Train is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the release of its self-titled debut with a greatest hits album.
The collection has 17 songs, including “Drops of Jupiter,” “Calling All Angels,” and “Hey, Soul Sister.”
“I feel like putting a greatest hits record out can be good and bad,” frontman Pat Monahan told iHeartRadio. “The bad is that people might misinterpret it as, ‘Okay, well, you guys did great, it's time to go away.’ And to me, it became a necessary part of helping young people or younger people find Train music easier.
“Because streaming has become so important that they might just know, ‘Hey, Soul Sister,’ and if they go to a greatest hits, they might find that they're familiar with a whole lot more than just that one song.”
One of the most personal songs in Train's two decades is 2001's “Drops of Jupiter,” which was inspired by Monahan's mother. “It was written soon after my mother had passed away, and I feel like it was actually a gift from her,” he explained.
“I wrote it in about 20 minutes. I woke up from a dream shortly after my mother had passed away. And so, I felt like she was sending me a message about floating through the atmosphere and then coming back with 'Drops with Jupiter' in her hair to tell me the story.”
Included on Greatest Hits is the undeniably catchy "Hey, Soul Sister" from Train's 2009 album Save Me, San Francisco. The song, which is about what Monahan imagined it would be like to go to Burning Man festival, became the band's most commercially successful single.
“I've never been, but 'Hey, Soul Sister' was kind of just daydreaming about women dancing around the Burning Man.”
Another personal song for Monahan is “Marry Me,” also from Save Me, San Francisco.
He said it’s about his wife. “I sat on the kitchen counter and wrote that song on acoustic guitar. It took me quite a while,” recalled Monahan. “The words 'Marry Me' unfortunately weren't as easy to come by as I thought they were. The rest of the song was written pretty quickly.”
The Greatest Hits collection includes a cover of George Michael’s “Careless Whisper” featuring Kenny G on sax.
Monahan said the late British pop star was a big inspiration.
“George Michael has really, over the years, become a stronger and stronger influence on me as a writer and a performer,” he explained. “And when he performed live with the remaining members of Queen years ago, it was just so, so good that I think that was the moment that all of the repertoire of Wham! and George Michael became important to me.”
Original article by Nicole Mastrogiannis at iHeartRadio