The Ultimate Collection (Steps album)

In 2011, Steps appeared on the Sky Living documentary Steps Reunion depicting their split and the interim years leading them to bury old wounds and reunite for their second greatest hits album The Ultimate Collection.[5] It marked ten years since the group released their first greatest hits album Gold: Greatest Hits and was Steps' first release since the release of their 2002 compilation, The Last Dance. On 10 October 2011, Steps appeared for the first time on This Morning, performing "It's the Way You Make Me Feel" and "Tragedy" and announced their 14-date 2012 arena tour The Ultimate Tour. They also announced that they had reformed as a band full term.[6]

The track listing places the singles in chronological order and is similar to the 2001 Gold: Greatest Hits compilation. However, The Ultimate Collection includes the singles "I Know Him So Well" and "You'll Be Sorry", not featured on Gold but excludes the single "Words Are Not Enough" (although the music video is included on the DVD edition). The release features a version of ABBA's "Dancing Queen" featured as a bonus track. The deluxe edition of the album includes a DVD containing all of Steps' music videos and a live recording of "I Know Him So Well" from the Abbamania TV Special. The standard version of the album featured a black cover while the deluxe edition has a white cover and both have a cardboard sleeve surrounding the jewel case.[7] Steps have signed the booklets on both CD and deluxe editions.

The Ultimate Collection: Tour Edition was released on 27 April 2012[8] to coincide with their first arena tour in ten years since their Gold Tour. The release includes a bonus disc of karaoke versions of the singles.

During the Steps Reunion TV show, plans for a tour started to develop, with each member of the group having mixed feelings about whether or not to release tickets. They sold out all of their initial dates which led to adding more dates. The group filmed another TV documentary entitled Steps: On The Road Again, which followed the group on tour and showed the issues they faced whilst touring together as a band.[9]

On 16 October 2011, the album debuted at number one in the United Kingdom[10] and Scotland[11] selling 34,000 copies within its first week.[3] The album also charted at number thirteen in Ireland.[12] In its second and third week the album charted at numbers three and nine, respectively.[13][14] The album spent a total of 16 weeks on the chart leaving at number seventy-seven on 29 January 2012.[15] The album re-entered the chart at number sixty-four on 29 April 2012[16] and remained in the chart for another six weeks before leaving the chart at number seventy-six on 3 June 2012.[17] The album was certified Gold in the United Kingdom by the British Phonographic Industry on 22 July 2013.[4] It was then certified Platinum by the BPI on 13 March 2020.[18]

Following their return for their 20th anniversary, the album entered the chart at number fifty-one on 17 March 2017.[19]