The song was also included on his career-spanning compilation "", released in 2007. A version with Lennon's lead vocals appeared on the 1998 box set "John Lennon Anthology". This track was a composite of various takes from the 13 March session for the song. Writing in "Rolling Stone", Ben Gershon remarked on the aptness of Starr's role as the catalyst for a conciliatory musical statement from the ex-Beatles. He highlighted "I'm the Greatest" as one of the album's three "most wonderful songs" and the track on which "a stunning alchemy occurs" due to the presence of Harrison and Lennon. Although less impressed with "Ringo", Alan Betrock of "Phonograph Record" wrote that the song heralded Lennon's comeback as a writer, saying that after his recent overtly political work, "the gum chewing proverbial tongue-in-cheek rocker has returned with more of the old genius – and Ringo handles the song quite well." In his review for the "NME", Charles Shaar Murray found that Lennon's composition "verges uncomfortably on self parody" with Starr left as "the butt of the joke". Amid his criticism of the lyrics, Shaar Murray said that the return of Billy Shears "complete with canned applause" suggested an attempt to "plug the musical holes in the album with large handfuls of charm and nostalgia". "I'm the Greatest" is the only recording to feature the line-up known as the Ladders. Until Harrison's tribute to Lennon after the latter's murder in December 1980, "All Those Years Ago", and the surviving Beatles' reunion for their 1995 "Anthology" project, it was also the only song to feature more than two former members of the band after the group's break-up in 1970. In their 1975 book "", Roy Carr and Tony Tyler said that together Lennon, Harrison, Starr, Voormann and Preston constituted what had been considered "the New Beatles" around the time of the break-up. With regard to "I'm the Greatest", they added: "Not surprisingly, it is the most Beatlesque cut on the album, with economical bass figures, jangling guitar arpeggios (and a wicked little flashback to 'Sgt Pepper' therein)." Peter Doggett writes that whereas Lennon's 1970 version had reflected his emotional pain and bitterness, once given to Starr the song became "a sardonic tribute to the Beatles" that "sounded like a lost gem from the "Abbey Road" sessions".