The Greatest Hits

The Greatest Hits was Syd Wolfe's first compilation. It includes 24 top 10 hit singles. The album charted at #1 worldwide.

Background
On July 2, 2014, Wolfe announced through Fusion Records the release of her first greatest hits compilation titled The Greatest Hits, due on September 02, 2014. The title had changed slightly from previous plans, as Wolfe had originally announced plans for a compilation titled Greatest for 2013. On July 3, 2014, Wolfe confirmed the lead single from the album would be Cellophane, another collaboration with producer Zedd. During an interview with Popjustice on July 14, 2014, Wolfe revealed there would be 4 new tracks on the compilation, including single 'Cellophane'. During the album launch on August 10, 2014, Wolfe confirmed the album would have standard & deluxe versions with the former containing 30 tracks and the latter containing 40. She also confirmed that there were now 5 new tracks on the album, including a collaboration with a female artist. Finally, she announced that the album cover would contain a light-up logo that flashed her name. The deluxe boxset was revealed through Wolfe's web-store on August 23, 2014. The standard tracklist was officially revealed on August 25, 2014. The Greatest Hits included five new tracks: "Cellophane", "Glory", "Boulevard", "Can't Forget You" and "Night Time", a collaboration with Aurora Reed. It was confirmed on August 30, 2014 that the deluxe version, containing 10 extra tracks, had been cancelled.

Critical Reception
The album received generally positive reviews from music critics. AllMusic writer Stephen Thomas Erlewine commented that The Greatest Hits "proves that no other pop singer of her era has a better track record than Syd" and noted that 24 top 10 singles in 5 years was an impressive feat. Ryan Love from Digital Spy noted the "increasing quality" of the singles from compilation and compared her newer recordings with her earlier work, "She may have started out with StarGate-by-numbers tracks, but Wolfe moved on to bigger and better things quickly. It's no surprise that her later hits are breaking records and becoming pop classics. She records out of the box pop music, has every producer on speed dial and no other pop artist can touch her". He further complimented Wolfe's songwriting style, writing "she somehow manages to turn mental health issues and heartbreak into sing-along, radio friendly masterpieces". Chris Willman from Entertainment Weekly noted the undeniable fact that the album was worthy of the title, but questioned whether it would sell well due to her previous albums being huge sellers. Jen Seyfried from Rolling Stone positively received Wolfe's new recordings saying "the five new tracks cater for every part of Wolfe's audience. Dance-pop, ballad-pop and even indie-pop, which she says will be her new direction. If the songs are this good then, yes please".

Commercial Performance
In the United Kingdom, The Greatest Hits debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart, with sales exceeding 153,000 copies. It has, so far, spent 21 weeks in the top 10 of the chart, enjoying 7 non-consecutive weeks at number one. It is the fastest selling album of 2014 in the UK, selling over 1,500,424 copies and certified diamond in the last week of 2014. In the United States, the album debuted at number on the U.S. Billboard 200, with 655,000 copies sold in its first week of release. It was the first greatest hits album since 2007 to debut and peak at the number one position on the Billboard 200. Worldwide, the album debuted at number one in 58 countries including Canada, Australia, Germany, Sweden, Japan, Ireland & Denmark, and sold 2 million copies in its first week. It has so far sold over 12 million copies becoming one of the best-selling greatest hits albums of all time.

Singles
"Cellophane" was announced to be the first single from the collection, released the same day as the album. It is the fastest-selling #1 in the UK in 2014, taking just 9 weeks to make it into the top 5 of the end-of-year charts.