M.U. – The Best of Jethro Tull
M.U. – The Best of Jethro Tull, released in 1976, is the first proper greatest hits album by Jethro Tull. It spans the years 1969 to 1975. The earlier "Living in the Past" (1972) compilation mainly dealt with non-album material, but this album only features one previously unreleased song, "Rainbow Blues". "M.U." in the album title stood for "Musician's Union", which is probably a reference to the various musicians from different line-ups of the band appearing throughout the album. It was later re-released as "The Essential" in 2003, with exactly the  same song order, but a different album cover. Charts. The album went gold in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and Germany and went Platinum in the US and Canada. Personnel. As mentioned and sorted on the back cover: Production by Ian Anderson and Terry Ellis. Orchestrations arranged and conducted by Dee Palmer. Art direction by OZ Studios. Designed by Eric Michelson.