From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Greatest Hits
Greatest hits by Guns N' Roses
Released	March 23, 2004
Recorded	1986–1994
Genre	Hard rock
Length	79:02
Label	Geffen
Producer	Bill Levenson
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link Pitchfork Media (3.9/10) link Stylus (D+) Mar 17, 2004
Guns N' Roses chronology
Live Era: '87-'93 (1999) Greatest Hits (2004) Chinese Democracy (TBA)

Greatest Hits is a compilation album by Guns N' Roses. The album was released on March 23, 2004. It hit #1 in the UK and #3 in the US. Despite some criticisms towards the track listing by fans (even Axl Rose and ex-Guns N' Roses members, who filed a joint lawsuit to try and prevent the release of the album), the album has proven a popular seller, selling 3 million copies in the U.S. to date. Greatest Hits became Guns N' Roses second-longest charting album in their homeland (after Appetite for Destruction), finally dropping out of the Billboard 200 chart in November 2006 following a 138-week stay [1]. Universal Records' response to Rose's opposition to the record was that he had been given adequate time to supply them with a record but had failed to do so, and so they had produced their own Guns N' Roses record instead.

Critics of the compilation were somewhat disappointed, as many other popular songs from Appetite For Destruction and G N' R Lies were neglected from this release (including songs such as "Mr. Brownstone", "It's So Easy" and "Nightrain" and Lies tracks such as "Used to Love Her" "Reckless Life," the acoustic "You're Crazy") as well as the Use Your Illusion II single "Estranged".

It's also been noted on the All Music Guide review that the remastering on this album is not notable.^[1]

1. "Welcome to the Jungle" (Guns N' Roses) – 4:32
   • From Appetite for Destruction (1987)
   • #7 on U.S. Hot 100
2. "Sweet Child o' Mine" (Guns N' Roses) – 5:58
   • From Appetite for Destruction (1987)
   • #1 on U.S. Hot 100
3. "Patience" (Guns N' Roses) – 5:56
   • From G N' R Lies (1988)
   • #4 on U.S. Hot 100
4. "Paradise City" (Guns N' Roses) – 6:52
   • From Appetite for Destruction (1987)
   • #5 on U.S. Hot 100
5. "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" (Bob Dylan) – 5:35
   • From Use Your Illusion II (1991)
   • #2 on UK Singles Chart
6. "Civil War" (Axl Rose, Slash, Duff McKagan) – 7:41
   • From Use Your Illusion II (1991)
7. "You Could Be Mine" (Rose, Izzy Stradlin) – 5:35
   • From Use Your Illusion II (1991)
   • #29 on U.S. Hot 100
8. "Don't Cry" (original version) (Rose, Stradlin) – 4:51
   • From Use Your Illusion I (1991)
   • #10 on U.S. Hot 100
9. "November Rain" (Rose) – 8:57
   • From Use Your Illusion I (1991)
   • #3 on U.S. Hot 100
10. "Live and Let Die" (Paul McCartney, Linda McCartney) – 3:02
    • From Use Your Illusion I (1991)
    • #33 on U.S. Hot 100
11. "Yesterdays" (Rose, Billy McCloud, Del James, West Arkeen) – 3:18
    • From Use Your Illusion II (1991)
    • #72 on U.S. Hot 100
12. "Ain't It Fun" (Peter Laughner, Cheetah Chrome) – 5:10
    • From "The Spaghetti Incident?" (1993)
13. "Since I Don't Have You" (Joseph Rock, James Beaumont, The Skyliners) – 4:18
    • From "The Spaghetti Incident?" (1993)
    • #69 on U.S. Hot 100
14. "Sympathy for the Devil" (Mick Jagger, Keith Richards) – 7:38
    • From Interview with the Vampire soundtrack (1994)
    • #55 on U.S. Hot 100

The song "Ain't it Fun" (a cover that appeared on "The Spaghetti Incident?") had a line that went "Ain't it fun when you tell her she's just a cunt." However, in this Greatest Hits album, it seems to be dubbed over, and the line is simply "Ain't it fun when you tell her she's just a" with a single guitar note playing and then going into a short riff. This version had never been officially released before, but was broadcast by most radio stations when it was released as a single.

However, the spoken word line "Yep, we're fucked" that appeared in "Since I Don't Have You" remains unedited.

• Axl Rose – vocals
• Slash – lead guitar
• Izzy Stradlin – rhythm guitar (on tracks 1–11)
• Gilby Clarke – rhythm guitar (on tracks 12–13)
• Paul Tobias – rhythm guitar (on track 14)
• Duff McKagan – bass
• Matt Sorum – drums (on tracks 5, 7–14)
• Steven Adler – drums (on tracks 1–4, 6)
• Dizzy Reed – keyboards, percussion (on tracks 5–14)