Classic Country Gold

Only one of the thirty-six tracks here didn't make it to number one in the American country singles charts, that being God bless the USA, which the compilers understandably selected to represent Lee Greenwood here in preference to any of his country number one hits. In its way, that selection shows that number one is not the only thing that matters in the music business - some of the most famous songs in popular music never made it to number one in any chart. Nevertheless, the number one position does indicate a certain measure of popularity and this collection contains many great country classics.

This compilation, being by Hip-O, has easy access to the vaults of the record labels that are now part of the Universal group, so those labels dominate - however, Hip-O have licensed some tracks from the Sony / BMG group, so Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Charley Pride and Eddy Arnold are included. The real surprise is that Reba McEntire and George Strait, two...Read more

This 36-track collection chronologically covers nearly four decades of country music beginning with Hank Williams 1951 hit "Hey, Good Lookin'" and ending with Patty Loveless's 1989 hit "Timber, I'm Falling in Love." For any 2-CD set to adequately cover four decades is a nearly impossible task--especially when both discs run under sixty minutes.

This collection could easily have been expanded by an additional dozen or more tracks, allowing the compilers to focus more attention on country's golden era, namely the fifties and the sixties. There are only five tracks from the fifties and eight from the sixties, while the seventies--an era marked by crossover artists like Glen Campbell and Kenny Rogers--is represented by fifteen tracks (nearly half of the total).

In fact, the compilers of this anthology placed a lot of emphasis on crossover hits. Twenty of these No. 1 country hits also hit the top 40 on the pop charts, with "Sixteen Tons," "All I Have To Do Is...Read more

This is a great CD with lots of great classic country. I could've done without Jerry Lee Lewis's version of "Chantilly Lace," but I just skip it and it doesn't ruin the CD for me. A lot of these songs are on other classic country sets, but if you don't have one yet this one would be a great choice.