The Ultimate Collection (Sade album)


The Ultimate Collection is the second greatest hits album by English band Sade, released on 29 April 2011 by RCA Records. The album includes several singles from the band's career, including "Your Love Is King", "Smooth Operator", "By Your Side", "No Ordinary Love" and "Soldier of Love". It also contains four previously unreleased tracks—a cover of Thin Lizzy's 1974 song "Still in Love with You", a remix of "The Moon and the Sky" featuring Jay-Z, and the songs "I Would Never Have Guessed" and "Love Is Found". The band promoted the album with their first concert tour in 10 years, Sade Live. In March 2014, the album was re-released as The Essential Sade under the Sony Legacy umbrella.

Critical reception

Will Hermes of Rolling Stone stated, "Few singers have the consistency of vision to produce a career retrospective that doubles as a seamless 'let's make out on the carpet' mixtape. From 1985's jazzy 'Smooth Operator' to tracks from last year's excellent Soldier of Love, it's all state-of-the-art slow-jams all the time, driven by Sade Adu's touch-me-now contralto." Lloyd Bradley of BBC Music commented, "The best thing about this set is it'll allow anybody who didn't quite get the band first time around to catch up." In a mixed review, Jeff Winbush of All About Jazz wrote, "No such luck. As things stand, a more accurate title would be The Adequate Collection because there's little ultimate about this bare bones piece of product."

Commercial performance

The Ultimate Collection debuted at number eight on the UK Albums Chart with first-week sales of 15,184 copies, becoming Sade's seventh top-10 album in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the album entered the Billboard 200 at number seven with 38,000 copies sold in its first week, earning the band their ninth consecutive top-10 album on the chart. As of August 2011, the set had sold 127,000 copies in the United States.

Track listing

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of The Ultimate Collection.

Sade

  • Sade – arrangement ; strings, horns
  • Sade Adu – vocals, programming
  • Andrew Hale – keyboards, programming
  • Stuart Matthewman – guitars, saxophone, programming
  • Paul S. Denman – bass

    Additional musicians

  • Dave Early – drums, percussion
  • Martin Ditcham – percussion ; drums
  • Paul Cooke – drums
  • Gordon Matthewman – trumpet
  • Terry Bailey – trumpet
  • Pete Beachill – trombone
  • Leroy Osbourne – vocals ; guitar
  • Jake Jacas – vocals
  • Gordon Hunte – guitar
  • Gavyn Wright – orchestra leader
  • Tony Pleeth – solo cello
  • Karl Van Den Bossche – percussion
  • Tony Momrelle – vocals
  • Ian Burdge – cello
  • Noel Langley – trumpet
  • Everton Nelson – violin
  • Pete Lewinson – drums
  • Ryan Waters – guitar
  • Ben Travers – guitar
  • Simon Hale – orchestra arrangement, orchestra conducting
  • Jay-Z – featured artist
  • 40 – all instruments except strings and horns

    Technical

  • Robin Millar – production
  • Mike Pela – production engineering ; engineering ; production ; co-production ; recording ; mixing
  • Pete Brown – engineering assistance
  • Simon Driscoll – engineering assistance
  • Phil Legg – engineering assistance
  • Ben Rogan – production ; engineering, co-production
  • Sade – production
  • Melanie West – engineering assistance
  • Vince McCartney – engineering assistance
  • Franck Segarra – engineering assistance
  • Olivier de Bosson – engineering assistance
  • Alain Lubrano – engineering assistance
  • Jean-Christophe Vareille – engineering assistance
  • Sandro Franchin – engineering assistance
  • Adrian Moore – engineering assistance
  • Marc Williams – engineering assistance
  • Andy "Nipper" Davies – engineering assistance
  • Mark "Spike" Stent – mixing
  • Mat Arnold – engineering assistance
  • Jamie Brownlow – engineering assistance
  • Owen Shiers – engineering assistance
  • Nick Poortman – engineering assistance
  • Brendan Davies – engineering assistance
  • Mike Nyandoro – engineering assistance
  • Gary Thomas – engineering
  • Isobel Griffiths – contractor
  • Noah "40" Shebib – production, engineering
  • Noel Cadastre – engineering
  • Gimel "Young Guru" Keaton – recording
  • Noel "Gadget" Campbell – mixing
  • David Strickland – mix assistance
  • Greg Morrison – mix assistance
  • The Neptunes – mixing
  • Lynn Jeffrey – band assistance
  • John Davis – mastering
  • Adam Brown – tape transfer
  • Kevin Vanbergen – tape transfer
  • Richard Bowe – archiving

    Artwork

  • Sophie Muller – photography

    Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Chart Position
Australian Urban Albums 48

Chart Position
Polish Albums 12

Certifications

Release history