Customer Reviews

Best of Jerry Wallace: The Country Years

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For an artist with such a deep catalog of charting singles, Jerry Wallace has gotten very little love on CD. Previous anthologies were larded with B-sides and album tracks, and at least one collection remastered critical sides at the wrong speed. So while Varese's 16-track CD only scratches the surface of Wallace's catalog, it finally delivers many of his seminal sides. Focused primarily on country hits from 1971 through 1974, this set only provides a cursory view of Wallace's earlier pop sides. A broader view awaits a double-CD or box set, but what's here is terrific, covering work for Challenge, Decca, MCA and 4-Star.

Opening the disc is a pair of sides that Wallace recorded for Challenge. The lightly orchestrated, mid-tempo rendition of Cindy Walker's "In the Misty Moonlight" (#19 pop, 1964) features a romantic lead vocal with a winning spoken interlude and cooing background chorus. The pining B-side "Even the Bad Times Are Good," was good enough to be re-released as Wallace's next single! Both tunes find Wallace adding country inflections to easy listening pop; it wasn't yet countrypolitan, but the piano, string arrangements and backing chorus were heading that direction.

By the early '70s Wallace had moved from Challenge to Decca and began finding success on the country charts. Interestingly, he didn't really have to change his music much. 1971's "After You," again featuring light orchestration and a smooth ballad vocal, pulls country to pop, rather than the other way around. The following year's "The Morning After" finally moved more towards country, with a shuffle beat and rolling acoustic guitar. Wallace's biggest commercial success came with the 1972 chart topper, "If You Leave Me Tonight I'll Cry." As with all his '70s work, Wallace croons smoothly, sounding a bit like Nat "King" Cole, with only a hint of twang to be heard in the guitar.

Wallace continued to find success on Decca with arrangements from Bill Justis; this set hits most of the commercial highlights. His 1972 #2 "Do You Know What It's Like to Be Loneseome" sounds like it might have been written for the latter-day Elvis, and the Mexicali-influenced "The Song That Nobody Sings" bears influences of Marty Robbins. All four of Wallace's top-10 country hits are here, including 1973's "Don't Give Up On Me" and 1974's sentimental "My Wife's House." Also included are several lower-charting singles and a 1973 remake of his early hit "Primrose Lane."

The selections provide a good helping of Wallace's most recognizable sides. Missing are his earliest singles for Allied, Vogue, Tops, Class and Wing, early hits "How The Time Flies" and the original version of "Primrose Lane," the transitional "Shutters and Boards," and sides waxed for Liberty, MGM and Mercury. One could imagine dropping the album tracks "The Greatest Love" (which is superb and unlike versions recorded by Joe South, Aaron Neville and others) and "What's He Doin' in My World" (which doesn't improve upon Eddy Arnold's original) in lieu of additional singles, but given how poorly Wallace's '70s hits have been represented on CD, this is a minor complaint. Fans will treasure the chance to hear these seminal sides together, remastered by Steve Massie. [©2007 hyperbolium dot com]

Jerry Wallace was a well-known "smooth" singing pop star in the 60s ("Primrose Lane," "How The Time Flies") who easily made the switch to country in the early 70s with his 1972 #1 country and Top 40 smash "If You Leave Me Tonight I'll Cry." The following year, he charted "Do You Know What It's Like to Be Lonesome" and "Don't Give Up on Me" both reaching the Top Five, and "My Wife's House" (Top 10, 1974).

This is the first Jerry Wallace hits collection to document his biggest country hits.

Ten tracks are making their CD debut.

Includes a 1973 reworking of his 1959 top 10 pop hit "Primrose Lane" produced by Bill Justis

Finally. 20+ years after CD's made their debut we get a decent Jerry Wallace compilation. Great audio sound from Varese, an informative insert, and a relatively solid overview of his hits.

Would be 5 stars if they'd have included two important hits:
"Shutters & Boards" from the early years
"Guess Who" from the later years

Ever notice how record companies often short change us at least one hit
on a best of collection?
Frustrating.

This is a mixed bag from the reliable Varese Vintage reissue people. This collection includes a good representation of Wallace's country tunes from the '70's heretofore not compiled and that is a definite positive. Unfortunately, and in spite of the title, only one of his early Challange-label pop hits appears here. And for that reason, labelling this piece as "Best of" could only be justified if it added "Country Years" or some such qualifier acknowledging its focus is narrowed. This reviewer has a bone to pick with music companies when they mislabel their products in this way, and would otherwise knock off two stars for that action alone. But what this piece does, it does well and the title faux pas can be somewhat forgiven here.

Among the 16 tracks are 11 country-charting tunes and three album cuts including a remake of Wallace's signature pop tune, "Primrose Lane". The two other tracks are the a- and b-sides of his final charting Challange single, namely "In The Misty Moonlight" and "Even The Bad Times Are Good." Varese has maintained its usual high standards here with good sound quality, all tracks in stereo and an eight-page liner notes booklet with a musical history of Wallace provided by Bill Dahl. Interestingly, and in something of an acknowledgement of the importance of Wallace's pop-era recordings, a greater part of the text is devoted to the recordings not covered by the CD itself.

