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Whitney: The Greatest Hits is the first compilation album by American singer Whitney Houston. It was released on May 5, 2000, by Arista Records. Anticipation over a greatest hits album from Houston arose as far as 1995, when Billboard first announced the album's release. However, it was continuously postponed as Houston focused on film projects, before deciding to record several new tracks for the belated collection in 1998. The effort was quickly expanded into her fourth studio album My Love Is Your Love, released in November 1998 to widespread success, which effectively postponed Whitney: The Greatest Hits again.
A two-disc collection, Whitney: The Greatest Hits comprises Houston's ballads on its first disc, titled Cool Down, while replacing most of the original versions of her up-tempo hits with corresponding dance remixes on the second disc, titled Throw Down. Therefore, numerous publications rejected the compilation's classification as a greatest hits album, despite its title and marketing. Whitney: The Greatest Hits also includes four previously unreleased tracks—"Same Script, Different Cast", a duet with Deborah Cox; "Could I Have This Kiss Forever", a duet with Enrique Iglesias; "If I Told You That", a duet with George Michael; and "Fine"—all of which were released as singles to varying levels of success.
Whitney: The Greatest Hits was met with mixed responses from music critics, who praised Houston for her expansive catalog and career longevity, but criticized the album's inclusion of remixes rather than original versions for a majority of Houston's hits; the new tracks elicited polarity among reviewers. A commercial success, Whitney: The Greatest Hits debuted at number five on the US Billboard 200, with first-week sales of 158,000 units, and reached the top 10 in 20 additional countries. By February 2012, it had sold over 10 million copies worldwide. That June, Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) certified the compilation quintuple platinum for double-disc shipments of 2.5 million units in the US.
Although Houston did not promote Whitney: The Greatest Hits as extensively as her previous albums, she embarked on a four-date concert residency from June to November 2000. Furthermore, the compilation was accompanied by the simultaneously released video collection of the same title. In January 2011, Legacy Recordings reissued the album as a part of their Essential album series, retitling it The Essential Whitney Houston. Following Houston's death on February 11, 2012, Whitney: The Greatest Hits registered a significant resurgence of sales, attaining a new peak of number two on the Billboard 200, and new top-10 peaks—either in its original format, or as The Essential Whitney Houston—in numerous countries worldwide.
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