The ongoing celebration of 60 years of the Grateful Dead will now include the release of an official greatest hits album—the aptly titled Gratest Hits—due out on June 13th, 2025.
The famously incongruous outfit always had an unusual relationship with “hits.” If we’re talking strictly national Top 40 hit singles, the counterculture legends would have trouble filling out a whole album (“Touch of Grey” from 1987’s In The Dark was the band’s only song to earn that honor). But with their near-endless archive of more than 2,000 live concert recordings, they have become a Billboard Chart record-holder: Last year, the Grateful Dead landed their 59th Top 40 album with Dave’s Picks Vol. 49, surpassing Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley as the act with the most Top 40 albums of all time.
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The new Grateful Dead Gratest Hits collection will include “Touch of Grey” as well as eight other timeless favorites from throughout the band’s studio discography—all of which have certainly attained “Greatest Hits” in the universe of live Dead. Gratest Hits is available to pre-order now via Rhino on 1CD, 1LP Dead.net Exclusive Blue Smoke Vinyl, Digital, as well as multiple retail exclusive colored vinyl variants. Pre-order your copy of the Grateful Dead Greatest Hits album in the format of your choice here. View the full track listing below.
Grateful Dead – Gratest Hits – Track Listing
- CASEY JONES [Workingman’s Dead (1970)]
- FRIEND OF THE DEVIL [American Beauty (1970)]
- BOX OF RAIN [American Beauty (1970)]
- SUGAR MAGNOLIA [American Beauty (1970)]
- TRUCKIN’ [American Beauty (1970)]
- SCARLET BEGONIAS [From The Mars Hotel (1974)]
- FIRE ON THE MOUNTAIN [Shakedown Street (1978)]
- ESTIMATED PROPHET [Terrapin Station (1977)]
- TOUCH OF GREY [In The Dark (1987)
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Along with the Gratest Hits compilation, the Grateful Dead will be releasing a sweeping, 60-CD collection called Enjoying The Ride on May 30th. Exclusive to Dead.net, and limited to 6,000 individually numbered copies, the boxed set maps an epic cross-country road trip along the “Heady Highway,” with stops at storied venues where the music, the moment, and the magic of the Grateful Dead reliably converged. Traversing 25 years of legendary live performances, the Enjoying The Ride compendium spotlights defining shows from 1969 to 1994 at 20 venues that consistently inspired the band to new heights including Winterland, Frost Amphitheatre, Madison Square Garden, and Hampton Coliseum. With 450+ tracks, 60+ hours of music, and 20+ shows—virtually all of the music is previously unreleased—Enjoying The Ride serves as a thrilling testament to the Dead’s endlessly adventurous spirit. Watch the new unboxing video previewing Enjoying The Ride below.
Grateful Dead – Enjoying The Ride – Unboxing Video
For those seeking more concise itinerary, abridged version The Music Never Stopped distills Enjoying The Ride into a shorter route through the band’s 60th Anniversary celebration. Featuring at least one song from every venue in the deluxe set, it offers a briefer—but no less illuminating—trip through the music that shaped the Grateful Dead’s live legacy. The Music Never Stopped is also available on May 30th via Rhino on 3CDs, 6LPs, and digitally. Pre-order The Music Never Stopped here.
Ahead of the Enjoying The Ride and The Music Never Stopped releases on May 30th, the Grateful Dead shared a preview recording of “Althea” from the Hartford Civic Center in Hartford, CT on 3/14/81. Listen on the platform of your choice here.
“From the Grateful Dead’s third performance at the Hartford Civic Center (on the heels of their 1977 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 of the recording. “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.”
The shows on Enjoying The Ride include contributions from Jerry Garcia, Ron “Pigpen” McKernan, Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart, Keith Godchaux, Donna Jean Godchaux, Brent Mydland, Tom Constanten, Vince Welnick, and Bruce Hornsby. Audio was originally recorded by Owsley “Bear” Stanley, Betty Cantor-Jackson, Kidd Candelario, Dan Healy, and John Cutler. David Glasser and Jeffrey Norman restored and mastered the performances, with the analog ones using Plangent Processes tape restoration and speed correction for optimal sound quality.
In tandem with the Grateful Dead 60th Anniversary, the 11th season of the Good Ol’ Grateful Deadcast has opened with a two-part heartfelt tribute to Phil Lesh, who passed away last October, featuring archival interviews with Lesh, Phish’s Mike Gordon, Dead & Co.’s Oteil Burbridge, and other collaborators. The season will continue celebrating the milestone and exploring the music featured in Enjoying The Ride. Listen and subscribe to the Good Ol’ Grateful Deadcast’s eleventh season here.