16 Biggest Hits: Waylon Jennings & Willie Nelson

Performer: Waylon Jennings
Producer: Rob Santos (Compilation)
Distributor: BMG (distributor)

Notes: Personnel: Waylon Jennings (vocals, guitar); Willie Nelson (vocals, guitar). RLG/Legacy's 2006 release 16 Biggest Hits is a compilation of the biggest hits from the biggest duo in outlaw country, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson. Not surprisingly, this disc draws heavily on their blockbuster 1978 record Waylon & Willie, containing seven of its 11 tracks, adding two cuts from their 1982 sequel WWII along with scattered songs from their individual solo albums cut between 1977 and 1991, as well as their version of Steve Earle's "Nowhere Road" from the 1996 20th Anniversary Edition of Wanted! The Outlaws. While this is not by any means a complete chronicle of duets by Waylon and Willie, it is an excellent collection of their very best work as a duo (even with the absence of "The Wurlitzer Prize (I Don't Want to Get Over You)" which, admittedly, was more of a Waylon solo track), and is, track-for-track, a better listen than either of the official Waylon and Willie albums. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Texan country singer Waylon Jennings was always a bit of a rocker. Early on, he played bass with Buddy Holly, and his first solo records included Beatles covers, highly unusual for a country artist at the time. Jennings was one of the key figures of the outlaw country movement of the 1970s, rejecting the lush countrypolitan sound in favor of a raw, electrified approach that owed more to the Rolling Stones than to Billy Sherrill. With a small band and simple arrangements, Jennings introduced contemporary rock-oriented grooves into his hard-hitting country sound, adding some funky grit to common-man poetics on tunes about the tougher side of life. He inspired a subsequent generation of country iconoclasts, and spurred on contemporaries like Willie Nelson and Tompall Glaser.

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