Customer Reviews

12 Hits: Five Star Collection

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When this collection came along in 2002 the record label known as Varese Sarabande was no stranger to releasing collections on Ray Stevens. Previously they had been in charge of re-releasing his 1968 and 1969 albums onto CD format: EVEN STEVENS and GITARZAN. The re-releases of those particular projects featured bonus tracks not contained in the original vinyl releases which annoyed some but didn't bother others. I fell in the latter category. A few years after those re-releases became available Varese issued THE COUNTRY HITS COLLECTION in 1998 which featured 16 songs chosen at random pretty much of material he had recorded between 1969 and 1975. At the time a lot of the songs contained on that CD had never before been available in CD format. A few years later Varese issued ALL-TIME GREATEST HITS which features 23 recordings, including his obscure 1960 recording "Sgt. Preston of the Yukon".

This brings us up to this collection entitled 12 HITS and just as it's title indicates it showcases only 12 songs. This time around the collection is much more hit-oriented, obviously. One of the things that this collection does is it doesn't hide the fact that the first two recordings are not the originals. "Ahab the Arab" and "Harry the Hairy Ape" originally were hit singles in 1962 and 1963 respectively. He recorded them for Mercury Records but rumor has it record labels since that time haven't wanted to pay for the rights to those recordings and so they by-pass the original Mercury Recordings and settle for whatever re-recordings Ray has made of those early '60s songs. My guess is the licensing fee's are cheaper by comparison? The versions of those songs that are on this CD are from 1969 from the GITARZAN album. The material that's remaining are the original hit recordings. "Isn't It Lonely Together" and "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down" are featured here and both songs in my opinion showcase Ray's expertise in balladry. There are plenty of comical songs on here for those kinds of customers who prefer the comical over the serious recordings. 5 of the songs are comical and the remaining 7 are non-comical. The author of the liner notes for whatever reason failed to mention that two of the songs, "Everything Is Beautiful" and "Misty", won Grammy awards in 1970 and 1975 respectively. Perhaps the author didn't want to focus on that or maybe assumed those who purchased this CD already knew those facts. The liner notes author mentions a couple of songs not contained on the CD as well. I won't criticize him or her for that because even I relay information through my reviews that don't necessarily pertain to the CD but as a whole have to do with Ray Stevens.

This compilation CD, more than a lot that have been released through the years, really tries to highlight the signature songs...those certain songs from Ray Stevens that a public at large will be familiar with whether they like the songs or not.