Journey released the compilation Greatest Hits through Columbia Records on November 15, 1988. Its original 15 tracks drew from six studio albums and two film soundtracks, putting “Don’t Stop Believin’” and “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)” in the same collection as songs that had never appeared on a Journey album.
Steve Perry’s voice connected a selection that moved freely between different stages of the band’s recording history. The opening sequence jumped from “Only the Young,” released on a soundtrack in 1985, to “Don’t Stop Believin’” from 1981’s Escape, then back to “Wheel in the Sky” from 1978’s Infinity. At the other end, “Be Good to Yourself” from 1986’s Raised on Radio closed the original edition. Listeners could move between those records without following the catalog in release order.
The soundtrack material gave the collection a practical purpose for people who already owned the studio albums. “Only the Young” had appeared on Vision Quest, while “Ask the Lonely” came from the 1983 Two of a Kind soundtrack. Both had been recorded for Frontiers and left off that album. Columbia highlighted their arrival on a Journey album in its original Billboard advertising, alongside the compilation’s availability on vinyl, cassette and CD.
Guitarist Neal Schon later questioned the decision to leave them off Frontiers. “One of the biggest mistakes we ever made,” he said in a March 2013 interview with Classic Rock Presents: AOR. Asked which song should have been omitted instead, he singled out “Back Talk.” On Greatest Hits, the two soundtrack recordings joined three selections that had made the original Frontiers running order.
Some early copies also had a packaging quirk. Billboard’s November 26, 1988 review reported that portions of the first pressing included lyrics on the inner sleeve without the song titles. The magazine suggested those copies could become collectors’ items.
The compilation’s contents expanded with a 2006 CD remaster. “When You Love a Woman,” from 1996’s Trial by Fire, became its 16th track, extending the selection into another period of Journey’s work with Perry. The original edition had stopped with material from Raised on Radio.
Television subsequently sent listeners back to the earlier recordings. The 2007 finale of The Sopranos used “Don’t Stop Believin’,” prompting increased interest in both the song and Greatest Hits. In its May 11, 2013 issue, Billboard reported Nielsen SoundScan sales of 342,000 copies for the compilation in 2007 and 507,000 in 2008. Purchases continued well beyond the year of the broadcast.
Perry returned to the recordings for the 2024 remaster, which used the original stereo master tapes. In comments published by Legacy Recordings, he said the work took almost a year because the tracks came from different studios and recording periods. The resulting vinyl edition spread the expanded selection across two LPs. On January 26, 2024, the RIAA certified Greatest Hits 18 times platinum in the United States.
