''Greatest Hits 1970–2002'' is a career-spanning

compilation album A compilation album comprises Album#Tracks, tracks, which may be previously released or unreleased, usually from several separate recordings by either one Performing arts#Performers, performer or by several performers. If the recordings are from ...

of popular songs by English musician

Elton John Sir Elton Hercules John (born Reginald Kenneth Dwight; 25 March 1947) is a British singer, songwriter and pianist. His music and showmanship have had a significant, lasting impact on the music industry, and his songwriting partnership with l ...

, released on UTV Records in 2002. It debuted on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart at number 12 on 30 November 2002, for a total run of 67 weeks. It was certified gold and platinum in December 2002, double platinum in March 2003, triple platinum in August 2004, four- and five-times platinum simultaneously in February 2011, and 6× platinum in April 2016 by the

RIAA The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) is a trade organization that represents the music recording industry in the United States. Its members consist of record labels and distributors that the RIAA says "create, manufacture, and/o ...

.RIAA Gold and Platinum web page retrieved 28 August 2020
/ref> It was the first Elton John compilation released since PolyGram, which had controlled the pre-1976 Elton John catalog, was sold to

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as Universal Music Group or Universal Music) is a Netherlands, Dutch–United States, American multinational Music industry, music corporation under Law of the Netherlands, ...

, which controlled the post-1976 recordings. Before 1992, rights to John's music had been complicated as they shifted between various companies. UMG now owns worldwide distribution rights to all of John's music, while sharing overall ownership with John himself. It was configured differently for the American and European markets, and also available in a three-

compact disc The compact disc (CD) is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. It employs the Compact Disc Digital Audio (CD-DA) standard and was capable of hol ...

version in addition to the standard two-disc version. It contains every song released on the first two greatest hits packages released respectively in 1974 and 1977, with the exceptions of " Border Song" on ''

Greatest Hits A greatest hits album or best-of album is a type of compilation album that collects popular and commercially successful songs by a particular artist or band. While greatest hits albums are typically supported by the artist, they can also be creat ...

''; " Grow Some Funk of Your Own", " Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds", and " Pinball Wizard" from '' Greatest Hits Vol. II'', as well as " Levon" on the European version. All of those excepting for "Grow Some Funk of Your Own" are available on the bonus disc to the European edition. In 2004, the album was reissued with the 2003 UK singles chart number 1 hit " Are You Ready for Love" as the final track on the second disc, replacing " Song for Guy". " Kiss the Bride" was also omitted to make room for the remake of " Sorry Seems to Be the Hardest Word" featuring the

boy band A boy band is a vocal group consisting of young male singers, usually in their Teenage, teenage years or in their twenties at the time of formation. Generally, boy bands perform love songs marketed towards girls and young women. Many boy bands ...

Blue Blue is one of the three primary colours in the RYB color model, RYB colour model (traditional colour theory), as well as in the RGB color model, RGB (additive) colour model. It lies between Violet (color), violet and cyan on the optical spe ...

. The two newer hits are appended at the end of the third disc for the expanded editions, leaving the second disc tracklisting intact.

Track listing

''All songs written by

and

Bernie Taupin Bernard John Taupin (born 22 May 1950) is an English lyricist and visual artist. He is best known for his songwriting partnership with Elton John, recognised as one of the most successful partnerships of its kind in history. Taupin co-wrote th ...

unless otherwise noted.''

European release

North American release

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Greatest Hits 1970-2002 2002 greatest hits albums Elton John compilation albums UTV Records compilation albums