Greatest Hits (Red Hot Chili Peppers album)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Greatest Hits | ||
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| Compilation album by Red Hot Chili Peppers | ||
| Released | November 18, 2003 | |
| Recorded | 1989-2003 | |
| Genre | Rock | |
| Length | 67:19 | |
| Label | Warner Bros. | |
| Producer(s) | Rick Rubin, Michael Beinhorn | |
| Professional reviews | ||
|---|---|---|
| Red Hot Chili Peppers chronology | ||
| By the Way (2002) |
Greatest Hits (2003) |
Live in Hyde Park (2004) |
Greatest Hits is the Red Hot Chili Peppers' second compilation album released on November 18, 2003 by Warner Bros. Records.
While What Hits!? encompassed material from their 1984 debut to 1989's Mother's Milk, this collection of songs takes off from that point, including material from the Mother's Milk album up to 2002's 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!?).
As some greatest hits compilations nowadays tend to feature new songs by the band, the Red Hot Chili Peppers recorded 16 tracks for possible inclusion. The two that made the cut were the hit single "Fortune Faded" and "Save the Population". A music video was filmed and released for "Fortune Faded" but for some reason left off of the DVD included in this package. Two other songs were released on the "Fortune Faded" single, these being "Bunker Hill" (known to have been written from the band's Californication era) and "Eskimo," which was written and recorded during the "By The Way" sessions. The names of the other twelve songs are either unknown or unconfirmed, however 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. 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. It is unknown if these songs will ever be released. Additionally, there is reasonable belief that the song "Runaway," which was released as a bonus track with By The Way in 2006 on many internet music sites like iTunes, was recorded for the Greatest Hits. One other song name, which Flea stated backstage at a performance for his Silverlake Conservatory of Music, is Desiree.
The reason that only one pre-Blood Sugar Sex Magik track was included was for contractual reasons. When the Red Hot Chili Peppers switched from EMI America to Warner Music, each record company agreed that one song from the contract was allowed to be included on the other company's catalogue (in What Hits!? it was "Under The Bridge"). This time "Higher Ground" was chosen in favour of other hits such as "Knock Me Down" and "Taste The Pain".
The absence of "Around the World", "The Zephyr Song" and "Can't Stop" is the most surprising due to those songs' worldwide recognition and the part the latter two had to play in the success of the album By the Way. It has recently been revealed that the band was under tension during the By the Way era, and this is likely why the song has been left off along side "The Zephyr Song." However, the compilation included "Universally Speaking", a lesser-known, and considerably less popular single from By The Way, released in Australia, the UK and Ireland. "Around the World", a single released worldwide from the Californication album was left off, whilst strangely two other singles from the same album where included, one of them ("Parallel Universe") released in the U.S. only whilst the other ("Road Trippin'") was released only in Australia, the UK and Ireland. Nevertheless, the music video for "Around the World" still features on the DVD, probably in place of "Parallel Universe", for which a video was never made.
"My Friends" is the only track included from the 1995 album, One Hot Minute. It is known that guitarist John Frusciante, along with the rest of the band, is not a fan 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", "Aeroplane" and "Love Rollercoaster" are not included, though ironically the music video for "Aeroplane" is featured on the DVD that comes with the CD. A possible reason for this is that bassist Flea's daughter appears in the video.
In theory, there is over 10 minutes of space left on the album disc, so some of the aforementioned tracks that were omitted could have been included.
This album has been released with the Copy Control protection system in some regions.
[edit] Track listing
All tracks written by Anthony Kiedis, Michael Balzary, John Frusciante, Chad Smith Except Track 11, written by Anthony Kiedis, Michael Balzary, Dave Navarro, Chad Smith and Track 12 written by Stevie Wonder
- "Under the Bridge" – 4:35 (from the album Blood Sugar Sex Magik)
- "Give It Away" – 4:47 (from the album Blood Sugar Sex Magik)
- "Californication" – 5:32 (from the album Californication)
- "Scar Tissue" – 3:38 (from the album Californication)
- "Soul To Squeeze" – 4:52 (from the soundtrack to Coneheads)
- "Otherside" – 4:17 (from the album Californication)
- "Suck My Kiss" – 3:38 (from the album Blood Sugar Sex Magik)
- "By the Way" – 3:38 (from the album By the Way)
- "Parallel Universe" – 4:31 (from the album Californication)
- "Breaking the Girl" – 4:57 (from the album Blood Sugar Sex Magik)
- "My Friends" – 4:11 (from the album One Hot Minute)
- "Higher Ground" – 3:24 (from the album Mother's Milk)
- "Universally Speaking" – 4:19 (from the album By the Way)
- "Road Trippin'" – 3:28 (from the album Californication)
- "Fortune Faded" – 3:23
- "Save the Population" – 4:07
[edit] 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:
- "Higher Ground" (from the album Mother's Milk)
- "Suck My Kiss" (from the album Blood Sugar Sex Magik)
- "Give It Away" (from the album Blood Sugar Sex Magik)
- "Under the Bridge" (from the album Blood Sugar Sex Magik)
- "Soul To Squeeze" (from the soundtrack to Coneheads)
- "Aeroplane" (from the album One Hot Minute)
- "My Friends" (studio version) (from the album One Hot Minute)
- "Around the World" (from the album Californication)
- "Scar Tissue" (from the album Californication)
- "Otherside" (from the album Californication)
- "Californication" (from the album Californication)
- "Road Trippin'" (from the album Californication)
- "By the Way" (from the album By the Way)
- "The Zephyr Song" (from the album By the Way)
- "Can't Stop" (from the album By the Way)
- "Universally Speaking" (from the album By the Way)
The DVD omitted the following Warner Brothers era music videos:
- "Breaking the Girl" (from the album Blood Sugar Sex Magik)
- "If You Have to Ask" (from the album Blood Sugar Sex Magik)
- "Warped" (from the album One Hot Minute)
- "Coffee Shop" (from the album One Hot Minute)
- "My Friends" (original version) (from the album One Hot Minute)
- "Love Rollercoaster" (from the soundtrack to Beavis and Butt-head Do America)
- "Fortune Faded" (from the single Fortune Faded)
- Both the "Breaking the Girl" and "If You Have to Ask" videos were omitted, probably because they feature Arik Marshall, who temporarily replaced John Frusciante as the band's guitarist following his departure.
- 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.
