Never Forget – The Ultimate Collection is the third greatest hits album by English boy band Take That. It was released on 14 November 2005, nearly ten years after their initial split. It has sold over 2.36 million copies in the UK since release.

Background and release

Never Forget – The Ultimate Collection was released to coincide with the ITV1 documentary Take That: For the Record, in which band members Gary Barlow, Howard Donald, Jason Orange, Mark Owen and Robbie Williams aired their views over their fame, success, the split and what the post-Williams line-up had done since. The launch of the album took place at the Coronet Cinema in Notting Hill, London on 14 November 2005, the same day as the album's release. Williams did not make an appearance at the launch as he had chosen not to take part in the band's reunion. Owen said: "It would have been great to have had Robbie here tonight, but we were really glad he was involved in the documentary. I know Rob left early, but our memory is of us as a five, and I wouldn't have liked it if it was just us four." The album contains 16 of the band's 18 singles, excluding their debut single, "Do What U Like", and the internationally released "Sunday to Saturday", as well as three bonus recordings. One of the bonus recordings, "Today I've Lost You", was recorded especially for the album after it was originally scrapped in 1995. "Relight My Fire" was remixed, and was due to be issued as a single to promote the release of the album, but it was withdrawn just two days before its initial release date. All editions of the album feature the same track listing. A DVD was released at the same time.

Critical reception

In a highly positive review, The Guardian's Marc Burrows called the album "18 tracks of brilliance".

Commercial performance

The album sold 90,000 copies in its first week, peaking at number 2 on the UK Albums Chart behind Confessions on a Dance Floor by Madonna. It has been certified as 8× Platinum in the UK and has sold 2.36 million copies. Since its release, the album spent 218 weeks in the UK Top 100.

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Decade-end charts

Certifications

Release history