Words & Music: John Mellencamp's Greatest Hits is a two-disc greatest hits album by the American singer-songwriter John Mellencamp, released on October 19, 2004 on the Island and UTV Records labels. It is a retrospective of Mellencamp's career at the time of its release, and features at least one song from each of his studio albums released between 1978's A Biography and 2003's Trouble No More. Two songs: "Walk Tall" and "Thank You", were recorded exclusively for this album. No songs are included from Mellencamp's 1976 debut album Chestnut Street Incident or 1977's The Kid Inside. Also omitted is Mellencamp's cover of "Without Expression", which was released on his previous compilation album The Best That I Could Do 1978–1988. Initial pressings of the album included a bonus DVD that contained the music videos for "Crumblin' Down", "R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.", "Rain on the Scarecrow", "Check It Out", and "Key West Intermezzo (I Saw You First)". AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine gave the compilation a positive review, describing it as more thorough than The Best That I Could Do 1978–1988, but criticized its non-chronological track listing. In December 2004, the album was certified Platinum by the RIAA.

Track listing

All songs written by John Mellencamp, except where noted.

Disc one

Disc two

Personnel on 2004 tracks

"Walk Tall"

"Thank You"

Charts