George Jones: George Jones: The Hits...Then 'Til Now

November 7, 2009

George Jones: The Hits...Then 'Til Now

This box set collection from Time Life is chock full of George Jones goodness. Myself being a statistics and nostalgia nut I also enjoy the booklet that accompanies the collection. It contains a lot of wonderful pictures of George through the years. Some of the pictures were brand new to me so that was an added bonus. There isn't much to complain or criticize about in my opinion...not that I'm one to complain when it comes to the music of George Jones. Having said that I do wish that when they were putting this collection together they would have did a better song sequence on the CD's. This is a 3 CD set. Each CD contains 20 songs. On CD #1, for example, most of the earliest songs are found but track 18 from 1965, "Love Bug", is sandwiched between a hit song from 1969 and 1971. CD #2 kicks off with early '60s hits even though CD #1 left off with "A Good Year For the Roses", an early 1971 Top-5 hit.

George's 1978 duet with Johnny PayCheck, "Maybelline", is track #11 on CD #2 sandwiched between 1972's "A Picture of Me Without You" and 1973's "Once You've Had the Best". George's 1980 duet with Tammy Wynette, "Two Story House", is located on CD #2 as track 15. The songs before and after the 1980 hit are both from 1974. So it goes 1974, 1980, 1974...

This sort of thing may not annoy a mass market but it's annoying when songs leap from one era to the next and then back again on a box set. If this were a run of the mill "Greatest Hits" CD I wouldn't have an issue about song sequences but on a box set I wish the songs would be arranged in chronological order.

Ironically the box set doesn't include his 1999 hit, "Choices". Instead of selecting either that hit song from 1999 or "Cold Hard Truth", the compiler of the box set chose "When The Last Curtain Falls". The last song on CD #3 is "Tramp On Your Street" from 2001. As far as charts go, the compiler of the collection could have went with "The Man He Was" or George's duet with Garth Brooks, "Beer Run", to represent 2001 but instead chose "Tramp On Your Street". That song is great but it wasn't a single or a chart hit as the other two from 2001 were. There is no material on this collection from 1987, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, or 1998. The song, "I'm a One Woman Man", became the title of his 1989 album but technically it was recorded and released late in 1988. The two singles from 1989, "The King Is Gone and So Are You" and "Writing On the Wall", were not selected for this collection. In 1990 he had a duet hit with Randy Travis, "A Few Ole Country Boys". In 1991 he had a few chart hits with his MCA debut that are not spotlighted here: "Honky Tonk Myself To Death", "She Loved a Lot In Her Time", and "You Couldn't Get The Picture". The third song reached the Top-40 of the country charts.

Since the material from this 1987 album/cassette wasn't spotlighted on the 2008 box set I think I'll spotlight it. I've wrote about this album before. Titled Too Wild Too Long it includes three singles: "The Bird", "The Old Man No One Loves", and "I'm a Survivor". The album also includes his version of "New Patches" which was a hit for Mel Tillis several years earlier. The title track is a hard-core country song, too. It's about a man who's lifestyle isn't suited for settling down with anyone and it refers to "not showing up" which makes listeners think of George's past reputation of not showing up at concerts. The lead-off song, "I'm a Survivor", fits George like a glove. It was issued as a single in late 1987 but surprisingly it stalled on the charts in the Top-60...marking the first time since the mid 1970's that a George Jones single didn't reach the Top-40 section of the country charts.

Soon afterward, "The Old Man No One Loves" was made into a music video as video's had become one of the most important promotional tools because it gave a visual to a song's lyrics. Some artist's resisted making music videos, notably Conway Twitty and George Strait, because they feared that music videos over-exposed an artist visually and it created a scenario where a fan couldn't envision a song in his or her own mind if there's a music video indirectly stating how a song should be interpreted. George Jones had made a music video for "Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes?" and it won a CMA Award for "Music Video of the Year" at the 1986 gala. "The Old Man No One Loves" didn't win such an award and it's so scarce that a lot of fans don't even remember a music video being made of the song. The song reached the Top-65 in 1988...charting even lower than "I'm a Survivor". This was the beginning of the slow radio decline that came into full effect in the early 1990's. The radio decline that was set in motion in the late 1980's eventually ended the strong airplay of not only George Jones but also Dolly Parton, Ronnie Milsap, Conway Twitty, Charlie Pride, Kenny Rogers, Vern Gosdin, Earl Thomas Conley, The Gatlin Brothers, Ricky Van Shelton, Ricky Skaggs, and several other popular artists who gained fame in the 1970's and 1980's.

