Greatest Hits

By 2005, tensions within the band had come to ahead. With Hoppus still feeling bitter about his exclusion from Box Car Racer, and DeLonge becoming increasingly difficult with regards to touring and production schedules, the band had effectively fallen apart long before they officially went on hiatus in February.

Going some way toward comforting their many dejected fans later that year, Geffen Records released this compilation of blink's seventeen greatest hits on Halloween. It was effectively a warts-and-all chronology of the band's development over the years – from the raw simplicity of Cheshire Cat to the tense experimentalism of blink-182 – and was accompanied by the band's thirteen music videos on DVD.

Well Rounded Tracklist

Much to the delight of fans, this album also contained three of the band's lesser-known releases: 'Man Overboard', from The Mark, Tom and Travis Show, 'Not Now', which had featured only as a bonus track on the UK release of blink-182, and 'Another Girl, Another Planet', which had been used as a theme for Travis's MTV reality show, Meet the Barkers, earlier in the year. Released to radio in December 2004, this cover of The Only Ones was also the last song to have been recorded by the band prior to their split.

Included in the UK edition were two additional tracks – 1997's 'I Won't Be Home For Christmas', recorded with Scott Raynor, and a live version of 'Go', taken from a Session at BBC Radio One.

As a fond retrospective of the band's better-known work, the album opens appropriately enough with the tracks 'Carousel' and 'M+Ms' from Cheshire Cat, both of which came out of blink's garage rehearsals and skate/punk rock influences.

Dude Ranch

Dammit Official Music Video

Two hits from Dude Ranch follow namely 'Dammit', with its distinctive riff and bassline, and 'Josie', which remains a solid example of the uncomplicated yet potent musical style of blink's earlier work.

Enema Of The State

What's My Age Again Official Music Video

The band's third and most popular album, Enema of the State, is represented here by three tracks. 'What's My Age Again?' showcases Travis Barker's virtuoso percussive talent as the band's new drummer; 'All The Small Things', stands as a late-nineties classic, and 'Adam's Song' is a downbeat and reflective break from form, its gentle piano and melancholic vocals marking blink's gradual departure from youth.

Take Off Your Pants And Jacket

The Rock Show Official Music Video

Both 'The Rock Show' and 'First Date', from Take Off Your Pants and Jacket, reflect the band's diminishing creative control in the wake of Enema's massive success – both of these tracks having been written under studio pressure for guaranteed summertime hits. 'Stay Together For the Kids', on the other hand, also from Take Off Your Pants and Jacket, hints at their emerging thematic maturity and artistic freedom.

From the band's final pre-hiatus album, blink-182, are included the upbeat 'Feeling This', the melodic 'I Miss You', the eighties-themed 'Always', and the atmospheric 'Down' – four tracks which, taken together, highlight the divergent tastes of the individual band members and the creative tussle that eventually tore them apart.

Well Received

As such, Greatest Hits is considered a sensitive and comprehensive portrayal of the band's career to date and was generally well-received, going platinum in Canada and triple platinum in Australia.