Grateful Dead Mark 60th Anniversary With ‘Gratest Hits’ Collection

The Grateful Dead will celebrate their 60th anniversary this year not only with a massive 60-disc live collection but also with a just-announced Best Of compilation.

Fittingly titled Gratest Hits, the LP features nine classics from the Dead’s studio catalog, “Casey Jones” and “Friend of the Devil” to the Phil Lesh standout “Box of Rain” and the band’s biggest hit “Touch of Grey” to the one-two punch of “Scarlet Begonias” and “Fire on the Mountain.”

While there have been dozens of Best Of collections dedicated to the Grateful Dead over the past decades — mostly released by record labels without input from the band itself — a press release heralds Gratest Hits as “the Dead’s first real greatest hits collection.” Gratest Hits arrives June 13th and is available to preorder now.

Additionally, the Grateful Dead have unearthed an unreleased version of “Althea” from the Hartford Civic Center on March 3rd, 1981, one of the countless recordings that will feature in the enormous 60-disc Enjoying the Ride live collection that comes out on May 30th.

“From the Grateful Dead’s third performance at the Hartford Civic Center (on the heels of their1977 and 1980 shows), this ‘Althea’ is widely considered one of the greatest versions of the song the Dead ever played,” Grateful Dead archivist and legacy manager David Lemieux said in a statement. “Joining the repertoire in August 1979, and recorded in the studio for 1980’s Go To Heaven album, ‘Althea’ started hitting instrumental peaks that you’ll hear in this version. Coupled with Jerry’s emotional, powerful vocal delivery, this is an ‘Althea’ against which all other ‘Altheas’ can be measured.”

Gratest Hits Track List
Casey Jones
Friend of the Devil
Box of Rain
Sugar Magnolia
Truckin’
Scarlet Begonias
Fire on the Mountain
Estimated Prophet
Touch of Grey