Within a few months of release, Greatest Hits became Denver's first #1 on the Billboard 200 pop albums chart. It remains the best-selling album of his career in the United States, being certified 9× platinum by the RIAA. The album was one of the first to sell over ten million copies worldwide. It spent 176 weeks on the Billboard 200 and 110 weeks on the Canadian RPM Top 100 chart.

Greatest Hits is historically important because it contained new and reimagined recordings of several songs. Notable new versions included "Leaving on a Jet Plane", "Starwood in Aspen", "Follow Me", "Rhymes and Reasons", "The Eagle and the Hawk", "Sunshine on My Shoulders" and "Poems, Prayers, and Promises". Denver explained in the liner notes by saying that he had picked the tunes most requested at his concerts, but that

"I felt that some of these songs had grown a bit, that I am singing better than I was four or five years ago, and that I would like to treat some of the songs a little differently than I had in the original recordings."

TRACKLIST

Take Me Home, Country Roads
Follow Me
Starwood in Aspen
For Baby (For Bobbie)
Rhymes and Reasons
Leaving on A Jet Plane

The Eagle and The Hawk
Sunshine on My Shoulders
Goodbye Again
Poems, Prayers and Promises
Rocky Mountain High