Customer Reviews

Classics

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Patty Loveless left MCA Records in 1992 because she believed she was getting lost among a strong female roster which included Reba McEntire, Trisha Yearwood, and Wynonna. She signed with Epic Records in 1993 and - with husband Emory Gordy as producer - subsequently made the most consistently pleasing country albums of any female artist in recent years.

Classics contains nine of the best recordings from Loveless' first four Epic albums. Toe tappers like "You Can Feel Bad" and "I Try To Think About Elvis" are complemented by heartbreaking, stone-country ballads such as "Nothin' But The Wheel" and "You Don't Even Know Who I Am."

Most noteworthy are the all too realistic sleepover saga "Lonely Too Long" and the award-winning tearjerker "How Can I Help You To Say Goodbye." In lesser hands, the latter tune would have been insufferably maudlin. Loveless, however, infuses it with so much deep-felt emotion that it instead became a true classic - the ultimate country song dealing with loss.

Since Loveless's string of hit singles at Epic has been hefty, fans will undoubtably be disappointed that not all of their favorites were chosen for inclusion on this collection. "You Will," "She Drew A Broken Heart," and "To Have You Back Again" are just some of the omitted gems which would have easily made it onto most other artists' hit sets.

Though we don't get all of the hits, we do get a troika of great new Loveless recordings. "Can't Get Enough" finds Patty rockin' as she looks to get more out of life, while she gets sassy and aroused on the mid-tempo "I Just Wanna Be Loved By You." Best of all is "My Kind Of Woman, My Kind Of Man," the long awaited duet with Vince Gill. This ode of devotion is a simple but marvelous showcase for their heavenly harmonies.

There was a lot wrong with country music in the '90s. Classics is a great example of what was right. Run don't walk to your local record store and get it today!

This 1999 collection is a good place to start if you are curious about Patty Loveless. The new songs (Can't Get Enough, My Kind of Woman My Kind of Man, I Just Wanna Be Loved By You) are nice but feel out of place amongst these classic songs. Patty Loveless was a country artist who struggled in the early part of her career to find an audience, which ultimately led to her leaving MCA Records in 1992. Signed with Epic, she began to work with husband Emory Gordy Jr. and the result was something to be seen! This collection covers her career from her ONLY WHAT I FEEL album in 1993 to 1997's LONG STRETCH OF LONESOME. I think the highlights here are the ballads "You Don't Even Know Who I Am", "How Can I Help You Say Goodbye" and "Here I Am". These songs really touch your heart and tug at your heartstrings, just beautiful emotional songs. She sings about longing so well in "Lonely Too Long", which is another landmark ballad for her. She shows her fun side on songs like "Blame It On Your Heart", or "I Try To Think About Elvis". "You Can Feel Bad" is a great Matraca Berg song, a fun uptempo number. Overall a really strong collection, this is the place to start your Patty Loveless collection!

Patty Loveless is perhaps one of the last true country female singers. Before the pop-oriented divas such as Faith Hill and Martina McBride hit the scene and stole the thunder from real country music, Patty Loveless was on the verge of becoming the female country star. She is a star in her own right, by all means, and this collection does her catalog justice. It's an enjoyable compilation with touching ballads and catchy upbeat country songs both. The duets with Vince Gill and George Jones work perfectly. Well worth the money if you want some solid country music performed by a female with a true country voice.

Patty Loveless has long been regarded as one of country music's most talented female singers and for a very good reason. She can pull off everything from bluegrass, traditional and contemporary with such ease. Her voice is rich in emotion and maturity and it's hard not to be drawn into what she sings. For almost two decades, Loveless has given country fans some of the biggest hits on the radio and this collection is ,in my opinion, the cream of the crop.

"Classics" is a greatest hits CD that boasts Patty's hits from 1993 to 1999. You get everything from up-beat ("Can't Get Enough") to heartbreaking ("How Can I Help You Say Goodbye") to the fun ("I Try To Think About Elvis"). There's also a couple of unforgettable duets on the CD: "You Don't Seem To Miss Me" with George Jones and "My Kind ff Woman, My Kind of Man" with Vince Gill. It's especially enjoyable to listen to Patty and Vince, who for years, have been backing each other up vocally (ie: "When I Call Your Name" and "Go Rest High On That Mountain"). "My Kind of Woman, My Kind of Man" is a perfect example of two talents who are able to blend their voices together into a musical masterpiece. It's the duet us Gill/Loveless fans having been waiting for.

My favorite tracks on the CD are: "You Can Feel Bad" (a kick butt song about making the most of a breakup), "Here I Am" (about alcohol abuse), "You Don't Even Know Who I Am" (about a couple on the verge of splitting), and "Nothin' But The Wheel" (another driving away from a bad relationship song...!). It seems to me that Patty is at her best when she's singing a good breaking up song. She brings such emotion to them.

I've been a fan of Patty's from the beginning, but I have to say that her best music has come from the past decade and it's nice to see them all packaged on one CD. I've noticed that since I bought "Classic" I don't have as many Patty CD's laying around! It's one of the most listened to CD's in my house.

If you're a Patty Loveless fan and you're looking for her most recent hits, "Classics" is for you!

