20 Original Greatest Hits

Performer: George Jones
Distributor: Int'l Marketing Group

Notes: Liner Note Author: Chuck Young. These 20 tracks by George "Possum" Jones, (mostly) come from his Musicor catalog, which has been largely unavailable. Jones recorded with the label in the late '50s through the early '60s with producer Pappy Dailey, and recorded a number of big hits for the imprint. Namely, "The Race Is On," "She Thinks I Still Care," and the duet "We Must Have Been Out of Our Minds," with Melba Montgomery. But there is much more here to discover, including his near signature version of Hank Williams' "You Win Again," "Least of All," and "It's Funny What a Fool Will Do," just to name a few. This set is great as far as it goes, though it does lack any of his great duet performances with Gene Pitney from the same period, but consider it a teaser: if you like what's here, either in addition to, or opposed to the Columbia material, Germany's Bear Family imprint began issuing Jones complete Musicor catalog in 2009 in multiple volume box sets. For the money, though, this is a very attractive CD musically, even if its packaging runs to the generic. ~ Thom Jurek

George Jones is the greatest of country singers but he has also been a victim of the infamous hard-living honky-tonk lifestyle. Though he's gone through several phases, from rockabilly to honky-tonk to countrypolitan, his melismatic, Lefty Frizell-influenced style has remained at the core of his unique sound. His stormy marriage to Tammy Wynette (1969-75) included duet albums of love songs and bitter recriminations. By the late '70s, his drinking and cocaine addiction had made him so unreliable that he was known as "No Show Jones." In 1979 he received medical treatment and staged a significant comeback with I AM WHAT I AM, which included his greatest single, "He Stopped Loving Her Today."

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