Anthology is the first compact disc to collect many of soul music icon Ray Charles' ABC-Paramount-era recordings. AllMusic considers it to be "the best single CD collection of Ray Charles' '60s and '70s ABC-Paramount material",[2] while Rhino Records, the issuing label, refers to it in the liner notes as "the compact disc edition of Ray Charles' Greatest Hits", alluding to the two Rhino LPs issued the same year. It is one of the first CDs to be released by Rhino.
Charles, who retained the master rights (currently controlled by his estate since his June 2004 passing) to his ABC-Paramount recordings, supervised a remixing of the 20 songs on this compilation especially for this recording with mastering engineer Steve Hoffman, while Rhino chairman Richard Foos helped select and sequence the tracks for the CD.
The album was repackaged with a new cover after Charles' death. The original release included the song "Sticks and Stones"; this was substituted for "America the Beautiful" on subsequent releases.