| The Best of Sugar Ray | |
| Type: | Greatest hits |
| Artist: | Sugar Ray |
| Cover: | SR-TheBestOfSugarRay.jpg |
| Released: | June 21, 2005 May 16, 2006 |
| Recorded: | 1994–2005 |
| Length: | 53:50 |
| Label: | Atlantic |
| Producer: | David Kahne, McG |
| Prev Title: | In the Pursuit of Leisure |
| Prev Year: | 2003 |
| Next Title: | Music for Cougars |
| Next Year: | 2009 |
The Best of Sugar Ray is a 2005 Sugar Ray greatest hits album, released by Atlantic Records, consisting of 12 previous hits and 3 new recordings. Tracks 1, 9, and 14 are new tracks. Tracks 7 and 10 are from Lemonade and Brownies, Tracks 3 and 12 are from Floored, Tracks 4, 6 and 8 are from , Tracks 2, 5, and 11 are from Sugar Ray, and Tracks 13 and 15 are from In the Pursuit of Leisure. The 3 new songs are: "Shot of Laughter", a cover of Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time", and a song written by a teenage Howard Stern, "Psychedelic Bee". "Mr. Bartender" is the only hit single absent from the album.[1]
The Philippine Daily Inquirer noted the inclusion of the heavier material from the band's early albums. They wrote in their September 2005 review, "originally a funk metal band [they've] included two tracks from their debut in this 'best-of' — "Mean Machine" and "Rhythm Stealer". Let's just say that their moving away from metal was the best career decision they ever made."[2]
Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic awarded it four out of five stars, writing that after the commercial underperformance of In the Pursuit of Leisure it "became clear that it wouldn't be long before that hits disc came along", adding "and here it is: Greatest Hits, released in the middle of June 2005, just as the summer was getting under way. That's appropriate, [it] is the perfect soundtrack for lazy days at the beach." He also noted that the mood of the album is "occasionally broken by such remnants of the group's metallic beginnings as 'Rhyme Stealer' and 'RPM,' which stand in uneasy contrast to the sunny, friendly sound."