Customer Reviews

Capitol Collectors Series: Merle Haggard

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This may not be as fancy or as deep as other Haggard collections on the market, but you have to look at this CD this way. At one time there were no Merle Haggard cd reissues of his classic Capitol recordings. This came along and it was like heaven came down. So many new fans of the old traditional style were turned on to Haggard with this collection.

So before you turn you noses up at this, please realize it's historical importance.

As the liner notes make clear, this was intended to be the first of two volumes, so that explains the song selection. Some of his classics were being saved for the second volume that never appeared.

This collection is presented in chronological order, beginning with Swinging doors (a top five country hit) and Bottle let me down (a top three country hit) that set Merle on his way to becoming a legend. Among the other classics here are the number one country hits I'm a lonesome fugitive, Sing me back home, Hungry eyes, Working man blues, Okie from Muskogee, The fighting side of me, Daddy Frank the guitar man, I wonder if they ever think of me. Things aren't funny any more, Old man from the mountain, Always wanting you, Moving on, The roots of my raising and Cherokee maiden. Of the remaining songs, I take a lot of pride in what I am, Soldier's last letter (a cover of an Ernest Tubb song) and The emptiest arms in the world all made the top three in the country charts while Here comes the freedom train peaked at ten.

Given that this was intended to be the first of two volumes, this was a brilliant compilation when first released. When Capitol abandoned their Collectors series, other labels (Rhino and Curb) issued compilations of their own to fill the gaps. Thus it was possible to build a collection of Merle's hits before the days of double CD's and boxed sets, though it was messy. I built my collection of Merle's hits on CD using this as a starting point, adding Rhino's More of the best (including Branded man, Mama tried, If we make it through December and It's all in the movies, plus some of his MCA hits), Curb's Best of the early years (including Legend of Bonnie and Clyde, Today I started loving you again and My friends are gonna be strangers) and Curb's 18 rare classics (including Kentucky gambler and Grandma Harp). With these four compilations and a couple of compilations of his Epic hits from the eighties, I had all the essentials except Carolyn, a track I located on a compilation titled Country boy.

If you are serious about building a collection of Merle's hits now, there is a much wider choice now including double CD's and a boxed set, while for those who just want a single CD, there are stronger collections available (remember that some classics were deliberately not included on this collection). Nevertheless, this still provides a good sample of Merle's music.

like "Today I Started Loving You Again"