Greatest hits
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A greatest hits album (also referred to as a "best of" album) is an album of successful, previously released songs by a particular music artist or band. To increase the appeal of the album – especially to people that already own the albums – it is common to include remixes of popular songs or new material, with new songs often being released (and themselves becoming successful).
Greatest-hits albums are typically produced after an artist has had enough successful songs to fill out an album release. They are aimed at fans who liked a few of their singles, but not enough to buy an artist's entire catalog and new fans who want to sample the most famous work of an artist with one purchase.
Occasionally, artists have both a Best of and a Greatest hits album. A Greatest hits album tends to have more objective song choices (from single chart positions) while a Best of album is more orientated towards fan favorites and album tracks. For examples, The Beatles 1967-1970 is a best of album (largely consisting of album tracks), whereas The Beatles 1 is greatest hits album (based exclusively on chart positions).
Johnny Mathis's Johnny's Greatest Hits (1958) is generally considered the first greatest-hits album. It sold well, remaining on the Billboard Top Albums Chart for a then-recordbreaking 490 continuous weeks.
See Greatest Hits for a list of albums known just by that title.