Fall Out Boy released Believers Never Die – Greatest Hits in the United States through Island Records on November 17, 2009. Their first greatest hits compilation collected the singles that connected Take This to Your Grave to Folie à Deux, then added new material as the band prepared for a break. “Alpha Dog” was one of two new recordings included in the collection.
The main sequence followed the singles chronologically, beginning with “Dead on Arrival” and moving into the From Under the Cork Tree breakthrough represented by “Sugar, We’re Goin Down” and “Dance, Dance.” Songs from Infinity on High and Folie à Deux followed. Placing “What a Catch, Donnie” immediately before “Alpha Dog” took the sequence from the Folie à Deux period straight into the new material.
Music videos helped determine what made the cut. Bassist and lyricist Pete Wentz told MusicRadar in November 2009 that the starting point was “Well, here's every song we did a video for,” although some songs were left out. A CD/DVD edition carried that idea into the packaging, pairing the audio collection with videos and commentary from the band. Fans could revisit the clips with the members talking through them.
The added material also connected different points in their history. Alongside “Alpha Dog,” the band included the new “From Now On We Are Enemies,” plus the rarities “Yule Shoot Your Eye Out” and “Growing Up.” Wentz said the two new songs were recorded at the same studio used for From Under the Cork Tree. The Christmas song dated to 2003, while “Growing Up” reached back to the band’s 2002 split EP with Project Rocket.
The title itself required discussion. Wentz also told SPIN that the band had wanted to call the collection simply Believers Never Die. Management argued that casual listeners could mistake that for another new album, and the band accepted the distinction. For Wentz, the collection had to work for longtime fans and people encountering the group during its absence. Revisiting “Sugar, We’re Goin Down” also brought back an earlier disagreement: he recalled the label worrying that its chorus had too many words and its guitars were too heavy for radio. Its eventual success made the song an especially meaningful inclusion for him.
Those memories arrived with uncertainty about what would happen next. Wentz’s explanation in the MusicRadar interview was that years of work had left the band needing time to recover creatively. He rejected the suggestion that the compilation meant they were breaking up or leaving their label, but would not promise a return date. The collection documented what they had completed while the timetable for more music remained open.
On February 4, 2013, Fall Out Boy returned with “My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up)” and announced Save Rock and Roll, their first studio album since Folie à Deux. The band’s statement picked up the distinction Wentz had made in 2009: “This isn't a reunion because we never broke up.”