The "New Country" movement that was beginning in the late '80s and in full-swing by 1992 had replaced all of those artists on the radio throughout the first half of the 1990's. The new artists were Clint Black, Garth Brooks, Alan Jackson, Travis Tritt, Vince Gill, Mark Chesnutt, Sawyer Brown, Diamond Rio, Trisha Yearwood, Martina McBride, and others. Vince Gill, actually, had been a fixture in Nashville for several years before becoming a recording star in the early 90's. He was most noted for being a harmony singer before gaining huge fame in 1991. Sawyer Brown had been having success since the late '80s but they became bigger stars in the 1990's during the youth-movement where country artists were being judged by the record labels and radio stations by not only how many albums they were selling but also by the age make-up of their fans. Established country acts whose fans were mostly 35 years old and older and barely sold half a million albums each release were tossed aside at country radio in favor of the younger/youth-attractive acts whose albums were selling a million or more copies each release. The new artists that I mentioned, with the exception of a couple, are no longer heard on the radio too much. Alan Jackson still cranks out the Top-10 songs and sometimes Martina McBride is high on the charts as well but the rest of them you can't say the same thing about. Although those artists are still being played on the radio they don't have the consistent Top-10 hits they once did with the exception of Alan Jackson.

1983...wasn't that a wonderful year in George's career and personal life? You bet it was! 1983 is the year George married his current wife, Nancy. It's also the year he had four Top-10 hits...one of them reaching #1. Three of those Top-10 hits came from this album. It's Shine On. For those younger fans you may not know much about George's 1983-1984 output. The material he recorded during this time isn't well spotlighted. Basically nowadays what people do when they put together compilation albums on George is they often forget several of the hit songs from this time period. Sure, they include a song or two, but not an entire reflection of hits. Three Top-10 hits are on this album: "Shine On", "Tennessee Whiskey", and the #1 "I Always Get Lucky With You". A fourth Top-10, "C.C. Waterback", was a duet with Merle Haggard earlier in the year from their duet album from 1982, A Taste of Yesterday's Wine. 1983 is also the year George opened up his outdoor country music park, Jones Country. An album of the same name was released later in 1983 but not one song from that album was released as a single.

Shine On in addition to the three hit songs includes the self-deprecating "Ol' George Stopped Drinking Today". The song isn't about George no longer drinking...it's actually about death being the only thing that stopped George from drinking. It's a clever and cute sing-a-long that closes the album. A not so cute song is "The Show's Almost Over", track nine. It's a sad ballad about a man who's living in hell as a result of chasing his dreams of being a famous singer.

Some country music purists may not like the overt pop flavor of "I Should've Called" but I love it. George tackles a song that several country artists have recorded but have never released as a single: "I'd Rather Have What We Had". John Conlee recorded it in 1981; Conway and Loretta recorded it as a duet in 1981; and in 1998 Lee Ann Womack recorded the song as a duet with Joe Diffie.

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1976

there were several George Jones albums issued in the mid to late 1970's that never really got the attention they deserved and years later various independent record labels both in America and overseas have issued CD's of the mid '70s out-put; there's a popular belief that his material wasn't up to the 1960's standards but this material is not meant to be comparable to his 1960's out-put...the album contained a majority up-tempo feel in spite of the album cover and it's title; It wasn't until mid-way through that we hear sad songs; the album contained two hit singles...first off the Top-20 title track, "The Battle", and the Top-40 love ballad "You Always Look Your Best Here in My Arms".

1977

One of the under-rated albums from the late '70s from George is this one; it's called I WANTA SING and the title track is about George's musical heroes but don't let the bizarre album cover sway your opinion before hearing the songs; on this album we have hard-core country music with just a touch of pop...that touch of pop comes on "I Love You So Much It Hurts Me" where he croons the song; the hits include the Top-40 "Old King Kong" and the Top-30 "If I Could Put Them All Together"; other highlights from this album include "They've Got Millions in Milwaukee", "Bull Mountain Lad", and "Rest In Peace".

1980

George and Johnny PayCheck had been releasing duet singles for two years prior to the release of this 1980 duet album; titled DOUBLE TROUBLE it set out to cash-in on the rowdy/outlaw side of country music that had been taken over by the Urban Cowboy era; the album contained all of the singles the two were to release together: "Maybelline", "You Can Have Her", "When You're Ugly Like Us", and "You Better Move On"; their single releases were once a year 1978, 1979, 1980, and into early 1981; the duo's 1979 recording of "Proud Mary" is on here as well...it originally appeared on the 1979 all-star collection MY VERY SPECIAL GUESTS that Epic issued on George.

1980

This album is routinely voted as George's all-time classic...every song from #1 to #10 is typically picked as a favorite among his fans; the monster success of the album's centerpiece, "He Stopped Loving Her Today", is one reason why this album in particular stands out above all the others...the single not only hit #1 but it won a Grammy and several other awards; The album itself became the fastest selling of his career...hitting Platinum barely 3 years later...a million copies of a vinyl album was unheard of for many country singers...not to mention one that remained grounded in country music without a lot of pop aspirations; The album featured two more singles...the somber "I'm Not Ready Yet" and the honky-tonker "If Drinkin' Don't Kill Me"; The album had it's share of up-tempo songs...such as "Good Hearted Woman", "His Lovin' Her Is Gettin' In My Way", and the bouncy "Bone Dry".

