Legend

A fourteen-track collection of singles from Is This Love to Redemption Song. It reached number one in Britain, where it has spent 1,258 weeks in the top 100 as of October 2026, and number five in the United States, where it has 959 weeks. It is certified 18 times platinum in the US, and worldwide sales estimates run from 25 to 27 million. Pitchfork gave it 9.0, Christgau an A, and Rolling Stone ranked it 46th on its 500 greatest albums. Critics have noted that the selection is deliberately inoffensive.

Pitchfork's Eric Harvey wrote in January 2026 that it first peaked at number 54 in the United States, reached platinum by 1988 and was certified diamond by the turn of the century. He added that it has stayed on the British albums chart longer than any album except the Queen and ABBA greatest-hits sets, and that it had sold more than 18 million copies by the end of 2024. Vivien Goldman wrote in the Guardian that Dave Robinson, then managing director of Island, conceived it, with a focus on the feelgood songs.