The Ultimate Collection (Sade album)

The Ultimate Collection is the second greatest hits album by English band Sade, released on 29 April 2011 by RCA Records. The album includes several singles from the band's career, including "Your Love Is King", "Smooth Operator", "By Your Side", "No Ordinary Love" and "Soldier of Love". It also contains four previously unreleased tracks—a cover of Thin Lizzy's 1974 song "Still in Love with You", a remix of "The Moon and the Sky" featuring Jay-Z, and the songs "I Would Have Never Guessed" and "Love Is Found". The band promoted the album with their first concert tour in 10 years, Sade Live. In March 2014, the album was re-released as The Essential Sade under the Sony Legacy umbrella.

Critical reception
Will Hermes of Rolling Stone stated, "Few singers have the consistency of vision to produce a career retrospective that doubles as a seamless 'let's make out on the carpet' mixtape. From 1985's jazzy 'Smooth Operator' to tracks from last year's excellent Soldier of Love, it's all state-of-the-art slow-jams all the time, driven by Sade Adu's touch-me-now contralto." Lloyd Bradley of BBC Music commented, "The best thing about this set is it'll allow anybody who didn't quite get the band first time around to catch up." In a mixed review, Jeff Winbush of All About Jazz wrote, "No such luck. As things stand, a more accurate title would be The Adequate Collection because there's little ultimate about this bare bones piece of product."

Commercial performance
The Ultimate Collection debuted at number eight on the UK Albums Chart with first-week sales of 15,184 copies, becoming Sade's seventh top-10 album in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the album entered the Billboard 200 at number seven with 38,000 copies sold in its first week, earning the band their ninth consecutive top-10 album on the chart. As of August 2011, the set had sold 127,000 copies in the United States.

Personnel
Credits adapted from the liner notes of The Ultimate Collection.

Sade

 * Sade – arrangement (disc 1: tracks 8–14; disc 2: tracks 1–7, 15); strings, horns (disc 2: track 14)
 * Sade Adu – vocals, programming
 * Andrew Hale – keyboards, programming
 * Stuart Matthewman – guitars, saxophone, programming
 * Paul S. Denman – bass

Additional musicians

 * Dave Early – drums, percussion (disc 1: tracks 1–7)
 * Martin Ditcham – percussion (disc 1: tracks 1–6, 8–12, 14; disc 2: tracks 8–10); drums (disc 1: tracks 8–10, 12; disc 2: track 10)
 * Paul Cooke – drums (disc 1: tracks 1, 3)
 * Gordon Matthewman – trumpet (disc 1: track 1; disc 2: track 10)
 * Terry Bailey – trumpet (disc 1: tracks 4, 5)
 * Pete Beachill – trombone (disc 1: tracks 4, 5)
 * Leroy Osbourne – vocals (disc 1: tracks 6, 8–14; disc 2: tracks 1–6, 8–11); guitar (disc 2: track 11)
 * Jake Jacas – vocals (disc 1: track 6)
 * Gordon Hunte – guitar (disc 1: track 9)
 * Gavyn Wright – orchestra leader (disc 1: track 12; disc 2: track 2)
 * Tony Pleeth – solo cello (disc 2: track 2)
 * Karl Van Den Bossche – percussion (disc 2: tracks 3–6, 11)
 * Tony Momrelle – vocals (disc 2: tracks 8–11)
 * Ian Burdge – cello (disc 2: tracks 8, 9)
 * Noel Langley – trumpet (disc 2: track 8)
 * Everton Nelson – violin (disc 2: track 9)
 * Pete Lewinson – drums (disc 2: tracks 10, 11)
 * Ryan Waters – guitar (disc 2: track 11)
 * Ben Travers – guitar (disc 2: track 12)
 * Simon Hale – orchestra arrangement, orchestra conducting (disc 2: track 12)
 * Jay-Z – featured artist (disc 2: track 14)
 * 40 – all instruments except strings and horns (disc 2: track 14)

Technical

 * Robin Millar – production (disc 1: tracks 1–7)
 * Mike Pela – production engineering (disc 1: tracks 1–7); engineering (disc 1: tracks 8–14; disc two: tracks 1, 2, 8–13); production (disc 1: track 6); co-production (disc 1: tracks 8–14; disc 2: tracks 1–13, 15); recording (disc 2: tracks 3–7, 15); mixing (disc 2: tracks 8, 11–13)
 * Pete Brown – engineering assistance (disc 1: tracks 1–7)
 * Simon Driscoll – engineering assistance (disc 1: tracks 1–7)
 * Phil Legg – engineering assistance (disc 1: tracks 4–7)
 * Ben Rogan – production (disc 1: track 6); engineering, co-production (disc 1: tracks 8–10)
 * Sade – production (disc 1: tracks 8–14; disc 2: tracks 1–13, 15)
 * Melanie West – engineering assistance (disc 1: tracks 8–10)
 * Vince McCartney – engineering assistance (disc 1: tracks 8–10)
 * Franck Segarra – engineering assistance (disc 1: tracks 8–10)
 * Olivier de Bosson – engineering assistance (disc 1: tracks 8–10)
 * Alain Lubrano – engineering assistance (disc 1: tracks 8–10)
 * Jean-Christophe Vareille – engineering assistance (disc 1: tracks 8–10)
 * Sandro Franchin – engineering assistance (disc 1: tracks 11–14; disc 2: tracks 1, 2)
 * Adrian Moore – engineering assistance (disc 1: tracks 11–14; disc 2: tracks 1, 2)
 * Marc Williams – engineering assistance (disc 1: tracks 11–14; disc 2: tracks 1, 2)
 * Andy "Nipper" Davies – engineering assistance (disc 2: tracks 3–6)
 * Mark "Spike" Stent – mixing (disc 2: tracks 9, 10)
 * Mat Arnold – engineering assistance (disc 2: track 11)
 * Jamie Brownlow – engineering assistance (disc 2: track 11)
 * Owen Shiers – engineering assistance (disc 2: track 11)
 * Nick Poortman – engineering assistance (disc 2: tracks 12, 13)
 * Brendan Davies – engineering assistance (disc 2: tracks 12, 13)
 * Mike Nyandoro – engineering assistance (disc 2: tracks 12, 13)
 * Gary Thomas – engineering (disc 2: track 12)
 * Isobel Griffiths – contractor (disc 2: track 12)
 * Noah "40" Shebib – production, engineering (disc 2: track 14)
 * Noel Cadastre – engineering (disc 2: track 14)
 * Gimel "Young Guru" Keaton – recording (Jay-Z's verse) (disc 2: track 14)
 * Noel "Gadget" Campbell – mixing (disc 2: track 14)
 * David Strickland – mix assistance (disc 2: track 14)
 * Greg Morrison – mix assistance (disc 2: track 14)
 * The Neptunes – mixing (disc 2: track 15)
 * Lynn Jeffrey – band assistance
 * John Davis – mastering
 * Adam Brown – tape transfer
 * Kevin Vanbergen – tape transfer
 * Richard Bowe – archiving

Artwork

 * Sophie Muller – photography