Greatest Hit (...And 21 Other Pretty Cool Songs)


Greatest Hit is a compilation album by progressive metal band Dream Theater released in Australia on March 29, 2008, and by Rhino Records in the US on April 1. The title alludes to their only top 10 radio hit, "Pull Me Under". It features three songs from their breakthrough album Images and Words remixed by Kevin Shirley: "Pull Me Under", "Take the Time", and "Another Day". It also features the song "To Live Forever", an Awake-era re-recording of the song from the Images and Words sessions, which was previously unreleased on a full-length album. Several single edits of popular Dream Theater songs are also featured on this compilation.
The songs have been divided in two discs: the first one, dubbed "The Dark Side", features heavy, metal-influenced songs, while the second one, entitled "The Light Side", spotlights the band's melodic side. The set spans the years from 1991 to 2005, therefore it doesn't include any songs from Dream Theater's debut album, When Dream and Day Unite, their A Change of Seasons EP or their 2007 release Systematic Chaos.
Then-drummer Mike Portnoy explained in the album's booklet that the selection of songs were carefully made in order to appease both the newcomer and the already existing fan by offering up different versions of songs on other albums to "make the newcomer want to buy the albums from whence they came" and to "give different versions of songs already on other albums" to the current fan. He also suggests that a third disc should've been included called "The Epic Side".

Track listing

Disc one ("The Dark Side")

Disc two ("The Light Side")

Personnel