Gennie Bailey-Rogers

Patty Loveless's work in the 80s and 90s was exceptional (It is a shame that she shifted to bluegrass (Maybe because she can't get any airplay on country stations? Which favors stuff like Faith Hill, who can't even carry Patty's microphone.).As for this CD, it is exceptional, you cannot get much better on a single disk than this (Maybe Toby Keith's Greatest Hits 2?). Songs like "I Think About Elvis", "Lonely Too Long", "Blame It On Your Heart". "Here I Am", and "How Can I Help You Say Goodbye?" (A real heartwrenching song, and this is from an alpha male), are country classics. And the rest of the CD does not have a weak song either. Patty Loveless blows away just about any other female country singer since Patsy Cline with the exception of Sherrie Austin (Another singer who cannot get airplay). There is beauty, humor, sadness, and most of all INTELLIGENCE in her music. Patty is country for people who love intelligent, well thought out, and original lyrics. I would highly recommend getting this CD, then go out an get her "Greatest Hits" CD for material such as "Timber" and "Chains" (That CD also gets 5 stars, but is a little weaker). Simply put this is a flawless CD.

Patty Loveless's Classics is a collection of nine radio hits and three new songs. I own all of Patty's four previous Epic releases, so I wondered if I should purchase her greatest hits collection. Know that I own it, I am definitely glad I bought it. The radio sensation "Can't Get Enough" is good and the duet with Vince Gill "My King of Woman, My Kind of Man" is also pleasing, but the real gem is the other previously unreleased song "I Just Wanna Be Loved By You". It reminds me again why Patty is one of the greatest voices in Nashville. A mature reality of the need for love, not glossy or overproduced like music often recorded for radio. I always thought I preferred Patty's unreleased album cuts over her radio singles, this collection proved me wrong. This encore of radio hits is so well arranged, I plan to buy another copy just to keep in my car. This album is definitely bound to become a classic in my personal collection. I highly recommend that you treat yourself to this album, you will not regret it.

Patty has always made great country music ever since the mid eighties, when she first started recording. The nineties provided her greatest commercial successes, and the biggest hits from that period can be found here.

For me, the outstanding track here is her duet with Vince Gill, My kind of woman my kind of man, a classic country duet which would have sat comfortably on any early seventies album by the great duos of the time, had the song been available to them.

Patty has recorded some great ballads throughout her career, and there are some great ones here, including How can I help you say goodbye, which closes this collection. There are some brilliant upbeat songs too - like I think about Elvis (tring to cover up a lost love) and Blame it on your heart (a feisty song explaining to an ex why she left him).

This is a truly outstanding collection of Patty's music of the nineties. Patty is one of country music's treasures. Even when she records in a contemporary setting, as she did on these songs, she can't hide her country roots, which she returned to on Mountain Soul, a great way for Patty to begin the new millenium.

If you haven't got any of Patty's music, this is a great place to start. Even if (like me) you've got all of her music, the record company made sure you'd want this by including a couple of exciting new songs (Can't get enough and I just wanna be loved by you), and by including the duet with Vince, not available on any other Patty album, although it can also be found on The Key, one of many excellent albums by Vince.

Pop divas like Faith Hill, Martina McBride and Reba aren't fit to wipe Patty Loveless' shoes. Whether she's doing bluegrass or country like this Patty is the absolute best!!! She has never compromised to do what sells like a certain redhead in country music we all know. Patty is the real deal and this CD will give you a great example of why she is just that....real country!!

This is Patty's second compilation, the first was 1993's GREATEST HITS which concentrated on her hits while she was with MCA, this one focuses on her Epic hits, up until her 1997 album LONG STRETCH OF LONESOME. We have three new songs bound to become classics in their own right, and nine hits from her previous albums. The three new songs include the quirky "Can't Get Enough", "I Just Wanna Be Loved By You" and the traditional country duet with Vince Gill, "My Kind of Woman, My Kind of Man". The hits are a good retrospective of the kind of music Patty does, and does well. From her 1993 album ONLY WHAT I FEEL we have "Nothin But The Wheel", the upbeat honky tonk "Blame It On Your Heart", and the beautiful ballad "How Can I Help You Say Goodbye". From her 1994 album WHEN FALLEN ANGELS FLY we have the silly "I Try To Think About Elvis", and the beautiful ballads "Here I Am" and "You Don't Even Know Who I Am". From her 1996 album THE TROUBLE WITH THE TRUTH we have the ballad "Lonely Too Long", and the catchy "You Can Feel Bad". Then we have "You Don't Seem To Miss Me" with George Jones, from her 1997 album LONG STRETCH OF LONESOME. Why only 4 stars? What happened to the other hits? How about "High On Love", "To Have You Back Again", "Like Water Into Wine", "Tear Stained Letter", "The Trouble With The Truth", "A Thousand Times A Day", "She Drew A Broken Heart" and more? Overall its a strong collection but it makes you wonder where the other hits went.

Arguably the finest female country artist of the 90's, Patty Loveless was one of the few artists during that decade that recorded anything that could be considered less than classic. Beginning with '91's sorely overlooked UP AGAINST MY HEART all the way through possibly her finest work,LONG STRETCH OF LONESOME, she set the standard for artists, male and female, with consistently superb work. Though this cd omits a few singles that should have been included, this is about as good a compilation as anything put out in country in the last decade. The hitch here is that those who have bought only this for the hits would do well to investigate all of her previous studio albums--there is no filler to be found anywhere, not something that can be said about alot of artists. This, though, is a strong start to getting acquainted with one of the all-time great vocalists in the genre.