Given the opportunity, Varese would have very likely done a Challange-era recording compilation on Wallace if the owners of the catalog had granted the license to do it. For whatever reasons, they will license only individual recordings to other companies, yet have not issued Wallace's Challange tunes themselves. Until this changes or an overseas company (Ace and Bear Family - are you listening?) is able to properly reissue Wallace's Challange catalog, we are stuck with the lame product now on the market, exemplified by the horrific Curb wrong-speed Wallace "Greatest Hits" debacle or dodgy rerecordings passed off as "best-of's".

Meanwhile, here Wallace fans can at least pick up part of the genuine article and it is worthwhile. We can only hope the rest of Wallace's pop recordings will someday see the light of day and we won't have to wait as long as we did for ABKCO to issue the Cameo-Parkway catalog.

"If You Leave Me Tonight I'll Cry" is worth purchasing this CD. I wish it contained the original version of Primrose Lane. Some tunes are very good, while others are just b-sides.

Of the reviews submitted so far on this CD, I find myself in general agreement with hyperbolium. I too can't go any higher than 4 for two fundamental reasons: 1) the inclusion of an uncharted B-side (track 8) and two (tracks 6 and 12) that ostensibly came from his albums, all in a CD titled "The Best Of" (as I have pointed out many times in other reviews this means, at least to most collectors and fans, those selections from an artist's repertoire of releases that made the singles charts, whether Pop Top/Hot 100, R&B, Country or Adult Contemporary (AC), especially in those cases where the artists concerned had a multitude of such hits - as is the case with Jerry); and 2), the inclusion of just 16 tracks when competing outfits like Ace, Jasmine, Eric, etc., routinely provide anywhere from 20 to 28!

Producer Joe Johnson's choices of the 13 hits that are included also leaves one scratching his or her head as well. From among his first 10 hits, all on the Pop charts and all for the Challenge label, he gives us two - In The Misty Moonlight which peaked at # 2 AC/# 19 Hot 100 in the summer of 1964 on Challenge 59246. The flipside, Even The Bad Times Are Good, was re-released a bit later on Challenge 59265 and went to # 114 Hot 100 "Bubble Under." That is the version included here. In 1970, a re-recording made # 74 Country on Liberty 56155 that May. Left out were other Challenge gems such as his first ever hit, How The Time Flies, which got to # 11 on both the Hot 100 and R&B charts in later summer 1958, and Primrose Lane which, billed as Jerry Wallace With The Jewels, finished at # 8 Hot 100/# 12 R&B in late summer 1959 and was, indeed, the best of his best. Instead, we get a 1973 LP version.

The contents then jump to his Decca/MCA years beginning with his first hit there in 1971, After You, which finished at # 22 Country on Decca 32777, omitting the B-side, She'll Remember, which also charted at # 51 Country. Some may argue that a minor B-side hit doesn't warrant inclusion, but then they do give us What's He Doin' In My World which was the uncharted flip of If You Leave Me Tonight I'll Cry, which topped out at # 1 Country/# 9 AC/# 38 Hot 100 in summer 1972 on Decca 32989. In between he had The Morning After reach # 19 Country on Decca 32859 in September 1971, and To Get To You peak at # 12 Country/# 21 AC on Decca 32914 in February 1972.

A United Artists release (likely recorded earlier but never previously released), Thanks To You For Lovin' Me, finished at a mediocre # 66 Country in December 1972 (omitted here), around the same time as Do You Know What It's Like To Be Lonesome was hitting # 2 Country on Decca 33036. Then, in the spring of 1973, he had another two-sided hit when The Sound Of Goodbye made # 21 Country on MCA 40037 while the flip, The Song Nobody Sings, is registered as a # 21 "follow-along" hit. Late that summer, Don't Give Up On Me rose to # 3 Country on MCA 40111, followed by the # 18 Guess Who in March 1974 on MCA 40183 (which the producer chose to leave out), My Wife's House, a # 9 in July 1974 on MCA 40248, and I Wonder Whose Baby (You Are Now), a # 20 that December on MCA 49321.

They then skip over his next seven hits before finishing the CD with the late 1978 # 38 I Wanna Go To Heaven on 4-Star 1035. In terms of his "best" this wasn't as successful as Comin' Home To You (# 32 in April 1975 on MGM 14788, I Miss You Already (# 26 in August 1977 on BMA 002, I'll Promise You Tomorrow (# 28 in December 1977 on BMA 005, and his cover of the 1958 Earl Grant hit, At The Endv Of A Rainbow, which hit # 24 in March 1978 on BMA 006.

The fact that Jerry had hits with NINE different labels (Challenge, Mercury, Liberty, United Artists, Decca/MCA, MGM, BMA, 4 Star, and Door Knob) likely accounts for the difficulty in coming up with a definitive multi-track 2-CD set of his true "best." Oh well, dribs and drabs are better than nothing, and this one does have nice sound to go along with the 6-page insert with notes by author and noted Motown historian Bill Dahl and several more nice shots of Jerry.

I first heard Jerry Wallace in the background of a "Night Gallery" episode. I went out and bought the vinyl album it was on and it was excellent. This CD is a great example of his work. The only thing that keeps it from being a "5 star" is that "Primrose Lane" isn't the orignal.