As its album title suggests, Starship's compilation Greatest Hits (Ten Years and Change 1979-1991) covers not only the group's popular heyday, 1985-1991, but also the earlier era, 1979-1984, which was actually the latter days of Jefferson Starship, after the departures of co-lead singers Marty Balin and Grace Slick, with former Elvin Bishop Group singer Mickey Thomas replacing Balin, and Slick, eventually, returning. The history that is described by the collection is largely one of attrition, effectively traced by the performer credits listed in the booklet. In 1979, the group is a sextet consisting of Thomas, lead guitarist Craig Chaquico, rhythm guitarist Paul Kantner (the last remaining holdout from the original Jefferson Airplane lineup), keyboardist Pete Sears, bassist David Freiberg, and drummer Aynsley Dunbar.

The seminal San Francisco psychedelic band in the heyday of such things, Jefferson Airplane were sassy, political, and generally engaging. The band then morphed into Jefferson Starship, which was a whole other thing, a more polished band aiming at the pop charts. Eventually Jefferson Starship became just Starship, although the sound stayed aimed at the charts. This two-disc set combines the best tracks from all of these incarnations, which is a good thing if one is a fan of all of the approaches here, but not such a good thing if, like many, one prefers one version of the band to the other two.