Under The Bridge 
Give It Away
Californication
Scar Tissue
Soul To Squeeze
Otherside
Suck My Kiss
By The Way
Parallel Universe
Breaking The Girl
My Friends
Higher Ground
Universally Speaking
Road Trippin'
Fortune Faded
Save The Population
The previous best of album the Red Hot Chili Peppers put out was rightly entitled What Hits?, as only two tracks from the release ever made into the charts. One of those songs, Under The Bridge, features on this compilation, correctly titled Greatest Hits.
It is no coincidence that the Chili Peppers hit big with their fifth album, Blood Sugar Sex Magik. They had a new record label, a fantastic producer in Rick Rubin and the same line up for two consecutive albums for the first time. Blood Sugar was a wonderful album, a classic if you will, and four of its tracks are featured here. These tracks, along with Blood Sugar outtake Soul To Squeeze, show the true wonder of guitarist John Frusciante (check out documentary Funky Monks to see Frusciante putting everything into the recording of these songs).
After Frusciante left the band in 1992, the Chili Peppers struggled to find a guitarist that fit with the band. To compare sixth album One Hot Minute with any of the other albums featured on this Greatest Hits collection would be wrong. When a band writes as equally as this one, the songs will be driven the guitarist, and Dave Navarro and John Frusciante come from different schools. When you listen to Navarro’s later work on his solo album and latest Jane’s Addiction album Strays, you can tell he is more straight rock than the soul of Frusciante. With the band currently not playing any songs live from One Hot Minute, it is understandable that only My Friends is included here.
Frusciante’s return from professional heroin addiction in 1999 heralded Californication, the Peppers’ most successful album to date. A more mature Anthony Keidis sings much more than usual and Flea almost completely leaves behind his trademark slap bass. Wisdom is shown in the slower songs like Otherside and Scar Tissue, but the most remarkable difference with this album was the introduction of Frusciante’s vocal harmonies. Sublime.
The band continued to move in the same direction on their most recent, and arguably best album, By The Way. The songs from that, along with new song Fortune Faded, show how much the band has changed, not only from the beginning of their career but also from Blood Sugar Sex Magik.
All in all, this is the Greatest Hits of John Frusciante. It is a shame that the singles released do not show the guitarist’s full range. Album tracks such as My Lovely Man, This Velvet Glove and Minor Thing are sadly missing from a collection based purely on singles. But then again, you should own all the albums anyway.
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