12 Number One Hits

Performer: Conway Twitty
Engineer: Jimmy Bowen
Producer: Conway Twitty; Jimmy Bowen; Cary E. Mansfield (Compilation)
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: Personnel: Duane West, Duane West, Dennis Quartet Wilson, Doug Clements, Karen Taylor (background vocals). For an artist who scored a whopping 52 number one singles (more than any other artist in country music history), narrowing a budget-priced introductory collection to just 12 would be, to say the least, a daunting task. Real Conway Twitty fans will have all kinds of issues as to what got left off, but it is far more important to concentrate on what is here, and what's in the grooves is plenty. This Varese Sarabande set goes back to the first one, when Twitty was still a rocker, with "It's Only Make Believe" still one of the most astonishing early rock & roll performances, and one that blows Elvis Presley's reading of the same song out of the water. From the country years come such classics as "Hello Darlin'," "I Can't Believe She Gives It All to Me," the bluesy "After All the Good Is Gone," and "To See My Angel Cry." What's more is that Twitty wrote or co-wrote ten of these dozen cuts. This one is a winner. ~ Thom Jurek

Conway Twitty spent the first decade of his career pursuing rock & roll fame as a rockabilly singer/songwriter (he even did some demos for Sun Records) before making his fateful switch to country music. The rest, as they say, is history: In the 1960s and '70s, Twitty produced a consistent stream of Top 10 hits, many of which were duets with Loretta Lynn. He died in 1993, leaving behind a large legacy of Number One country hits (41, a record matched only by Alabama).

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