Customer Reviews

Merle Haggard - Greatest Hits

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

 

 

I agree wholeheartedly with the reviewer who advises that better compilations are available, although I wouldn't go so far as to award just 1 star. Somehow, over the years, I acquired both this 1992 release from MCA as well as The Best Of Merle Haggard in The 20th Century Masters, The Millenium Collection series. And of the two I'd recommend the latter as it not only contains the 10 tracks presented here, but two additional cuts, not to mention a partial discography of the contents (no chart information), and 3 pages of liner notes written in September 1999 by Todd Everett (this release has absolutely nothing in that regard). In addition, the sound is marginally better on the 20th Century release than the AAD heard here.

I also think this could have been better titled along the lines of his "Greatest Hits On MCA From 1977 To 1981." For that's the period covered here, which pretty much corresponds to the years spent at that label. But to call the MCA years his best, as one reviewer did, is stretching things just a bit. Among the 103 hits registered from late 1963 to 1994, the first 44 came while at Capitol, including 24 # 1's, most billed as Merle Haggard & The Strangers. Only one of his 20 hits at MCA made it to # 1 (track 1).

Three more were released by Capitol following his move to MCA, he had another # 1 come out in 1980 on Elektra (Bar Room Buddies in a duet with Clint Eastwood), added another 31 for Epic, including 11 more # 1's (some of them classic duets with George Jones, Willie Nelson, and Janie Frickie). had one minor hit in 1983 on Mercury in a duet with Leona Williams, and finished up with two on Curb, the last an album cut that made the singles charts in 1994.

So, to call these simply his "Greatest Hits" without any elaboration is just a tad misleading.

As that 1-star reviewer says, look around. There are far better compilations available with many more tracks, better sound, and some detailed background information/discographies.

obtain these Capitol era songs from a different compilation (the other submitted review for this CD refers to an identically titled MCA collection)...to get a good quality, single-disc collection of the original recordings of some of Merle Haggard's greatest music, "20 Greatest Hits" on the Capitol/EMI label is good, as is the budget cd "Best of the Best" also on Capitol (avoid similarly titled releases on different labels)...to really do Merle Haggard's legacy justice, easily the best single purchase currently available is the multi-label box set compilation called "Down Every Road"

Buy this album. You will love it!!!! It consists of some of Merle's biggest hits from the mid-seventies to the end of the decade. Fabulous!!!!

At the time of his MCA records period, Merle was becoming a singles artist, and his Lp's started to drift in quality.

This cd, made back when there were hardly any other Merle cds, was a Godsend. Great music from start to finish.

Please remember, when this cd came out, there were no fancy, collector's type compilations available. Those were years in the future. This is a straight ahead cd, the song listing is in the booklet along with who wrote them. Then there is an ad for other MCA artists who were lucky enough to have a recording on the then new Cd.

Go ahead and get this if you can find it, you will love it!