One song, multiple albums

Hello all, I don't know if this is possible, but here goes.
Over time you accumulate the same track a few times from different sources, and that's all well and good as you want the full album or compilation.
My question is: is it possible to tag one of these tracks for multiple albums, and therefore being able to delete the duplicates, so only the one file is referenced from multiple albums?
Many thanks in advance for any info.

Well, no, it realy isn't possible.
The way iTunes "knows" the track is by some data kept inside the actual file called "ID3" tags. So any single instance of the MP3 file (or AAC, etc) can only have one set of identifying ID3 tags, and thus can only show up in one place in your iTunes library.
If you have the same tune in multiple places in your iTunes library, then those places reflect multiple sets of ID3 tag information, and those must be in separate files.
It didn't/doesn't actually have to be that way: there is no reason the tags couldn't have multiple "title", or "album" or other information, but the demand just isn't high enough for such sophisticated behavior for Apple or any other MP3 player to worry about such details.
And anyway, are you sure they are the same? "Best Of" compilations frequently do some remastering, so even if it has the same length and sounds mostly the same, it might not be precisely the same sets of sounds.
Anyway, the size of a single audio file compared to the size of disks these days really means this would only matter to folks with borderline obsessive/compulsive disorder. Perhaps you should worry about something more meaningful ?
\[Disclosure: the only reason I know this is that the same problem irritates me ]

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My reply was directed at the OP (Original Poster) and not to you.
At first glance you might have a similar issue, but I don't think it is.
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Are they all spelled exactly the same?
An invisible 'space' character after the name Chicago can already divide it in two different artists.
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In iTunes, select all tracks of all albums of 'Chicago' (click the first one, shift-click the last one)
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If my assumption is correct, you won't see the artist name.
Type the correct name and click OK
Hope this helps.
M
BTW: Your info says, you're using Windows. Although the behaviour of iTunes often is identical for some iTunes features in OS X and Windows, I recommend posting in one of the iTunes for Windows forums in the future.
You will normally get a more to the point answer in those forums.
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One song, multiple albums

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