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 1991 album Blood Sugar Sex Magik 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!?).

"Higher Ground" itself, from 1989's Mother's Milk, is included on this compilation 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. On What Hits!? EMI chose to include the song "Under the Bridge" from the 1991 album Blood Sugar Sex Magik.

Fourteen new songs were made for this compilation, however only two were chosen to be tracks. 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 was left off the DVD included in this package.

The names of the other twelve 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. 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. One other song name, which Flea stated backstage at a performance for his Silverlake Conservatory of Music, is Desiree.

"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. Even if the band wanted "Love Rollercoaster" to be included, it could not have been having been recorded for a different record label. However, 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.

Of all the eight Red Hot Chili Peppers U.S. #1 singles up to that point, only one of them, "Can't Stop", from their previous 2002 album By the Way, was excluded.

Track listing

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

• "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) (Kiedis/Flea/Navarro/Smith)

• "Higher Ground" – 3:24 (from the album Mother's Milk) (Wonder)

• "Universally Speaking" – 4:19 (from the album By the Way)

• "Road Trippin'" – 3:28 (from the album Californication)

• "Fortune Faded" – 3:23 (Previously Unreleased)

• "Save the Population" – 4:07 (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:

• "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, because they feature Arik Marshall, who temporarily replaced 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.

Category:2003 albumsCategory:Red Hot Chili Peppers albumsCategory:Warner Bros. Records albumsCategory:Greatest hits albumsCategory:Albums produced by Michael BeinhornCategory:Albums produced by Rick Rubin
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