On “The greatest,” Lana Del Rey expresses extreme nostalgia for relationships, places, and the music industry of the past in the light of the chaos of the present. In the lyrics, Lana refers to the Beach Boys, the 2018 Hawaiian nuclear missile alert, and Kanye West going blonde.

Del Rey announced the track via Twitter along with another single, “Fuck it I love you,” on July 26th, 2019. She also teased the double-feature music video for the two songs, directed by Rich Lee. “The greatest” was accidentally made public on Google Play Music.

It served as the sixth single of Del Rey’s sixth studio album, 2019’s Norman Fucking Rockwell!.