Customer Reviews

22 Greatest Hits

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As usual, this is an excellent set of music. This album includes music from both Starday and King eras and is a good overall sampler of Moon's career.

Although not as wellknown as Elvis Presley, there is no doubting the similarities between Moon and Elvis: both were very versatile singers, were regarded as the King of their chosen field, had countless imitators and derivatives and loved black music.

This CD displays Moon Mullican's unique versatility: from oldtimey country like "Wabash cannonball" to a raunchy cover of Roy Brown's "Grandpa stole my baby" to ragtimey tracks like "Ragged but right" And "Magnolia rag" to originals like "Trifling woman blues", "Pipeliner blues" & "What have I done", Moon [to forgive the pun] shines throughout. No matter what the genre, he sings and plays with equal enthusiasm and ability and can effortlessly switch from one to the other at will.

Well, this disc is a pretty good collection of moon's material. If you are an audiophile you will be let down by the hiss and pops (obviously 45's that were recorded into a digital format) as well as volume changes throughout the disc. BUT, if you are a fan of moon you don't expect hifi recordings. This package has some of moon's hottest tracks (though I wouldn't go so far as to say that all 22 are great hits). Maybe I am biased as moon is my (get ready for this) great great great uncle.

Ouch this is painful to say, but pass on this CD unless you just want to have everything Moon Mullican did. This CD is was done late in Moon's career and is not his original stuff. It sounds like it Moon, his piano and maybe a guitar player playing in a hotel room someplace. The tape recorder used on this recording in the 1950's is very so so.

Moon has so much great stuff, but buy everything else he has out there before this CD>

Still its Moon Mullican so that's worth two stars

It had been years since I had heard these songs. Once you hear them you relive all the good times they brought. If you like old music and piano played to the fullest you will love this cd.

The caption is the way Aubrey `Moon' Mullican was usually billed during his heyday, and if you want to hear the man who MOST influenced Jerry Lee Lewis then pick up this great compilation.

Born November 13, 1894 near Corrigan, Texas, his pumping left hand and two-finger right hand made him stand out from all his contemporaries and is clearly evident on his first big hit for King in 1947, New Pretty Blonde (Jole Blon) which, billed to Moon Mullican And the Showboys, went to # 2 Country in March/April b/w When A Soldier Knocks And Finds Nobody Home (not here).

A sequel a few month's later, Jole Blon's Sister b/w Showboy Special (neither included and apparently not available anywhere) went to # 4 Country, and early in 1948 he took Sweeter Than The Flowers to the # 3 spot in the summer, spending 26 weeks on the charts in total and b/w I Left My Heart In Texas (another omission from this volume).

1949 was void of any major hits, but in 1950 I'll Sail My Ship Alone became his biggest hit, going to # 1 Country in April/May, where it stayed for four weeks, and a total of 36 weeks on the charts, and # 17 Pop with a stay of three weeks (nine years later Jerry Lee would cut his own version, taking it to # 93 pop in 1959). The flipside, Moon's Tune, is left out here).

A pumped up version of the Nat Cole hit Mona Lisa then followed later in 1950, going to # 4 Country and, like his previous hit, it too would be covered in 1959 by Carl Mann (# 25 Billboard Hot 100) and Conway Twitty (# 29 Hot 100). The flipside, Goodnight Irene, which everyone and his uncle seemed to cut that year, also charted, going to # 5 Country, but like the previous B-sides was not included.

His last big hit with King came in 1951 with the rollicking Cherokee Boogie (Eh-Oh-Aleena), a # 7 Country that August b/w Love Is The Light That Leads Me Home, naturally left off this CD, and it would be a full decade before he returned to the charts on Starday with a George Jones-penned tune, Ragged But Right, a # 15 Country in June 1961 b/w Bottom Of The Glass, which IS included here at track 7.

Moon passed away after a heart attack on New Year's Day 1967. This would have been a 5-star compilation of his greatest hits had they seen fit to include those missing sides instead of some of the lesser cuts.