Greatest Hits: Decade Number 1

Greatest Hits: Decade #1
Greatest hits album by Carrie Underwood
Released	December 9, 2014 (2014-12-09)
Recorded	2005–14
Genre	Country country pop country rock gospel
Label	Arista Nashville
Producer	Mark Bright Desmond Child Frank Rogers
Carrie Underwood chronology
Blown Away (2012) Greatest Hits: Decade #1 (2014)
Singles from Greatest Hits: Decade #1
"Something in the Water" Released: September 29, 2014 "Little Toy Guns" Released: February 16, 2015

Greatest Hits: Decade #1 is the first greatest hits album by American singer Carrie Underwood, released on December 9, 2014, by Arista Nashville.^[1] A two-disc set, the release contains material from Underwood's four studio albums: Some Hearts (2005), Carnival Ride (2007), Play On (2009) and Blown Away (2012). Two newly recorded songs were included: "Little Toy Guns" and the compilation's first single, "Something in the Water", which was released on September 29, 2014. The album also contains four additional tracks.

The compilation debuted at number four on the Billboard 200 and at number one on the Top Country Albums charts, and set several records upon release, including having the biggest sales debut for a hits collection in any genre of music in more than six years and the biggest first-week sales for a female hits album in any genre in over nine years.

Background

On September 26, 2014, during an appearance on The Today Show, Underwood announced her plans to release Greatest Hits: Decade #1 on December 9, 2014 as a celebration of her tenth anniversary of winning the fourth season of American Idol.^[1] The same day, she announced the compilation's first single, "Something in the Water".^[4] About the content of the compilation, Underwood said "I don’t think it would be quite as exciting if I didn’t have something new for the album".^[3] The compilation contains 25 tracks in two discs, 19 of which are previously released singles. It comes with two newly recorded songs, "Something in the Water" and "Little Toy Guns". It also features four additional tracks, including her previously unreleased, live version of "How Great Thou Art" with Vince Gill, a song they performed together for the ACM Presents: Girls’ Night Out TV concert. About including "How Great Thou Art" on her collection, Underwood stated: "'How Great Thou Art' kind of took on a life of its own. I hear people all the time come up to me and tell me, 'I love that, I look at it online all the time', so I thought it was important to make that available on an album. That was a really amazing moment – I think for myself and for Vince – and we felt it".^[3][5][6] The other three additional tracks are songwriting worktape versions of "So Small", "Last Name" and "Mama's Song". On including these songwriting worktapes, Underwood said "I wanted to do something different with extras, so we’re including three worktapes that were recorded the day we wrote the songs – which I think is pretty special".^[3]

Singles

"Something in the Water" was released as the first single from the compilation. The song was written by Underwood along with Chris DeStefano and Brett James, and produced by Underwood's longtime producer Mark Bright. It also has a sample of "Amazing Grace" at the end of the song, sung by Underwood.^[7] It became a crossover success, having topped the Billboard Hot Country Songs for seven weeks and the Hot Christian Songs for twenty three consecutive weeks.^[8] It also reached No. 24 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.^[9] In February 2015,"Little Toy Guns" was released as the second single from the compilation.^[10] The song was released to country radio on February 16, 2015.^[11] The track previously peaked at number 40 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs in December 2014 and has since reached a peak of number 26.^[12]

Track listing

All tracks produced by Mark Bright, except where noted.

Commercial performance

Greatest Hits: Decade Number #1 opened with a combined 103,000 pure album sales (94,000), on-demand streaming and digital tracks sold in its first week, debuting at number four on the Billboard 200 and at number one on the Top Country Albums charts, thus setting several records upon release. It is the biggest sales debut for a hits collection in any genre of music in more than six years, when Frank Sinatra's Nothing But the Best arrived in May 2008.^[14] It is the biggest first-week sales for a female hits album in any genre in over nine years, when Reba McEntire's Reba #1's opened in November 2005.^[15] It is also the biggest debut sales week for a country best-of title since Toby Keith's 35 Biggest Hits debuted in May 2008.^[16] It also logs the biggest sales week for a best-of since Whitney Houston's Whitney: The Greatest Hits shifted 112,000 on the chart dated March 17, 2012.^[14] As of April 2015, the album has sold 332,500 copies in the US.^[17]

In terms of chart positions, on the Billboard 200, Greatest Hits: Decade #1 has the highest ranking for a newly-released greatest hits album since Kenny Chesney's Greatest Hits II debuted and peaked at number three in May 2009.^[18] It’s the highest-charting greatest hits album since Frank Sinatra's 2008 collection Nothing but the Best rebounded to number three in August 2012.^[14] On the Top Country Albums chart, Underwood scored her fifth consecutive number one bow, of five career releases, as Greatest Hits: Decade #1 debuted atop the chart. She is only the second artist to arrive with five number one debuts on Top Country Albums (which premiered in 1964), with Miranda Lambert being the other one.^[16] Underwood is first female artist to debut at number one on the Top Country Albums chart with a greatest hits album since Shania Twain's Greatest Hits had 11 weeks on top from November 2004 to January 2005.^[18]

Charts and certifications

References