Stone Temple Pilots released Thank You in the United States on November 11, 2003, through Atlantic Records. Their first greatest-hits collection drew from five studio albums and added the new song “All in the Suit That You Wear.” It arrived at the end of the band's first run together, with the musicians already moving toward separate projects.
A retrospective had been considered before. STP planned a collection called Big Bang Babies in 2000, then scrapped it following a management change. By the time Thank You appeared, Shangri-La Dee Da had joined the catalog, giving the compilation another album to draw from. Its “Days of the Week” extended the selection beyond the band's 1990s releases. The CD didn't follow release order. “Vasoline,” from Purple, opened the collection; “Down,” from No. 4, followed before “Wicked Garden” took it back to Core. Songs from Tiny Music… Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop were woven through the middle. That sequence put different periods of STP side by side, letting the compilation move between albums instead of treating each one as a separate chapter.
“All in the Suit That You Wear” gave listeners who owned those records a new studio track. STP produced it themselves, a change from the Brendan O'Brien productions that supplied the earlier album selections. The liner notes credited the entire band with both its music and words, and named Hollywood's Cello Studios as the recording location. Atlantic sent the song to rock radio ahead of the compilation, which placed it between “Interstate Love Song” and “Sex Type Thing.”
The closing acoustic “Plush” revisited a much earlier performance. Scott Weiland and guitarist Dean DeLeo recorded it for MTV's Headbangers Ball, with voice and acoustic guitar carrying the song. The Core studio version also appeared on Thank You, giving listeners both arrangements on one disc.
Atlantic also released a CD/DVD edition with a three-hour video collection. Its 32 songs included a dozen music videos, live performances and footage shot by friends and fans. Among the performances were “Sweet Emotion” with Aerosmith's Steven Tyler and Joe Perry, and “Wichita Lineman” with Glen Campbell. Those collaborations gave the DVD material beyond STP's own songs, while the informal footage added another view of the band alongside its official promotional clips. The standalone CD contained the same 15-track audio selection.
The timing made the collection feel like a farewell. “It was time to move on to other things,” Dean told Guitar One in a 2003 interview excerpted by Blabbermouth. He and bassist Robert DeLeo discussed STP as a band whose run had ended. Dean described finding it easier to see Weiland outside their working relationship, while Robert acknowledged mixed feelings about the split. Weiland was already pursuing Velvet Revolver, and the brothers were talking about what they wanted to do beyond STP.
The separation didn't last. The original members reunited for a tour in 2008, then released their self-titled sixth studio album, Stone Temple Pilots, in 2010. The lineup whose work filled Thank You had returned to making records together.
