The Essential Alabama [2005] [Digipak]

Performer: Alabama
Artist: N Sync
Engineer: Mark Capps; Rick Riccio
Producer: Don Cook; Garth Fundis; Harold Shedd; Josh Leo; Alabama; Larry Michael Lee; Barry Beckett
Distributor: Sony Music Distribution (

Notes: Composer: Steve Dorff. Alabama: Jeff Cook (vocals, guitar, fiddle); Theodore Gentry (vocals, bass guitar); Mark Herndon (drums, percussion); Randy Owen. Additional personnel: Randy Owen (vocals, background vocals); Mark Casstevens (acoustic guitar); Brent Mason (electric guitar); Larry Franklin (fiddle); John Barlow Jarvis (piano, organ); Steve Nathan (keyboards); Lonnie Wilson (drums, percussion). Audio Mixer: Mike Bradley. Liner Note Author: Robert K. Oermann. Arranger: Steve Dorff. RCA/Legacy's 2005 double-disc release Essential Alabama should not be confused with RCA's 1998 single-disc release The Essential Alabama, which may have had the same title but boasted a different track listing. However, the 2005 Essential Alabama should be confused with the 1998 double-disc set For the Record: 41 Number One Hits, since it has the same track listing as that album. At least the back cover of Essential acknowledges that it was "formerly available" as For the Record, so most fans will likely not be duped into buying the same album a second time. For the rest of us, Essential Alabama keeps everything good about For the Record: 41 Number One Hits and eliminates its one flaw: the misleading subtitle that claimed all of the songs on the album hit number one, which was not true (it also implied that the album had 41 songs when it really had 44). Which means that Essential Alabama is now the definitive Alabama collection, containing every one of their big hits -- including such contemporary classics as "Tennessee River," "Mountain Music," "The Closer You Get," "Forty Hour Week (For a Livin')," "Jukebox on My Mind," and "Down Home" -- in one concise, entertaining package. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

The most successful country band of the 1980s and '90s, Alabama are notable for the fact that they ARE a band; before their advent in the late '70s, the idea of a self-contained mainstream country group was almost unheard of. Hailing from Ft. Payne, Alabama, the group parlayed its mix of country, pop, and Southern rock into 20 years of chart success, including a record-breaking string of over 40 number-one country hits. Along the way, Alabama blazed a trail followed by subsequent country/pop bands like Restless Heart, Diamond Rio and Lonestar.

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