The Best of Crystal Waters is the first official compilation of Crystal Waters's music output. It was released on August 11, 1998, on Universal/Polygram. It includes most of the singles taken from her three full-length studio releases; Surprise (1991), Storyteller (1994) and Crystal Waters (1997). Also included are the non-LP tracks "The Boy from Ipanema" (an international single taken from the various artists Red Hot + Rio compilation) and "In De Ghetto" (a 1996 re-release of a 1994 Bad Yard Club single featuring then-new additional vocal contributions by Crystal Waters).
Controversially, The Best of Crystal Waters release features all but one of the singles in original LP version form instead of the often dramatically different single remixes. Minor hits "Surprise" and "Relax" suffer most from this oversight, but this also affects all three of her Billboard Hot 100Top 40 hit singles ("Gypsy Woman", "100% Pure Love" and "Say... If You Feel Alright") which were radio and video hits with alternate edited and subtly remixed versions not included on this compilation.
In Brazil this compilation includes "Love I Found" and "Twisted", and "Gypsy Woman" ('98 Remix) is not a hidden track.
