right?" and "Big Leg Emma", both of which were included on the CD version of Absolutely Free (1967) in 1989.
WNobody Knows: The Best of Paul Brady is a compilation album by Irish singer/songwriter Paul Brady, his second. First released in 1999 by Rykodisc, it was re-released in 2002 by Compass Records. It contains new recordings of two songs that appeared on earlier albums: "The Lakes of Pontchartrain", from Brady's 1978 record Welcome Here Kind Stranger, and "Arthur McBride", which Andy Irvine and Paul Brady included on their eponymous recording from 1976.
WOnobox is a 1992 comprehensive 6-disc collection of Yoko Ono's work from 1968 to 1985. The discs are grouped by era and theme. Disc one centers around the albums Fly and Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band, while Disc two features nearly the entirety of Approximately Infinite Universe in a different running order and most of the tracks remixed exclusively for this boxed set. Disc three features the entire Feeling the Space project, which was originally conceived and recorded as a double album before being edited down, while disc six is the previously unreleased 1974 album A Story, which was later reissued separately with an altered track listing, along with the rest of Ono's back catalogue.
WA Passage in Time is a compilation album by Australian musical act Dead Can Dance. It was originally released only in North America on 20 October 1991 by Rykodisc, and was later remastered and given a global release in 1998.
WThe Portable Galaxie 500 is a greatest hits studio album by the rock band Galaxie 500. It was released in 1998 on Rykodisc.
WSide Trax is a compilation album from industrial metal band Ministry. The album was released in October 2004. It compiles EPs from four Ministry side projects recorded in the late 1980s: Pailhead, 1000 Homo DJs, PTP, and Acid Horse. All of the songs were originally released on Wax Trax! Records, with the exception of PTP's previously-unreleased "Show Me Your Spine." Notably, the rare version of 1000 Homo DJs' "Supernaut" with Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails on vocals is included on this compilation.
WThe Singles Collection is a compilation album by English musician David Bowie, released in 1993 in the UK and as The Singles 1969 to 1993 in the United States. The Australian release had the same track listing as the UK version, but the two discs were released as separate albums, The Singles Collection 1 and The Singles Collection 2.
WSon of Cheep Thrills is a compilation album by Frank Zappa, with material from previously released albums.
WSound + Vision is David Bowie's box set compilation released on Rykodisc in 1989. By the end of the 1980s, the rights to Bowie's pre-1983 catalogue originally issued by reverted to Bowie and his former management company MainMan. Rykodisc had approached Bowie in 1988 to re-release albums on CD and Bowie agreed, and in September 1989 the Sound + Vision box set was released. By April 1990 the box set had sold over 200,000 copies, which, for a set costing $50–$60 was considered "phenomenal".
WStrictly Commercial is a compilation album by Frank Zappa. It was released in 1995, two years after his death. The album was named as part of a 2011 lawsuit by Gail Zappa towards Rykodisc, claiming the label released several vault masters without the permission of the Zappa Family Trust on this and other releases, specifically the single edits of some songs, such as the 12" disco Remix of "Dancin' Fool". The disc is currently out of print and has been replaced in Zappa's catalog by the 2016 compilation album ZAPPAtite.
WStrictly Genteel is a compilation album by Frank Zappa. It focuses on Zappa's "classical" and "serious" compositions, and as such is something of a companion to the previous Rykodisc-produced compilation, Strictly Commercial, which focused on "rock" songs with vocals. It was released in 1997.
WThen: The Earlier Years is a double album compilation by the band They Might Be Giants, released in 1997. Then contains the album Lincoln in its entirety, the albums They Might Be Giants and Miscellaneous T which are each missing one track, a few otherwise unreleased songs from their 1985 Demo Tape and other songs previously unreleased. The song missing from Miscellaneous T is "(She Was a) Hotel Detective " and the song missing from They Might Be Giants is the album version of "Don't Let's Start", as it was replaced in its appropriate place in the track listing by the single version of the same song from Miscellaneous T. The track "We're The Replacements" references the alternative rock band of the same name.
WUncollected is a compilation album by Galaxie 500, originally released in 1996 as a part of the Galaxie 500 box set. It was later reissued as a single disc in 2004 by Rykodisc Records
WThe Very Best of Elvis Costello and The Attractions 1977–86 is a 1994 compilation album by Elvis Costello and The Attractions.
WWalking on Thin Ice is a greatest-hits compilation of Yoko Ono's work from 1971-85. It was released by Rykodisc in 1992, along with the more comprehensive 6-disc Onobox set. The booklet includes an essay by Ono, pieces from her book Grapefruit, and quotes about her from artists such as David Bowie, Eric Clapton and Cyndi Lauper.