1981

Issued after the widespread acclaim and success of I AM WHAT I AM in 1980, this album rode the success of it's predecessor and featured two major Top-5 hits plus it included a song that was originally a single-only release in 1979 called "Someday My Day Will Come"; the two Top-5 hits were "Same Ole Me", and the #1 "Still Doin' Time"; the album contained a duet with his daughter, Georgette, "Daddy Come Home"; this album went Gold several years later and it included "I Won't Need You Anymore" which would become one of Randy Travis' first hit songs; other highlights are "You Can't Get The Hell Out of Texas", "Girl, You Sure Know How To Say Goodbye", and "Couldn't Love Have Picked a Better Place To Die".

1982

George and Merle trade verses throughout the majority of this duet album...only one song features almost all George and it's "Silver Eagle" which is a narrative/ballad about Haggard; Each singer gets a song patterned after them...in Haggard's case it's "Silver Eagle" and in George's it's the novelty "No Show Jones", which closes out the album; One of the more deeper songs is "I Think I've Found a Way To Live Without You" and coming in a close second is "After I Sing All My Songs"; the album contained the #1 title track, "Yesterday's Wine", and the Top-10 "C.C. Waterback"; "The Brothers" is another great song.

1983

This is a wonderful album from George released in early 1983; according to what I've read, the vocals were recorded in 1982 and Billy Sherrill and his associates added everything else later but you couldn't tell by listening to it that it was patched together; It boasted three major Top-5 hits: the title track, "Shine On", plus the smashes "Tennessee Whiskey" and "I Always Get Lucky With You", all three singles peaked at #3, #2, and #1 respectively; in spite of the album boasting those hits, it went out of print as mostly everything George recorded in the mid 1980's period; Have no fear...it's available as an MP3 digitial download so the material lives on in the digital age.

1983

Released in the latter part of 1983, this album went by without much notice...you'd think an album named after his outdoor music park would generate interest but Epic didn't do anything with the album and as a result it's not remembered but it's a great album...and it did reach the Top-30 on the country album chart...so it wasn't completely over-looked...but none of the songs were promoted as singles; I wrote at length about this album and the outdoor music park, Jones Country, within the blog pages to the left of this time-line.

1984

such a wonderful duets album is this one from George and a host of female country singers; the album boasts 9 duets and 1 solo song; The solo song is "She's My Rock", which was a huge hit for George in the fall of 1984; after the single fell back down the charts the follow-up was issued...a duet with Brenda Lee on a song called "Hallelujah, I Love You So", which promptly hit the Top-20 in early 1985...as did the third single from this album, a duet with Lacy J Dalton entitled "Size Seven Round and Made of Gold"; Some of the other highlights is the duet with Leona Williams, "Best Friends", and the duet with Loretta on "We Sure Make Good Love"...Emmylou Harris, one of George's biggest fans, appears on "All Fall Down".

1985

Featuring the Top-5 title track, "Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes?", this album contained a few positive, feel-good songs in addition to the standard sad, heartbreak songs, too; The title track was made into an award winning music video; Two more songs became hits as well, "The One I Loved Back Then" matched the success of the title track while "Somebody Wants Me Out of the Way" reached the Top-10 in early 1986; a couple of duets were featured on this album...one of them with Lacy J Dalton called "That's Good...That's Bad" and one with Lynn Anderson called "If Somehow You Could Touch Her At All"; "If I Could Paint You a Picture" is in the pretty song category.

1986

On this particular album we hear George perform a variety of songs...some countrier than others; Patti Page appears on a duet, "You Never Looked That Good When You Were Mine"; A lot of attention was paid to "The Right Left Hand", which was written about George and Nancy; the single hit the Top-10 in early 1987; the title track, "Wine Colored Roses", was a Top-10 in late 1986; a third single, "I Turn To You", reached the Top-30; other highlights from the album are "Ol' Frank", "If Only Your Eyes Could Lie", and "These Old Eyes Have Seen It All".

1990

This here is the rare album, YOU OUGHTA BE HERE WITH ME, that Epic Records issued on George in 1990; the label released two commercial singles from this album...so it wasn't totally ignored...but in hindsight the promotions department didn't spend much time on the release; the singles issued were "Hell Stays Open All Night Long" and the bouncy "Six Foot Deep, Six Foot Down"; George actually performed the second song on his TV show in the late 1990's. This project, too, is available as an MP3.

2006

This reunion album between George and Merle came out in 2006; the album was a moderate success and I pin a lot of blame on the fact that it was not highly promoted/publicized with some kind of tour or any joint appearances; both artist's were extremely busy on the road doing solo dates that a concert tour was impossible...even more ironic is that Haggard was on tour with Willie Nelson and Ray Price around the same time this CD came out....Haggard, Willie, and Ray had recorded an album called LAST OF THE BREED, released early in 2007, a few months after the release of this 2006 album, and the three of them went out on tour to select venue's; on this 2006 album, each singer takes turns singing the hit songs of each other plus they unite in five duet recordings throughout; this reunion album marked the first duet project for the two of them since 1982...this particular 2006 CD was issued in October and the LAST OF THE BREED was issued in March 2007...giving no real time to support the CD on the road.