Greatest Hits (Red Hot Chili Peppers album)

Greatest Hits
Greatest hits album by Red Hot Chili Peppers
Released	November 18, 2003
Recorded	1989–2003
Genre	Funk rock, alternative rock
Length	66:46
Language	English
Label	Warner Bros.
Producer	Rick Rubin, Michael Beinhorn (Greatest Hits CD) Bart Lipton, David May (Greatest Videos DVD)
Red Hot Chili Peppers chronology
By the Way (2002) Greatest Hits (2003) Live in Hyde Park (2004)
Singles from Greatest Hits
"Fortune Faded" Released: 2003

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic

Greatest Hits is the second compilation album by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It was released on November 18, 2003 by Warner Bros. Records. Aside from their cover of "Higher Ground", all songs on the compilation are from their tenure on Warner Bros. Records from 1991 to 2002, in addition to two newly recorded songs.

Greatest Hits was released along with a separately sold DVD containing most of their music videos from the same time period.

The album was released with Copy Control protection system in some European markets, but not in the United States.

Overview

While their first compilation album What Hits!? encompasses material from their 1984 debut to 1989's Mother's Milk, this collection of songs takes off from that point, including material from their 1991 album Blood Sugar Sex Magik up through their 2002 album By the Way. It was during this period of their career that the band became a major commercial force in the music industry. Therefore this compilation includes the majority of hit singles released since their breakthrough cover of Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground" (also included on What Hits!?). "Higher Ground" from Mother's Milk, an album released by EMI Records, is included on this compilation through contractual negotiations: when the band switched from EMI to Warner Bros., both record companies agreed that one song from their contract was allowed to be included on the other company's compilation.^{[citation needed]} On What Hits!? EMI chose to include the song "Under the Bridge" from Blood Sugar Sex Magik.

Sixteen songs were recorded for this compilation, however only two were included.^{[citation needed]} The two that made the cut were the single "Fortune Faded" and "Save the Population". "Fortune Faded" itself was a rerecording of a By The Way outtake that had been performed at some concerts in 2001.^{[citation needed]} A music video was filmed and released for "Fortune Faded" but was left off the DVD version. In addition, alternate mixes of "Californication", "My Friends" and "Higher Ground" are included on this compilation, with no explanation as to why.^{[citation needed]} However, the version of "My Friends" had previously leaked as an 'unmastered version' of the song (it appears mastered here) and the version of "Californication" had been utilized by some radio stations instead of the original track. "Higher Ground" appears in a different mix, which may have been Warner Bros.' attempt at remastering the track, or it may have been a rejected 12" mix.

The names of the other fourteen songs are either unknown or unconfirmed except for Runaway which was included as a bonus track on the iTunes release of By the Way. There are rumours that the songs "Leverage of Space" and "Rolling Sly Stone", which were included in Live in Hyde Park, were recorded at this time.^{[citation needed]} Also, the song "Mini-Epic", which was performed on the 2004 tour and supposed to be on an anti-war album produced by Rick Rubin (a project that never came to fruition), is believed to be recorded at this time.^{[citation needed]} One other song name, which Flea stated backstage at a performance for his Silverlake Conservatory of Music, is "Desiree". "Hump de Bump" was also worked on for the first time during these sessions, as a jam named "40 Detectives". Allegedly, he recorded this on his phone and it was later recorded formally for Stadium Arcadium.^{[citation needed]}

"My Friends" is the only track included from the 1995 album, One Hot Minute. It is known that Frusciante and the rest of the band are not fans of Dave Navarro's time with the band, and this is likely to be the reason why other hits from the period, such as "Warped", "Coffee Shop" and "Aeroplane" are not included.^{[citation needed]} Despite the popularity of the song "Love Rollercoaster", it could not be included because it was recorded on Geffen Records rather than Warner Bros. - an ironic twist, given that WB used to distribute Geffen. However, the music video for "Aeroplane" is featured on the DVD version of the compilation. A possible reason for this is that bassist Flea's daughter appears in the video.

