Greatest Hits (Mariah Carey album)

Greatest Hits
File:MariahCarey-GHcover.jpg
Album by Mariah Carey
Released	December 4, 2001
Recorded	N/A
Genre	Pop/R&B
Length	N/A
Label	Columbia
Producers	Mariah Carey, Walter Afanasieff, Puff Daddy, Q-Tip, Jermaine Dupri, Manuel Seal, Dave Hall, DJ Clue, Duro, Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis, Stevie J., Mike Mason, David Cole, Robert Clivillés, Babyface, Narada Michael Walden, Rhett Lawrence, Ric Wake
Executive Producers	?
Certification	Platinum
Chart Positions	#26 (USA)
Professional reviews
Mariah Carey Chronology
Glitter 2001	Greatest Hits 2001	Charmbracelet 2002

Greatest Hits was Mariah Carey's 11th album. The album's name is self explanatory and is a collection of her greatest hits. CD 1 is primarily a collection of her hits from 1990 to 1995, while CD 2 is primarily a collection of hits from 1996 to 2000. The album was released in December 2001 and debuted and peaked at #52. The album has been certified platinum.

The Album

This collection of hits has garnered minor controversy, as Mariah had previously released a greatest hits collection known as #1's only 3 years earlier in 1998. It should be noted, however, that the decision to release Greatest Hits was a contractual agreement beyond Mariah's control, since she had left Sony and had moved on to Virgin Records. As a result, this collection had minimal input from Mariah and there are no personal liner notes, unlike #1's. Comparisions were also brought from this album to #1's, as 16 of the 17 tracks, with the exception of "Whenever You Call" with Brian McKnight, are also on this collection.

In addition to the 13 #1 hits from #1's ("Vision of Love", "Love Takes Time", "Someday", "I Don't Wanna Cry", "Emotions", "I'll Be There", "Dreamlover", "Hero", "Fantasy", "One Sweet Day", "Always Be My Baby", "Honey", "My All"), Greatest Hits also includes 3 of the 4 bonus tracks from #1's ("Sweetheart", "I Still Believe", and "When You Believe").

The album also includes the #2 hit "Can't Let Go", the #5 hit "Make It Happen", the #3 hit "Without You", the #12 hit "Anytime You Need A Friend", the airplay only tracks ("Forever", "Underneath The Stars", "Butterfly"), the singles that hit #1 after #1's was released ("Heartbreaker", and "Thank God I Found You") and "Can't Take That Away (Mariah's Theme)" (which was released, but due to Billboard rules, had its b-side "Crybaby" chart; incidentally "Crybaby" is not included on this collection).

As a bonus of sorts, the album also has her 1994 hit duet, "Endless Love" with Luther Vandross. Previously this song had only been available on the albums of Luther Vandross. For the first time ever, it was available on an album from Mariah. The album also includes the bonus track of "All I Want For Christmas Is You" (So So Def Remix featuring Lil' Bow Wow and Jermaine Dupri), which had previously only been on the Japanese rerelease of "All I Want For Christmas Is You" in 2000.

Most international versions of Greatest Hits retain the tracklisting as listed below with the addition of "Against All Odds (Take A Look At Me Now)" (with Westlife). The Japanese version retains the tracklisting as listed below but also contains "Open Arms", the "Never Too Far/Hero Medley" (the only album to host this track), "Against All Odds (Take A Look at Me Now)" (with Westlife), the non-single album track, "Music Box", and the album version of "All I Want For Christmas Is You".

Making Of The Album

As the album is a collection of greatest hits, all tracks had already been created. No new or unreleased tracks were created for this compilation either. As the album was a contractual matter, the closest the album got to a "making process" was when the final tracklisting was decided upon. Although, Mariah did not have much leverage in the tracklisting of this album, she was invited by her ex-husband Tommy Mottola to discuss what should be on the album. As Mariah and Tommy had their marriage end on bad terms, the dinner concerning the album was a tense one, with Mariah not getting a lot of what she wanted on the album.

Promotion

There was almost no promotion for this album. As the album came out quickly after Glitter, its existence is often not known by the general public and Mariah often does not acknowledge this album publicly.

Chart Success

As mentioned above, the album was released without much creative input from Mariah and released while Mariah was seen as a pariah in the eyes of the public, following the flop of the Glitter album and the movie, Glitter. Not suprisingly, the album flopped and quickly left the charts. However, due to the resurgence in Mariah's popularity years later in 2005, back catalog sales of the album have been selling at a moderate and respectable pace.

Chart Trajectory

Billboard 200 Chart trajectory — Greatest Hits
Week	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11
Chart Position	52 (54,483)	74 (42,305)	81 (59,491)	94 (34,009)	110 (15,230)	123 (10,989)	128 (9,996)	145 (9,214)	168 (8,178)	164 (8,613)	187 (8,768)