Background and Album Title
During mid-1998, after the release of her seventh studio album, Butterfly (1997), the previous September, Carey was in the midst of developing a film and soundtrack project titled All That Glitters. Midway through the project, All That Glitters fell into developmental hell, causing Carey to pause the entire production. During this period, Carey considered embarking on a tour to support Butterfly, which was continuing to sell strongly. However, executives at Sony Music, the parent company of Carey's label Columbia, wanted her to prepare a greatest hits collection in time for the commercially favorable holiday season. Carey, not having time to record a studio album, agreed. However, they disagreed as to what content and singles should constitute the album. Sony wanted to release an album that featured her US number one singles, void of any new material. Carey on the other hand, felt that a greatest hits album should reflect on her most personal and favorite songs, not her most commercial. To accompany her thirteen number ones, Carey recorded four new songs. She felt that not including any new material would result in cheating her fans, therefore including some new material as well. While compromised, Carey often expressed distaste towards the album's song selection, expressing her disappointment in the omission of her "favorite songs."
Everyone swung it like I didn't want to put something out because I wouldn't accept less than a No. 1 Pop Single. That's not even true. Like I didn't want to "break a streak." My streak was broken a long time ago. I don't even have a streak. I had five number ones, then I had records that didn't go to number one. Whatever I wanted to put out "Breakdown" with Bone-Thugs-N-Harmony. That was a no-brainer. Release it. I'll always be upset "Breakdown" never got its shot.
—Carey, on her disappointment in the singles chosen, during an interview with Vibe.For this reason, Sony titled the album #1s, as Carey felt the need to express the album's true content, a collection of her number one hits. Carey has frequently cited "Underneath the Stars" (1996) and "Breakdown" (1998) as examples of songs she was unsuccessful in releasing. In the album's liner notes, Carey wrote that she was releasing a collection of her number one singles as a "thank you" and a tribute to her fans, and explained that someday she would release a true greatest hits album containing songs that were not released as singles, as well as singles that did not reach number one. In December 2001, Columbia released the album Greatest Hits, which featured Carey's number one singles alongside songs she said "needed to be really heard", such as "Underneath the Stars" and "Forever." In an interview with MTV, Carey made the following statement regarding the album. "There's a lot of songs that I'm happy are gonna see the light of day. I think people are going to like this Greatest Hits because there are songs on it that were not necessarily singles."
Read more about this topic: Number 1's (Mariah Carey Album)
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