Also absent was the top ten hit, "Around the World" from 1999's Californication although the DVD contained the music video.

Of their eight U.S. number one singles on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart up to that point, only one of them, "Can't Stop", from their 2002 album By the Way, was excluded though again the music video was featured on the DVD.

To date, worldwide sales show that Greatest Hits has outsold six of the band's nine studio albums including One Hot Minute and By The Way making it the band's fourth highest selling release.

In 2011, Chad discussed the recording sessions for Greatest Hits saying they recorded sixteeen songs and wanted to release a new album of that material after a brief tour however by that time John was against doing this because the style he was playing had changed and evolved as had his musicial influences. Chad said there is an entire Red Hot Chili Peppers album out there that nobody will likely ever hear.

Track listing

All tracks written by Kiedis/Frusciante/Flea/Smith except where noted

1. "Under the Bridge" – 4:33 (from the album Blood Sugar Sex Magik)
2. "Give It Away" – 4:44 (from the album Blood Sugar Sex Magik)
3. "Californication" – 5:29 (from the album Californication)
4. "Scar Tissue" – 3:35 (from the album Californication)
5. "Soul to Squeeze" – 4:50 (from Coneheads: Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack)
6. "Otherside" – 4:15 {from the album Californication)
7. "Suck My Kiss" – 3:35 (from the album Blood Sugar Sex Magik)
8. "By the Way" – 3:35 (from the album By the Way)
9. "Parallel Universe" – 4:29 (from the album Californication)
10. "Breaking the Girl" – 4:54 (from the album Blood Sugar Sex Magik)
11. "My Friends" – 4:09 (from the album One Hot Minute) (Kiedis/Flea/Navarro/Smith)
12. "Higher Ground" – 3:22 (from the album Mother's Milk) (Wonder)
13. "Universally Speaking" – 4:16 (from the album By the Way)
14. "Road Trippin'" – 3:25 (from the album Californication)
15. "Fortune Faded" – 3:21 (previously unreleased)
16. "Save the Population" – 4:05 (previously unreleased)

DVD

Greatest Hits and Videos is a package that was also released with the tracks above plus a DVD (which is available as Greatest Videos) containing the following music videos:

No.	Title	Original Album	Length
1.	"Higher Ground"	Mother's Milk	3:22
2.	"Suck My Kiss"	Blood Sugar Sex Magik	3:38
3.	"Give It Away"	Blood Sugar Sex Magik	4:32
4.	"Under the Bridge"	Blood Sugar Sex Magik	4:26
5.	"Soul to Squeeze"	Coneheads soundtrack	4:51
6.	"Aeroplane"	One Hot Minute	4:09
7.	"My Friends" (studio version)	One Hot Minute	4:06
8.	"Around the World"	Californication	4:01
9.	"Scar Tissue"	Californication	3:04
10.	"Otherside"	Californication	4:18
11.	"Californication"	Californication	5:20
12.	"Road Trippin'"	Californication	3:23
13.	"By the Way"	By the Way	3:37
14.	"The Zephyr Song"	By the Way	3:50
15.	"Can't Stop"	By the Way	4:34
16.	"Universally Speaking"	By the Way	4:14
Total length:			66:46

The DVD omitted the following Warner Bros. era music videos:

• "Breaking the Girl" (Blood Sugar Sex Magik)
• "If You Have to Ask" (Blood Sugar Sex Magik)
• "Warped" (One Hot Minute)
• "Coffee Shop" (One Hot Minute)
• "My Friends" (original version from One Hot Minute)
• "Love Rollercoaster" (Beavis and Butt-head Do America soundtrack)
• "Fortune Faded" (Fortune Faded single)

Both the "Breaking the Girl" and "If You Have to Ask" videos were omitted because they feature Arik Marshall who temporarily replaced Frusciante following his departure.^{[citation needed]} Anton Corbijn's original video for "My Friends" was left off because the band thought it was too "arty" and thus detaching for fans, as revealed in the commentary.^{[citation needed]}