Customer Reviews

Essential Carl Smith 1950-1956

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Record companies use titles like Essential, Best of and Greatest hits out of habit, even where the contents do not fit the title. On this occasion, they got it right. Carl Smith was hugely successful at the time but he has now faded into obscurity, leaving a vast legacy of recorded music and a magnificent daughter, Carlene Carter, who had some notable successes in her own singing career and who eventually covered You are the one (the last song on this collection). Yes, Carl was married to June Carter, better remembered as the wife of Johnny Cash, for a time.

Time plays strange tricks in popular music and less successful (at the time) artists like the Louvin Brothers are better recognized. Of course, the Louvin brothers deserve their recognition, which owes a lot to excellent cover versions of their songs by Emmylou and others. Actually, one of their songs is included here (Are you teasing me) so Carl is also grateful for their songwriting skills. Carl has been less lucky in having his legacy immortalized via cover versions, although Porter and Dolly did a great cover of If teardrops were pennies, while Mickey Gilley was more successful with I overlooked an orchid than Carl had been.

One of the other interesting aspects of this collection is that several of the songs were written or co-written by Boudleaux Bryant - this was before the Everly brothers came along to enchant the world with the classic Bryant songs like Bye bye love and All I have to do is dream. Among the Bryant songs here are Hey Joe (revived in the eighties by Moe Bandy and Joe Stampley with a modified title, Hey Moe Hey Joe) and It's a lovely lovely world (also revived in the eighties, this time by Gail Davies).

This is a collection of fifties country music at its most traditional. Perhaps the appeal of this type of music is limited these days but Carl was one of the best country singers of his generation. If you enjoy the music of Hank Williams and Ernest Tubb, you will surely enjoy this collection.

This is the real Nashville sound before it became over-contrived, over-arranged, over-produced, over-voiced and over the top! They didn't come any better than Carl. If I had to pick one 50's country singer to have in my collection it would be Carl Smith. And I remember them all! From the most famous to the most obscure. You have it all with this CD. A great singer, Great songs, great (simple, straight ahead) arrangements, and a great band. You can't miss! As an added bonus you get to experience one of the great steel guitar players of the era, Johnny Sibert. This was the Golden Age of the steel guitar before it got it's pedals and lost it's soul. Believe me, I'm not one to gush, but this one's a must!
An easy five stars!!

Next to Hank Williams, this is THE man! Carl Smith!! I've been a real fan of his since I was about 7 or 8. He was a big favorite with my dad. It rubbed off.
Believe it or not, we only had one Carl Smith album the whole time I was growing up. We had "The Carl Smith Special" which as near as I can tell by using Columbia's numbering system was released in late '67 or early '68. It was a superb record. I still have it! So when I heard this disc for the first time, even though it was a bit different due to the changes in style and recording and so on, I didn't need any time to settle in to its sound. Man, he was gooood!
I really hope that eventually some day some company will release some of the 60's country albums in their original form. Country music was phenomenal during that decade! Carl Smith's albums (I've since acquired more) were among the cream of the crop at that time. Their release is long over due.
As for this disc, FANTASTIC!!!

I hadn't heard Carl Smith in years and he is as good, maybe better than I remembered. His casual, clear country voice comes across very strongly on this CD. A must buy for Smith fans, one of the few old time country stars still with us on earth.

I've been a Carl Smith fan for about 50 yrs. This CD is truly a classic country CD. Carl Smith is one of the best. You do not have very many country singers today that sings true country music. This CD and other Carl Smith CD's are country music the way it should be. I highly recomend this CD.

While I am in complete agreement with fellow reviewer P D Harris when it comes to the impact Carl Smith had on Country music during his long career (he had 93 Country hits from 1951 to 1978), I don't quite agree that it is the perfect essential album (of his output from 1950 to 1956). As with the Essential Ray Price release in the same series, the producer opted to include three tracks that were never regarded as being among his finer performances, and while I can see, perhaps, throwing in one cut that preceded his first hit (Let's Live A Little - # 2 Country in summer 1951), why three? (tracks 1, 2 and 3).

The remainder are all bona fide entries in an essential album, especially his five # 1 hits: Let Old Mother Nature Have Her Way and [When You Feel Like You're In Love] Don't Just Stand There (both of them EIGHT weeks at # 1 in late 1951 spring 1952 respectively); Are You Teasing Me? (June/July 1952); Hey Joe! (again EIGHT weeks at # 1 in late summer 1953); and Loose Talk (SEVEN weeks at # 1 in late 1954/early 1955).

There are also two more # 2 hits, in addition to the one mentioned above, as Trademark hit that pinnacle in August 1953, and was kept from being another # 1 only by his own Hey Joe! and A Dear John Letter by Jean Shepard & Ferlin Huskey. In June 1954 Bak-Up Buddy was held back from # 1 only by one of the all-time greatest Country hits, Hank Snow's I Don't Hurt Anymore.

So, all in all, this is a fairly decent compilation of his greatest performances on record. I Just wish they had dropped two of those early non-hits and, instead, had given us Mr. Moon (his second hit, a # 4 in late summer 1951) to go along with the B-side (If Teardrops Were Pennies - # 8) which IS here. Another they could have slipped in was the B-side of Loose Talk - More Than ANything Else In The World - which reached # 5 on its own - no mean feat being the flip of such a monster hit.

For the record, in the period covered by this release Carl had 33 hit singles and in this you get just over 50%. Does this suggest a Volume 2? I Hope so.

In the meantime, the insert contains six pages of fascinating background notes written in July 1991 by music journalist Chet Flippo, together with several more nice photos of Carl, including one with the group from the Philip Morris Country Music Show, posing in front of their tour bus, and which includes Slim Sutberry, Sonny Curtis, Johnny Sibert, Mimi Roman, Goldie Hill. Red Sovine, Ronnie Self, M.C. Bun Wilson, Biff Collie, and Sammy Pruett.

The sound quality is excellent.

Love it! Genuine Country music from one of the greatest artists in the industry.

I've been a Carl Smith fan for about 50 yrs. This CD is truly a classic country CD. Carl Smith is one of the best. You do not have very many country singers today that sings true country music. This CD and other Carl Smith CD's are country music the way it should be. I highly recomend this CD.

I bought this for my husband who is a die-hard country music fan, but only from the good old days. He says the music passing for country today is not country music. His collection includes, of course, Hank Williams, Kitty Wells, Loretta Lynn, George Jones, and other classic country artists. I knew he would love this Carl Smith CD, and he does! It's classic country, back in the days when country was country!

My favorite song on this CD is I Overlooked an Orchid. That song always brings tears to my eyes. It's just an all around great collection of songs from one of the great country artists.

A super cd. What a great find. I know true country fans will love this one.