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.

George Jones: We Support You!!

As the familiar lyrics of George's early 1982 Top-5 hit will reassure, George Jones is still himself throughout anything and everything that comes his way. Whether it's self-inflicted or media-created, the good days and bad days have gone hand-in-hand. The reason for this rally/support blog is due to some unsavory commentary being made around the internet about George by those who really have no clue who he his or what he stands for. Apparently a recent interview/article about George seeped into the world's of Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift fan-bases. I have no idea what caused the story to gain much traction given that the majority of listeners of either of those two aren't necessarily paying much attention to George Jones in the first place...

But, in this internet age, and largely because both Underwood and Swift's names were mentioned, overly jealous and or overly-protective fans of both artist's have flipped out. Surprisingly, though, or ironic, the comments made by George in the most recent interview about 'modern country music' gained widespread publication. Do I think it's a conspiracy? I don't think it is but something is certainly strange because similar comments from George over the last decade and a half never reached this sort of coverage. The thing that irks me the most is that George never attacked either artist...he simply pointed out that the country music industry has reverted back to propping up pop-oriented acts. Although it was short and brief, there was a period of time in the earlier part of this decade where it appeared traditional country was returning to prominence but with the emergence of Underwood and Taylor Swift it appears Nashville and other towns that market country music want to jump on their bandwagon much like they did Garth Brooks in 1990 and we all know what happened in the aftermath of Garth Brooks. Country radio did an about face and started to decline the airplay of proven artists in favor of Garth Brooks and those who followed.

What followed, for George, was an abrupt end to his airplay. Every so often a recurrent would air from George during the early 1990's but the airplay was nothing compared to the airplay he had enjoyed since the 1950's. Ever since this point in his career there's been a back and fourth, on-again/off-again verbal war between George and most country radio. Think about it...it's 2009...that means people who are teens and early twenty-something's now who listen to country radio aren't too familiar with George Jones or his contemporaries unless they, on their own, discover the music via the internet or on a "classic country" radio station. Someone born in 1992 is 17 now...their identity of country music is all the material that was played throughout the late '90s into today. When you look at it from that perspective you can see why a lot of people in George's era are rightfully upset. Their music isn't being promoted to millions of younger generations via the radio. George has a wide fan-base of all ages. I can bet you that most of the younger following that George enjoys didn't learn of him hearing his songs on the radio. What happened is the internet allows music to be heard...whether it's commercial or not...and I think a lot of the teenagers and young adults who cite George Jones as one of their favorite country singers discovered his music on their own and became hooked on it. Also, word of mouth and a hefty touring schedule also helps. When I brought up 17 years old's today having been born in 1992...I was 17 in 1993...so you can tell that I grew up in the era where George, Merle Haggard, Conway Twitty, George Strait, Alabama, Reba, and a few others dominated the airwaves.

I know some people out there will go:

"geeze, why hasn't he moved on already? this loss of airplay thing happened in the early 1990's and it's 2009!!".

Well, for those who think like that, you obviously don't really know how much country music means to George Jones.

For those out there who want to take cheap shots at George by labeling him a "has-been" or a "whiner" or whatever else need to research his career through this blog and others. Once you do you'll see how his views on country music have really never wavered through the years. Even in the 1970's during the beginning of his incredible run with Epic Records and Billy Sherrill, George was still on occasion speaking his mind about the pop influence in country music even when his own songs carried a pop flavor. In concert his songs were stripped of their pop arrangements and sung just as country as ever. If you watch George on TV or attended a concert and he starts to sing the songs that featured the heavy pop-like instrumentation on the recording, they won't sound the same. You'll be thinking to yourself "something is missing...but I don't know what it is...". Well, it's the grand orchestration that's missing.

So, the bottom line is, George's thoughts and feelings of country music is nothing new and it just feels suspicious that bloggers and message boards that, to my knowledge, have never touched a George Jones story in the past suddenly are now taking notice of viewpoints that a lot of us long time fans of George are quite familiar with and rather accept...but, moving on...

For those who want to hear one of the best George Jones albums from the 1980's you'll have to look no further than Wine Colored Roses from 1986. Now, this is just one of his best. In my opinion a lot of his albums are great to listen to. The material on the album is mostly ballads with a few up-tempo songs added in. The singles that were released from the album include the title track in late 1986 and during the first half of 1987 the singles were "The Right Left Hand" and the poetic "I Turn To You". This album was certified Gold in 1994. The album itself was one of his most enduring as far as chart life. Patti Page is featured on this album. She sings a duet with George called "You Never Looked That Good When You Were Mine". George, during this era, was coming off of a successful reputation of being the chosen duet partner amongst many female singers...

On this famed 1985 album, in addition to the three singles, you also hear two duet recordings. Lynn Anderson joins him on "If You Can Touch Her At All" and Lacy J Dalton appears on the album closer, "That's Good-That's Bad". This album also includes the raucous "Call The Wrecker For My Heart" plus the up-tempo "A Whole Lot of Trouble For You". The theme throughout most of George's albums in the 1980's were ballads. The ballads far out-weighed the up-tempo songs. This practice has become so identified with George that some fans feel a bit let down if an album comes along that features mid-tempo or up-tempo material instead of ballads...while the 1986 album featured one duet song with a female and the 1985 album contained two duets with females...

This album that was issued in 1984 jump-started the female duet reputation. An album appropriately titled Ladies Choice contained nine duet recordings and one solo recording. The solo recording, "She's My Rock", became the biggest hit of the year for him. It spent several weeks at #2. Two duet recordings were released in early 1985: Brenda Lee joined him for "Hallelujah, I Love You So" while Lacy J Dalton was paired with him on "Size Seven Round and Made of Gold". Each duet reached the Top-20. The 1980's streak of duet recordings with female artists was a result of the duet craze that was sweeping country music. George himself had a long duet career with Tammy Wynette throughout the 1970's while in the 1960's George often teamed up with Melba Montgomery. However, the influx of duet recordings George took part in during the first half of the 1980's was basically a result of the times. If there wasn't a duet craze a lot of the duets that George took part in may not have even took place. There was a 1983 duet with Ray Charles called "We Didn't See A Thing" which featured Chet Atkins on the lead guitar.

There was the 1982 duet album with Merle Haggard, A Taste of Yesterday's Wine, and two duet albums from 1980, one featuring Tammy entitled Together Again and another with Johnny PayCheck entitled Double Trouble. The duet craze was certainly successful and prolific.