UPDATE: Hours after Aaliyah's greatest-hits collection became available digitally, it was pulled from iTunes and Apple Music.
After years of waiting, Aaliyah fans can finally purchase the biggest hits on her Ultimate Aaliyah collection on iTunes and stream it on Apple Music. The 25-track posthumous album appeared unexpectedly on Wednesday night (Jan. 11), featuring such beloved tunes as "One in a Million," "Try Again," "Are You That Somebody" and "Rock the Boat."
Previously, the only music available from the singer who tragically died in a plane crash in 2001 at age 22 was her 1994 debut, Age Ain't Nothing But a Number, leaving such important works as her One in a Million and Aaliyah albums and "Are You That Somebody?" single missing from iTunes, Amazon, Spotify and other online services. (At press time it did not appear that the album had been added to other digital retailers.) The unexpected appearance of the hits collection came a month after Complex magazine ran a feature explaining the complicated legal struggles that have kept the singer's music off online retailers. The rights to most of Aaliyah's music is owned by her uncle, Blackground Records chief and longtime R. Kelly associate Barry Hankerson.
The album is credited to Craze Productions, a London-based digital aggregator that posted Aaliyah songs on iTunes in 2013 briefly before being sued and ordered to remove them. It was unclear at press time why, how or if it had legally obtained the rights to post the music again.
The track listing for Ultimate Aaliyah:
1) "One in a Million"
2) "If Your Girl Only Knew"
3) "Hot Like Fire"
4) "The One I Gave My Heart To"
5) "Got to Give it Up"
6) "4 Page Letter"
7) "We Need a Resolution" (feat. Timbaland)
8) "Rock the Boat"
9) "More Than a Woman"
10) "I Care 4 U"
11) "Try Again" (feat. Timbaland)
12) "Back & Forth"
13) "Are You That Somebody?"
14) "Don't Know What to Tell Ya"
15) "Miss You"
16) "At Your Best"
17) "Are You Feelin' Me?"
18) "Messed Up"
19) "Come Back in One Piece" (feat. DMX)
20) "I Don't Wanna"
21) "Man Undercover" (feat. Timbaland)
22) "John Blaze" (feat. Missy Elliott)
23) "I Am Music" (feat. Timbaland and Static of Playa)
24) "More Than a Woman" (Bump N Flex Club Mix)
25) "Hold On" (feat. Timbaland & Wyclef Jean)
