The Essential Backstreet Boys is the third compilation album by American pop group Backstreet Boys, released by RCA Records and Legacy Recordings as part of their Essential series. It was released on September 26, 2013 in the United Kingdom, and on October 22, 2013 in the United States. The album includes songs from the group's first seven studio albums, Backstreet Boys (1996), Backstreet's Back (1997), Millennium (1999), Black & Blue (2000), Never Gone (2005), Unbreakable (2007), and This Is Us (2009). It also includes the song "If You Stay" recorded for the 1997 film Booty Call, and "Drowning" from their first greatest hits compilation, The Hits – Chapter One (2001).